Episode 119 Part Two - Dr. Summer: A Journey Through MS and NMO

In part two of my conversation with Dr. Summer, we dive deep into her journey of becoming a physician after facing significant life challenges, including a divorce and becoming a single parent to her two boys. As we covered in the first part of this conversation, Dr. Summer was misdiagnosed with MS before receiving the correct diagnosis of neuromyelitis optica (NMO).

After attending undergrad in Missouri and med school in Pennsylvania, Summer's path to becoming a physician was unconventional, marked by personal trials and triumphs. She shares her experience of transitioning to a power wheelchair and how it affected her work and interactions with patients.

Summer emphasizes that being a physician is not just about treating physical ailments but also about understanding the emotional and spiritual aspects of health. This perspective is crucial, especially for patients dealing with chronic conditions like MS and NMO.

Towards the end of our discussion, Dr. Summer shares her insights on the healthcare system and the challenges faced by both patients and providers. She addresses the frustrations of navigating insurance and the pressures that come with high patient loads. Despite these challenges, she remains committed to her patients and finds joy in her work.

DISCLAIMER
The information in this podcast is for informational purposes only and is not intended as a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Always seek the advice of your physician or other qualified healthcare providers with any questions you may have regarding a medical condition or treatment.

Links and resources:

Sign up for the 10 Weeks to Disrupt MS Program

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Visit Summer Banzhaf, DO at Fairfield Medical Center

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You can find Kathy Chester at:
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Transcript

Kathy Chester: Hello, I'm your host, Kathy Chester, and welcome to the Move It or Lose It podcast, a podcast about all things that move the mind, body, and soul. The Move It or Lose It podcast is for information, awareness, and inspirational purposes only. I am not a doctor and I don't even play one on TV. So please consult with your doctor before making any medical decisions. The views expressed by advertisers, guests, or contributors are their opinions and not necessarily the views of the Move It or Lose It podcast. 

All right guys, welcome again to part two with Summer on our Move It or Lose It podcast. So hope you enjoy part one. Part two, we're going to learn how she decided to become a physician instead of being at the hospital. So Summer, tell us where you were located and what happened prior to and during COVID.
 Dr. Summer: First of all, I went to undergrad and med school later than most people. I did it after divorce. Went through all that as a single parent. So I did Undergrad in Missouri.
 Kathy Chester: Kudos to you. I mean, I know what it's like to be a single mom, and boy, that's hard.
 Dr. Summer: In my case, it was easier than being married to my ex-husband, so. High five, sister. So I went to undergrad in Missouri, where my parents lived there, so I had a good support system there. Very important. It is very, very important. Went to med school in Pennsylvania, where I have no family, so it was just me and my boys. And my youngest of my two boys has a primary immune deficiency and epilepsy. So he had a lot of medical stuff that I was helping him through his whole childhood. And he's very well-controlled now. He has been for several years, so that's good.
 Kathy Chester: Yeah, I have epilepsy as well. So that's my new one I picked up.
 Dr. Summer: Of course, you get another one, right?
 Kathy Chester: Here, let's hand you another one. Yeah, it's scary as a mom, you know, when you've got a child with that, that's scary.
 Dr. Summer: It is scary. But so we, then I went to Ohio for residency and we were talking about how I got diagnosed with what we thought was MS in 2017, right at the end of my residency. I was initially working as a hospitalist after finishing residency. So that is an internal medicine physician that only does acute medicine. So I did not have my own patients. I saw routinely whether I only saw patients when they were admitted. Right. did that through COVID, at least part of way through COVID. But again, I had that last attack that they changed me from MS to NMO. That is the one that ultimately resulted in me being a wheelchair user. So I use a power wheelchair now.
 Kathy Chester: I would imagine your chair would have flames on it.
 Dr. Summer: I wish I'm due for a new one this year. My old one had the colors that were called Philly. and they're kind of an orange red, so that was good. My new one's gonna have purple, so. But anyway, I ended up being a power wheelchair user. This may be TMI, but I self-cath, I've lost vision.
 Kathy Chester: There is no TMI in this.
 Dr. Summer: You're all good. All of this. Well, I mean, it's just part of the reality of these diseases, right? I mean, it's just, it exists. Absolutely. Partway through the pandemic, because of my last attack, well before the pandemic, obviously, but I had lost the ability to do things like intubations and do things like play central line. I didn't feel safe doing it on patients that I didn't have fine motor skills anymore. And I could not get my chair in an appropriate position. I felt to be able to do it safely for patients. So there was that.
 Kathy Chester: And then- Which is awesome that you did that because there's a lot of doctors that maybe a bit arrogant, but feel like I got it, I got it, and don't. So thank God for you.
 Dr. Summer: I would have been happy to relearn those skills in like the simulation labs where they weren't real patients. Exactly. And learn all of it again under my new baseline. And that was actually the goal to do that. But when I finally got my wheelchair and went back to work after my last attack, that was in July of 2019, I didn't go back to work until November of 2019. So the plan was to do those simulations, but we all know what happened. The world came in.
 Kathy Chester: How did they look at you when you came back in a chair? Did they treat you different?
 Dr. Summer: Some people did, but most people didn't. Some people were a little weird about it, I think, but I think that's kind of more, for me, I was lucky. I think it was more of them just getting used to, oh wait, she's in a wheelchair now. I've had more issues with the way people treat me in a wheelchair outside of work. When I would roll into patients' rooms, I think a lot of times they'd see me and they'd be like, oh, she's another patient. She's been here. She knows how this can be scary. But I was working through the pandemic and early in the pandemic before everyone knew how bad it was going to get, they were like, well, we're just not going to have you work with COVID positive patients because you're on Ocrevus, you're susceptible. And I was like, okay, cool. And then quickly, that wasn't possible. We needed everybody involved. So I would go in to treat COVID-19 patients. And I'm so blessed to have worked with some really phenomenal nurses and staff that would literally pick me up out of my chair, change all of my PPE, cover my chair entirely between every single patient. Wow. You know, it was so much work for them to do that. And then to go in and take care of their patients that they're also having to lift up and move around. And I cannot tell you the respect I have for these people that just, they took care of not just our COVID-19 patients, but me as well. Right.
 Kathy Chester: I don't think there's enough thank yous that we can for our health care workers and the nurses that just were endlessly taking care of and then going home and not seeing their families and undressing, changing in their garages or different places, different homes that they were alone in.
 Dr. Summer: Staying not at home, depending on the situation. It was brutal. There are things that I had, like, I got married in November of 2019 as well. I don't know. Me too, when I was in May. I rolled down the aisle. My dad pushed me in my manual chair, because I had a manual and a power chair. I just can't push my manual, so whatever. He pushed me. We got married then. Absolutely beautiful. But there are things my husband doesn't even tell, and he is my best friend that knows everything about me when it comes to things that we witnessed and saw and had to, I wouldn't say had to do, but had to deal with through COVID, right? We didn't do anything wrong. It wasn't like we were doing anything wrong, but it was more just, it was so brutal and so sad and so devastating. But regardless, there came a point working through that, I felt that it was too dangerous for me and too dangerous for my coworkers and my team of nurses and my colleagues to continually be having to do this type of work. It was just getting unbearable. So I switched from being a hospitalist to primary care. And that's how I ended up in primary care. And I have been there since, and I will tell you, I do love it. It is very different.
 Kathy Chester: And we need it. Plus, that's gotta be less stress.
 Dr. Summer: I'll be honest, I don't feel like it's less stress as far as hours go. Because when I was a hospitalist, I did work seven on, seven off, 12 hour days, and they were hard, don't get me wrong. But I had seven days off that I could recover between. Now I work Monday through Thursday, 10 hour day in office. But a lot of times I don't have time to fully complete all my charts within that time period. So I also work a lot on Fridays is when I do most of my appointments, things outside of work that I need to get done, And then on Saturday and Sunday, I oftentimes go into work for probably six to eight hours each day. Yeah, that's a lot. I think in some ways I'm working more, but I will say, I think the large reason why I have to work more isn't because of the patients. It isn't anything, it's part of the beast of the healthcare system. It's all of this other stuff that's not the patient care, not the direct patient care at least. It's like the stuff like getting insurance to pay for I've had insurances deny albuterol for COPD patients. And we have to appeal. I've had them deny insulin for diabetics. I've had them deny follow-up imaging on suspected breast cancer or lung cancer. So that's why we have to work so much more. That and the way that we are paid, unfortunately. First of all, I wanna make this clear, all doctors make very good money compared to the average U.S. citizen. I do not want anyone to feel like, oh, she thinks doctors are poorly paid. We're just paid in a really weird way that in order to maintain a level of pay that allows us to pay our student loan debt, pay all of the obligations, we're having to see 22, 25 patients a day, and that's not fair to patients.
 Kathy Chester: No, it's not fair to you, and it's not fair to patients. Right, but mostly our patients.
 Dr. Summer: Yeah. Healthcare.
 Kathy Chester: Yeah. Because it's a big thing that my clients talked to me about a lot because obviously we all, they all either have MS, lupus, Crohn's, all sorts of things. And they're just, it's the same thing. It's the same thing. Like I can't get in. I'm so frustrated.
 Dr. Summer: It takes months to get in. I know for myself, I am booked solid partway through February. Right now, I'm not taking new patients outside of patients that I, that are family members of patients I already see, because I just don't have the space to add more patients on. We are in the process of, at my practice, hiring some additional providers, but they're not going to start until like November. So until they get up and running and access, they're going to start in November, but then it takes them time to get into it. So until they're into it, I can't take new patients. Once they're open and going, then I'm hoping to reopen my practice.
 Kathy Chester: No, I think that that's such a big deal. It's so important. And I think that it is something that it's a very stressful subject right now in everything, in all families, I'm sure with the doctors and it's a very stressful, but I definitely want to go to that. I want you back on because I want to go into that more so.
 Dr. Summer: Absolutely. We could talk about it more in depth and in context of how this happened, what can we as patients do?
 Kathy Chester: Yes, we'd love that. We'd love that. So let's put a pin in that and we're going to do that for sure. Definitely. We are so excited about our new program. It is not about disrupting the status quo. It is about empowering you to lead a life filled with strength, resilience, and joy. Join us on this exciting journey because disruption begins with you. Ready to make a positive change? Let's disrupt MS together. I can't wait to see you. Talk to me about your views on doing like the Western medicine and some other things as well. Cause I know that sometimes, you know, we're with the neurologist and I'll say the things that I do, which obviously I'm taking my medicine, my infusions and things like that. And I never say I very, I feel kind of the same way you do. I feel very, you know, you don't fill the baby out with the bath water and I'm not going to say no to my medications, but I'm also very open to my supplements. that I need that make me feel better as well. And obviously movement and obviously eating well. And I would want my doctor to be in agreement and have the same kind of thought process that I do. I obviously wouldn't want to have my neurologist say, I don't really think supplements are at all valuable for you.
 Dr. Summer: So for me, I do just like you, I take my infusion. I take Ocropis every 20 weeks instead of the standard, because I repopulate B-cells too soon and whatever. So I do that. I do take other medications that help with some of the symptoms. I mentioned earlier, I have spasticity. I get Botox. I think you said that as well. But then like you, I also try and eat as well as I can. I am clearly not in great shape. I'm kind of chubby and could lose weight. But I also am a wheelchair user making that moving part hard. but I do what my body allows me to do. One day it may only be five minutes. One day it may be I did a lot just by transferring. Another day it might be, hey, I can get into the gym and use the machines for a solid 30 minutes.
 Kathy Chester: Right. Every plan I have is different. And it's like just watching them, where are you today? And then we go from there. And sometimes, you know, my chair clients, It's very different. Sometimes we can do a little bit more cardio in the chair. Sometimes we're doing some strength moves in the chair that are very different, but I think it's just, you know, understanding that every day is different. Every session is different. You're not going to feel the same way you did one session than you did the next one. Our bodies are just not that way.
 Dr. Summer: Booms, booms, you know, every day is different. Absolutely. You know, when it comes to supplements, my general feeling is If your body needs it, take it. If it makes you feel better, it's okay to take it as long as it's not causing harm in other ways. Right.
 Kathy Chester: I never understood being honest with your doctor. Like these are, this is what I take. So they have to know that. So it doesn't interfere with something. Right.
 Dr. Summer: As a, as a physician, I want my patients to tell me, Hey, I'm taking a multivitamin, vitamin D, vitamin B. I'm taking turmeric. I'm taking Lyme disease. Right. And guess what? As long as it's not harming them. Yeah, maybe some of them aren't providing them scientific help, but you know what it may be doing? Harnessing the placebo effect, and that's not a bad thing.
 Kathy Chester: I mean, I hear things like that too, where I'm like, I know that's not doing anything for them, but if it makes them feel happy, go for it.
 Dr. Summer: And I will say, I'm really lucky where my neuro's at is in Columbus. and they have a really big, great neurosurgery. They have a really good MS clinic. My neuro-immunologist specifically has done a lot of research in NMO. I've been involved as a patient in some trials there, but one of the things they have done, because obviously I do physical therapy and occupational therapy and speech therapy when necessary, but one of the things they have done there, and I have not done it yet, I'm just going through the signup process of it, for their patients in their neuroclinic. And so it's not just MS or NMO, it's Parkinson's, anybody, right? Stroke patients. They have a program that is free to sign up and it can either be in-person or virtual. For me, it's virtual because I live an hour away, where they provide trainers to help adapt exercises. Doing adaptive exercises is so hard. I have had the hardest time finding someone that can help me adapt something to my body, right? And they do that, but then they also have wellness programs and nutrition, and they have mental health psychologists that can step in and help. So it's this technical wellness thing, and it's free. They send you this package of equipment you can use for exercising at home, you know, the resistant bands and stuff, all for free, you know. And when it's in person, for the people that are able to go in person, they have the most beautiful wellness center with the beautiful bin that's all adaptive.
 Kathy Chester: Right, right, right, yeah. But I have found that, honestly, I love, I mean, I love when they come in studio, but doing it on Zoom, I love doing that too. And now getting into, you know, the wellness programs with hospitals and you know, different MS associations, there's a nice community that goes on. And to be able to have that, like, I'm gonna show up because I wanna see these people and I wanna make sure, and there's just that accountability and stuff. So I think that's great.
 Dr. Summer: Well, and that's one of the reasons why I decided to get involved in it outside of the fact that they've got people that can help me with the adaptive side of the things that I don't know. It's also the accountability because you sign up and it's like, okay, And in order for the program to be free long-term, you have to do the first 12 weeks. And that first 12 weeks has a lot of accountability built into it. It's kind of a way of, it's free, but after 12 weeks, if you didn't do all of these steps, then you have to pay for it. It's still cheap, but I shouldn't say cheap. It's still more affordable than a gym membership, right? And it still provides all the benefits. But my point is, I was so happy that like, oh, wait, they actually have access. Yeah, they got some grants together in order to pay for it. But very cool if they can do that for people. And I'm up for it. You know, help me move as much as I can. I take my vitamin D. I'll be honest. I don't take a lot of supplements. Yeah, but I take vitamin D. I take multivitamin. My husband does all of our cooking because I don't like to. and it's hard for me to do it.
 Kathy Chester: My husband does a lot of our cooking. I do love cooking, but he's a really good cook too.
 Dr. Summer: He loves doing it. He's a good cook and he's been trying to more and more incorporate a healthier diet, things that are beneficial for me. He's learned a lot and he's a big supporter. He picks me up and carries me when he needs to. That's awesome. Yeah. Yeah. Western, but at the same time, hmm, is it really that? And it's not all about just the medications you take, like you said, the moving. I think mental health is a huge proponent of all health, you know? So I guess what I would say is I view it as kind of a holistic approach. You know, we've got a such a, for people who are very spiritual and very religious, we have to incorporate that into their care as well. No, and I'm not opposed to doing that. Right, right. I agree. As a physician, I find out what works good and bring it in for them for myself. I do the same. No, I think that's beautiful. I love that. We're not just our meat sack bodies. We're also our brain. We're also our soul. We're our emotion.
 Kathy Chester: We're everything else. I always feel that like my spirit soul and it's like physically, mentally, emotionally, spiritually, like where, where are we and where to then meeting the meeting, our people are, that we are coming in contact with where they are and learning about that. And I love that. So gosh, I wish I could, you could be my physician.
 Dr. Summer: Or they don't want to do instead of MD, because there's a different philosophy on the approach to medicine.
 Kathy Chester: A lot of times I ask my clients when they get feel defeated or just anxious, overwhelmed, you know, with all the fun that we experience in our bodies. What's your why? You know, when they get defeated, what keeps you going? What keeps you fighting through this? Tell me, what is that for you?
 Dr. Summer: I will say it's variable. It is variable. Like some days it's this, some days it's something else. But one of the things that I always try and remember is where I'm at today. And the things I can do today are the same things I used to be able to do prior to this, just differently. And I am still me. I am still who I've always been. And I'm going to continue to be that person and who I've always been. One, I've always been a fighter, something I've always had to be. But also I want to make sure other people smile, not just myself. It makes me smile to see other people smile. And I want to make sure people are okay. I've lived a lot of life being not okay at various points of my life and a lot of my life being very okay. And everyone deserves to be okay. And I will tell you, I feel like I have something I can contribute, not just to myself, not just to my husband and my children, but the world at large. And I keep pushing forward to continue doing the things that I love doing, that I feel like are so very important for not just me, but the world as a whole. Not to say that I'm the only person who could do those things, and I'm not, but I'm the only one that's me. And you do your part.
 Kathy Chester: You know, we can only do our part, and you're doing your part. And it's a beautiful part that's so needed.
 Dr. Summer: And I look at our society, our world, whether it's little community, whether it's families, little community, states, the country, the world as a whole, is kind of a puzzle. And every single piece, every single person is one of those pieces. And the whole thing doesn't work if we're missing the piece from Butte, Nebraska. Exactly.
 Kathy Chester: Right.
 Dr. Summer: It's anywhere. We need us all because we're all part of this world. Yeah, and. That's why we make this world better, even when we're having a rough time, because when we're having a rough time. Hopefully someone else is one, they're helping us and to learning how to be a better person by helping those around them. So even when we were in a bad place. We're doing something better for the whole world and the whole community because someone else is having to exercise their empathy.
 Kathy Chester: Yeah, beautifully said. All right, last question for you, promise. If you're with a newly diagnosed MS, or you finally found someone that has NMO, what advice would you give? If you could just say one line, one thing to them.
 Dr. Summer: Breathe, it's gonna be scary. Every single emotion you have is valid. It is okay to grieve, but it's gonna be okay. You will get to be, Not really the other side, but you will get to the point that this just becomes part of your life. Yeah. This is just here. Yeah. Some days are gonna be good. Some days are gonna be bad. But pretty soon as you work through it, you're gonna see more good days than bad days. Love that. And it's okay. It's okay to sit there and cry. It's a lot. It's a lot. I know this is more than just one thing, but, and it's okay to be at some point in your journey where you thought that you were doing really well and then have a grieve again. Yeah.
 Kathy Chester: Cry again. I always say, I feel like, and tell me your thoughts on this. Like we grieve several times throughout our life with our diseases. Cause it's like we lose something and then it's like, you grieve a little bit about that. It's like, okay, I lost. something else in this disease. And it's okay to take that time and grieve that and then move forward. But it'd be ridiculous to say, okay, I'm not gonna grieve that I just lost my ability to use that part of my leg. Of course we're gonna grieve that things are worsening as we grow older.
 Dr. Summer: You're going to grieve who you thought you were going to be had you never had this disease. You are. But here's the thing, you are still you. Our physical abilities are only one little tiny part of us. You know, one of the things that my husband did really phenomenally to help me see that when I was newly in a wheelchair. So in 2019, so I'm a big huge, metalhead and rock music. We go to concerts, we go to festivals, we go in my manual chair. I crowd surf in my manual chair, right? But when I was first newly in a wheelchair, I really thought I would never be able to crowd surf again. I'd never be able to be in a mosh pit again. So before our wedding, he took me to a concert and some random guys in the crowd came up to me and goes, hey, you wanna go up? I was like, yeah. My husband was like freaked out because he didn't know where I went. You know, he got a little scared because he didn't know where I went. Well, yeah, I'm sure he did. But then at our wedding itself, I had told one of our friends, I'm never going to be in a mosh pit again and because I'm not going to be able to have a wheelchair user. Oh my gosh, you're making me cry. My friend and husband were talking about it and they talked to the DJ, who also was the guy that married us because he was My husband, it's OK, we had the professional DJ like he's playing bands and now. Yeah. But anyway, so at our wedding, we have almost 200 people there and over half of them were friends from concerts. Right. So they got a hold. They called some of them, not all of them. They said, OK, so my husband comes up. It's on the micro goes, hey, I need all of my metalhead friends up here now and everybody else get off the dance floor. and they played a Parkway Drive song and had a mosh pit and put me in the center of it. Oh, I love that. And so that was like, oh, wait, I can still do these things. I just do them differently. And now for the festivals that we go to all the time, I now volunteer with them to improve ADA accessibility. I love that. And they are the largest festival promoter in the country. some of the largest rock. They have some country ones as well. But right now, I think it's seven or eight festivals. I'd have to think about it. It's like Florida, the Midwest, California, a whole bunch of them. So that's something I do. I gained that though because of this disease. That's not something I did before.
 Kathy Chester: Right, and that's something important to know is that, I want to highlight that, is the things that we gain. And we don't always see that. And I always try to journal that, the stuff that I've gained through this disease, not always the things I've lost, but the things that I've gained. So I'm grateful that you mentioned that.
 Dr. Summer: It's important to grieve, but it's important to look at the things you've gained.
 Kathy Chester: Well, thank you so much for joining us today on Move It or Lose It Podcast, where you can, again, find us wherever you like your podcasts, whether it's Apple, Spotify, and join us on that. And we can't wait to see you again. We're gonna have a lot of exciting guests and working together. And as always, you'll hear us say at the end of every podcast, we are stronger together. So let's do it. Let's become stronger together. Have a great day.