WORKING HARD FOR WOMEN’S HEALTH A Sutter Delta Physician Puts Down Roots
	OCTOBER 2005

by Dr. Kayla Yee, Ob/Gyn
Photos by Russell Byrne

I guess I was a Grand Ol’ Opry baby, or at least I was born in Nashville. My folks weren’t from the south, but were both attending Nashville medical schools. My dad attended Meharry Medical College, while my mom was attending Nursing School at Vanderbilt University School of Medicine. They met each other, got married, and I was born.

Child of the World
My dad is Chinese and was only five years old when he arrived in America. He was brought here when my grandfather became the Counsel General from China to America. They knew a good thing when they saw it and none of us ever again returned to China. My mom is Filipino so my parents spoke English around the house. I learned swear words in three dialects, but never really learned for sure what the Chinese and Filipino ones meant.

There’s not much of Nashville in me, since I moved to the Bay Area at the age of five. I grew up in Modesto, which was a very nice town to grow up in. After high school, I followed my folks into medicine. I got my undergrad degree at Cal Berkeley but then returned to Nashville to do my medical studies at my dad’s alma mater.

Meharry is predominantly African-American. I was a minority of one. Not only was I the single Asian female in my class of 80, but I was a graduate from Berkeley. I initially experienced a lot of culture shock. Political correctness had no part in that place; everyone referred to me as “the Oriental.” I was working with a patient in Nashville who once asked me, “Can you speak Oriental?” And she was Korean!

Once I became acclimated to Nashville’s southern culture and to Meharry’s African-American society, I had a good time and made some wonderful friends. There’s something to be said for developing easy familiarity with people from other cultures. I can talk to African-Americans, Asians, Caucasians, Hispanics, and people from Berkeley without becoming confused or dismayed. I’ve learned to understand what people mean, not just what they say.

From New Orleans Residency
to East County Resident
I did my residency in the deep south, at Tulane University in New Orleans. New Orleans is a fun town to live in, but residency is never a fun thing to experience — like being in boot camp for four years. We residents were so immersed in the culture that we didn’t question the justice of our situation, even though a business owner who treated help the way the program administrators treated us would end up behind bars.

It became “normal” to be at work before dawn, work until 7 p.m., be on call for the next 12 hours, and then back at your station before dawn the next day. All your friends were miserable right along with you, so it somehow became all right. We woke up together, ate our meals together, worked together, and were miserable together. I found out that there’s such a thing as fellowship of suffering.

The year after I left, new rules were put into place to protect residents. Instead of working 36-hour shifts followed by 12 hours on call, they are now supposed to give the subjects a 12-hour break after each 24-hour shift. (Aren’t they nice?)

Some of those Louisiana Bayou people had an amusing naiveté about their bodies. One woman delivered a blond-haired baby and complained about the child’s coloration, “I dyed my hair black so my baby’s hair would be black,” she wailed. One of the nurses told her, “You have to dye all the hair on your body before that can work.” We had a great laugh about that.

When I finally finished my residency, I knew I wanted to return to California — not just because of the weather, but all my friends and family were here. I was searching through job offers when an open position at Sutter Delta jumped out at me.

I studied the demographics, talked to people, and learned about how the community was growing. I knew that there was a need for women Ob/Gyn specialists in this community, so I took the position and it really does seem like a perfect fit.

After two and half years, I still love my life here! I have friends scattered throughout the area. I’m renting a small place so my folks are taking care of my dog, Opra. They still live in Modesto, which is a perfect distance for parents to be. I can visit with them, and with Opra, of course, as frequently as I wish, but they can’t just pop in.

Opra is a little shorthaired Dachshund who provides a comical contrast to the German Shepherds that were typically hanging around the house when I was growing up. Opra was from a litter that one of my patients brought me before the puppies were born. She stuck the pregnant bitch on my counter and asked, “Can you scan my dog to see how many puppies she has?” I had never performed an ultra scan on a dog, but I thought I could see five. And it turned out I was right.

Opra is the runt from that litter, and is a very spoiled animal. We are often wearing matching outfits when we go out together. She usually insists on being carried around. I don’t know if the view from my arms is better, or if she just wants to make it clear to everyone who sees us exactly who in the relationship is in the service of whom.

I love my 10-minute commute! That is close enough for me to get here for off-hour deliveries. I’m a member of a call group with three other Ob/Gyn specialists to ensure that no delivery will go unattended, but I really try hard to deliver all my OB patients myself — and have a nearly perfect record of doing so.

Sutter Delta Doctor
The Sutter Delta Medical Center has been in its present location for a long time and has many loyal clients, with new referrals coming in every week. My own clientele is growing. I feel that I have the wind at my back, since a number of women have been waiting for a new female Ob/Gyn doctor. Some older patients had been going to men all their lives.

My particular niche is part of a growth industry in this area. I’m glad to be able to care for my patients, some of whom feel most comfortable talking to a female. I’m glad I can provide that service for those people.

Serving women at Sutter Delta just keeps getting better — as does the experience of being a patient in our facilities here. On August 3rd the new birthing center was opened here at our Lone Tree site. The center is also designed to play a second role as a women’s health facility. Our patients are as impressed with this new facility as we doctors are. The patients have plasma-screen TVs, DVD players, and whirlpool tubs for hydrotherapy. We doctors have state-of-the-art tools for diagnosis and treatment.

On the ground floor of the facility, a new emergency room has doubled the size of the older one that was often overflowing with more patients than it was designed to handle. Not only is the new ER larger, but it also includes advancements in both technology and design that makes the visit more pleasant for the patients and more effective for the staff. It is taking its place as a jewel in the crown of Sutter Delta’s physical plant.

The new center is an important step Sutter Delta is taking in its ongoing program of meeting the health and wellness needs of the growing community that it seeks to serve. It also exemplifies our standard that patients deserve a pleasant atmosphere, particularly when giving birth. My fellow staff members are excellent professionals, which also helps towards meeting this goal.

My East County Clientele
My patients seem more educated than they were in the past. They frequently surprise me with how well informed they are and often come into the examination room with excellent questions about my procedures and about their condition. Some of their preparation is due to the fact that anyone can go on the Internet these days and learn about tests and treatments. If I tell a woman that I’m recommending Amniotic Fluid Tests, for example, she can go on Google, search for those three words and find 130,000 sites that discuss the subject.

Some physicians are uncomfortable by this kind of access to information because patients sometimes don’t know how to evaluate the knowledge they are finding. I personally think it is wonderful, however, when a woman tries to participate at this level in the decision-making process that, after all, is about her own body or about the child she is carrying. I’m prepared to help her with any evaluation she needs.

In a maternity hospital the fathers naturally provide some comic relief. When anticipating the birth of his daughter, for example, I remember one man did a great job all the way through the pregnancy — attending every one of the birthing classes, showing up for each appointment, and playing his role perfectly during the birth.

He was such a delighted new father! But that night he was lying on the bed next to his newborn son, turned over on his side, and rolled the baby right onto the floor. No harm done except to the poor guy’s nerves! It was like a scene from a Dumb and Dumber movie. We all had a laugh about it afterwards, including the chagrined dad.

I enjoy talking to my patients about their lives outside of the hospital. That’s a fun part, but I really do enjoy performing surgeries and deliveries. Thank God for modern medicine and for the high percentage of babies that come into the world all ready for life! I love my job and love my patients — both the full-grown varieties and the little 10-pound ones.

I see those beautiful creatures lying there in my hands, waving their perfect little fists, filling their tiny lungs with their very first breaths of air, throwing their heads back, and lustily announcing to the world, “Here I am! Somebody better start taking care of me and loving me right now!” How wonderful it is to have a job that requires my regular attendance at these supreme miracles!

I’m here for the long haul. I don’t have any plans to quit. Maybe I’ll work with kids, eventually. Get a bigger house so that Opra can move back with me.

I like the East County lifestyle! I like the transformations that are going on all around us. I haven’t been here for three years yet and already have seen many changes. I’m looking forward to what the future brings to me, to Sutter Delta Medical Center, and to our wonderful East County region.