Dorothy: [00:00:00] Today we have with this Dr. Mary Neal and the impact she has made in this community through gifts into cancer research, through serving at San Jose Clinic as one of the physicians, and so many other ways that she’s helped the community are really remarkable. But the best part of this episode is hearing the love story between her and her husband. It’s one you won’t wanna miss.
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Let’s Talk About Your Breast, a different kind of podcast presented to you by The Rose, a breast center of excellence, and a Texas treasure. You’re gonna hear frank discussions about tough topics, and you’re gonna learn why knowing about your breast could save your life.[00:01:00]
Dr. Neal, it is so, so nice to have you here at The Rose and to be part of our podcast. And I have so many questions for you. And the first one is you, you were in medical school pretty young.
Dr. Neal: Yes.
Dorothy: Tell us about this journey of becoming a physician.
Dr. Neal: Well. I decided I wanted to be a doctor when I was 12. I had a, I had, or 13, I was a freshman in high school. I had the most amazing biology teacher, and the lab just ignited my, um, interest in, in pursuing that. And so the, from that moment on, there was nothing deterring me from, from that pathway. I was the first a member of my family to graduate college. I had two older sisters. They got married at 19, had babies and, you know, just dropped outta school. And so my father was, it was a dream of, of his as well, that, you know, that I [00:02:00] accomplished that. So I actually finished college in three years. ’cause I was anxious. I got some advanced credits and got through it and.
Dorothy: I know, but this is a very, you know, I mean. That just didn’t happen back then unless you were really smart.
Dr. Neal: Well, you could. You could. And, um, so then I, I got into medical school. Um, I guess I started, I was 21 and it met all my expectations. My father said that the reason I went into medicine was that I never wanted to quit school. He realized that, you know, how many years it was gonna require for me to accomplish, you know, and get to the point where you actually get out and have a job. But he, he was really right, because it’s a, it’s a lifelong learning experience. You never stop learning. I mean, I’m reading journals. You know, every day just to keep up with what’s happening in, in other facets of medicine besides the, the area that I specialized [00:03:00] in.
Dorothy: When did you know you wanted to be an OBGYN. Why? When didn’t you know that?
Dr. Neal: You know, I went to medical school thinking I wanted to be a pediatrician. And um, the best thing that my medical school did for me was during our pediatrics rotation, we actually went one afternoon a week and shadowed a pediatrician in their office, and that’s when I discovered that I, I love children. Not so much sick, crying children, and you know, it’s okay when they’re your own. But anyway, I loved dealing with the moms, you know, and, and I loved delivering babies. I was hooked at the first one that I got to deliver, and I loved having that, that really very special rapport you have with a patient. ‘Cause you know, you’ve seen them for multiple visits during their pregnancy. You know, their, their husband, you know, their, their other support system, their parents, their other children. [00:04:00] It’s, it’s just such a. I mean, it’s so wonderful to be invited into that, you know.
Dorothy: Into that fabric of life, into that.
Dr. Neal: That miracle.
Dorothy: Yes, yes.
Dr. Neal: You know, and it is every single time. I never bored of it. It was just wonderful.
Dorothy: Now are you doing the same thing in your volunteer work at St, at San Jo?
Dr. Neal: No, we don’t.
Dorothy: San Joseph?
Dr. Neal: No. We, we are, we don’t do ob. We’re.
Dorothy: Oh, okay.
Dr. Neal: We are just, um, like essentially office gynecology. Um, so, um. We will diagnose a pregnancy and then we help, uh, navigate them into OB care. ‘Cause the state of Texas does provide any pregnant woman is qualifies for Medicaid.
Dorothy: Right.
Dr. Neal: And so they can get care with any physician who accept Medicaid patient.
Dorothy: And my goodness, this is a critical time for them to do that. So, yeah, that is a really good point. You know, uh, that has been a, uh, San Jose has been one of our partners for, I don’t know how many.
Dr. Neal: We’re so [00:05:00] grateful for that. Yes.
Dorothy: Oh, oh, well we were for you too, because we had, someone would call us and you always have to have that physician or that clinic or, you know, involved in all this. And, and it was a place we could actually send people. So, um.
Dr. Neal: That’s good to hear.
Dorothy: And of course I think, and I’m not sure about this, but. Uh, I’m sure you’ve heard of Dr. Popp.
Dr. Neal: Oh, yeah.
Dorothy: Yeah.
Dr. Neal: Yeah, yeah.
Dorothy: You know, she was there at one point.
Dr. Neal: Yes.
Dorothy: And now she’s at St. Mary’s, I think, clinic. Yes.
Dr. Neal: Yeah. A different clinic.
Dorothy: Yeah. Let me tell you, that woman.
Dr. Neal: She’s a, she’s a fireball. She’s amazing. She is.
Dorothy: She, she has such a way of getting those patients on that mobile van. It’s just, it’s amazing. Yeah. But I, I think that community service. Especially doctors like you and, and her, it just gives you a different aspect.
Dr. Neal: Oh, for sure.
Dorothy: About what’s going on.
Dr. Neal: For sure.
Dorothy: In our world.
Dr. Neal: You know, and, and it, it’s a shame that that basic healthcare isn’t [00:06:00] in the United States considered just an inalienable, right? And it’s, it’s not, and so often you see patients further down the road of, of medical dilemmas because they didn’t know where to go, or they didn’t have, you know, a regular primary care doctor following their course. So yeah, that’s a, it’s, it’s, um, clinics like St. Mary’s, St. San Jose and others, they provide it and very important service to all of our wonderful citizens who may have not had an opportunity for insurance.
Dorothy: Well, and we see that so often. You know, when, when we screen women on the mobile and, you know, we serve insured women too. Their staging is exactly the same. You know, because it’s screening.
Dr. Neal: Right.
Dorothy: But the majority of our uninsured women are coming with a problem when they’re coming to the centers. And it’s just insane that we don’t have more emphasis on, on the different screeners and, and [00:07:00] availability and accessibility.
Dr. Neal: Yes.
Dorothy: Because, uh, it, it can make such a difference for sure.
Dr. Neal: We appreciate what a wonderful service that y’all provide, but one, you know, providing the, the mammogram, but it’s not just there. I mean, you know, you, you go on to, if there’s a problem, you do the diagnostic testing, you do the biopsies, then you have navigators that, you know, like it doesn’t come back to us of, oh my gosh, where do we go now?
Dorothy: Right.
Dr. Neal: Y’all, you do a, a wonderful job.
Dorothy: Before we continue this episode, I have to let you know about something that is happening throughout this month of July. Our Anonymous Donor is at it again. And she wants to match your donation up to a hundred thousand dollars. So think about it, $20 is now $40, a hundred dollars is now $200 and if you’re feeling really generous, a thousand dollars is now $2000. Just think about all the women that we could help [00:08:00] with your donation and our anonymous donors match. Please go to therose.org. It’s easy to make your donation there, and as our donor said, every dollar counts. Now, back to the podcast.
You might not know this, but we had a physician network for the longest. I, I just have it in my head that you may have been a part of that, you know, because it was community doctors who said, we’ll help you. This was before you had any programs in Texas and, and I think that that was when our, just because we had that the doctors became aware of us. They started to know us and, and that helped us grow. I mean, every. There, there is a real compassion that goes on in this city.
Dr. Neal: Mm, I agree.
Dorothy: That is, is just unbeatable. And when it comes to those that are not quite able to do what they’d like to do, it really makes a difference. So, [00:09:00] yeah. Thank you.
Dr. Neal: Yes.
Dorothy: Thank you for being part of that.
Dr. Neal: You know, one of the, the other missions that that San Jose has taken on is that we we’re seeing some of the, and as the gynecologist, some sort of the front line, but we’re seeing some, uh, human trafficking victims in the city and, you know, in private practice that was just something, you know, you did a little, you know. See any learning on, and you didn’t ever think it was gonna touch your life. And it, it’s, I’ve taken it on and in my case as being kind of a, it’s, it’s a mission for me to, you know, just have respect and give everybody dignity and, and just to hear some of their stories. It’s, it’s, you know, you just wonder how, how they’re such survivors, you know? And, uh. And it, it’s a, it’s, it’s a special time, you know, that I didn’t have that opportunity in private practice.
Dorothy: [00:10:00] Right.
Dr. Neal: So I, I feel like, you know, maybe God put me in this place to have that impact, you know? That’s so interesting. Yeah.
Dorothy: Yeah. And to have that person you can tell your story to without shame or without judgment, you know?
Dr. Neal: Exactly.
Dorothy: That’s, I don’t, what we’ve learned in this podcast is sometimes just being able to talk makes all the difference and, and you discover things you didn’t know you had or you know, you find other resources. So, my goodness, I would never have thought of that, that.
Dr. Neal: I know most people don’t. You know? It’s, it’s, it’s an, it’s a challenge and an opportunity.
Dorothy: That’s a good way of putting it. Yeah. So. I want to know how you describe, I know you ha, you’ve been very involved in Methodist. Very involved in, in creating some of their new work in the cancer field. But I wanna hear you describe Jenny Chang, Dr. Chang. [00:11:00]
Dr. Neal: She’s a, she’s an amazing, she’s brilliant. She comes off as being very, um, kind of stoic, but she is, got the kindest heart.
Dorothy: Oh yeah.
Dr. Neal: And is, um, she just wants the best for every patient out there.
Dorothy: She does.
Dr. Neal: With that diagnosis attached. And there was a story a while back that Methodist acquired a hospital in Baytown. And, and with it came this, um, this one of the doctors had an amazing frozen specimen collection. All kinds of cancers, but a lot of breast, um. But, you know, uh, tissue that was saved and so. It, you know, it kind of like when Methodist bought the hospital, it was like everything was included. And so this was kind of, kind of dumped on Jenny and she, and she said this was like a landmine of [00:12:00] things to be able to study these specimens from, I mean, four years ago.
Dorothy: Oh my gosh.
Dr. Neal: You know, so you could look at evolution of what’s happened, you know, and she, um, said, this is not just for us. This is too important. So she, she kind of like sent out a, a blast to everybody all in the cancer world and said, anyone who needs, wants, desires, any of this, we’re happy to share it.
Dorothy: Yeah.
Dr. Neal: And so that’s the kind of collaborative effort you need in cancer. That’s, you know, yeah, you wanna have your name published on a paper, but you also are there for a reason, and that’s to stamp out this, this disease. You know.
Dorothy: She, she always reminded me of like, this quiet Whirlwind. You know, there was all this stuff going on around her, but she’s so calm and so.
Dr. Neal: You know, um. Things she, some things she doesn’t, you know, jump out there and announce. But when she was, during her journey, she graduated, I think from [00:13:00] Oxford getting her first degree, her, her undergraduate degree, and she was waiting to go to medical school and she had like a, she, she finished in so fast, you know, like brilliant. So she had this little bit of extra time, like, like a year, before she was gonna start medical school. She went and got a divinity degree. So, you know, like there, there’s a spirituality about her too that
Dorothy: Oh yes.
Dr. Neal: That, you know, she doesn’t always share that with everybody, but, uh, I think that makes her a really caring physician and my friends who’ve had cancer and have seen her, see that side of her. Yeah.
Dorothy: Yeah. We’ve had several who have gone to her and. She used to be our primary person to send folks to. But yeah, she’s just a, uh, I didn’t know all that. I’ve been trying to get her on this show now. I, yeah, now have some extra. She promised me she would come, but Just getting her hair like, yeah.
Dr. Neal: She has a busy life. [00:14:00] Yep.
Dorothy: Now, Dr. Deal, did you know about The Rose before San Jose?
Dr. Neal: I did. When I was in private practice. I knew that y’all were, you, y’all were here. We, you know, in my office building, we had our own breast and imaging center. And we kind of had our, our surgeons we used over there. So, so we kind, I, I tended not to. I, I didn’t necessarily refer to y’all, but I knew of your wonderful work here. And then, you know, of course became intimately involved when I started volunteering at San Jose.
Dorothy: Uh, the, when I think about, uh, some of the years that, that we’ve been out there, it is amazing how many physicians were back there when we were beginning. That we didn’t even know we had that support, you know? We were always kind of small, so it, it was just, it’s so.
Dr. Neal: Well, I remember, I, I don’t know her, but Dixie Melillo is one of the first Physicians with y’all.
Dorothy: Yeah.
Dr. Neal: Yeah.
Dorothy: She’s a co-founder. I mean.
Dr. Neal: Right.
Dorothy: And she’s still here. [00:15:00] You know.
Dr. Neal: That’s wonderful.
Dorothy: That is, it really is. Her patients just love her and she brings a, a very different, uh, sense of compassion to, to everything that we do. She’s very, very clear on what women need. And how we need to change things to make it better.
Dr. Neal: Yeah.
Dorothy: So what would you say is, and, and since you’re working in this population of the, uh, under-resourced right, uninsured, what is there, what is the number one problem that we could solve? Now, that last part could mess it up, but Well, in your mind, what’s the number one issue?
Dr. Neal: You know, I try to educate all my patients as to why they should get a mammogram. You know, there, there’s so much misinformation out there about, oh, it hurts, or, You know, and, and my answer to them is. You know, a, a mastectomy hurts, you know, don’t you wanna do something and find something earlier so you [00:16:00] don’t, you know, the, the, you don’t need to have the, the major surgery down the line or chemo and all that. So I, I always tell them, you know, you need to, you need to be doing your own breast exams, but that’s not enough. You know, because we can find breast cancer before you can feel it if you do your mammogram. And so, um, you know that, that helps. I guess our, our patient population, you know, we have a fair number of no-shows just because of all, you know, life gets in the way. These people, you know, they, they have one car in the family and the husband works seven days a week.
Dorothy: And, and you thought you could make this appointment, but then your boss calls you in to work that day. Oh, yes, yes.
Dr. Neal: Yeah. So I think those are the logistic problems that probably, um, handicap some of our patients. Absolutely.
Dorothy: Absolutely. Especially in this city. I know we have public transportation inside the loop, but people getting to this location. Very hard. If you don’t have a vehicle, it’s just difficult for.
Dr. Neal: For a [00:17:00] short while, we had, uh, some grant that was paying for Uber to get some of our patients in.
Dorothy: Oh.
Dr. Neal: You know, so they could, uh, um, you know, if there was really important for them to make a follow up visit.
Dorothy: See, those are the kind of community resources we need. And it doesn’t have to be overwhelming. It could just be for those that actually need to get in.
Dr. Neal: Right.
Dorothy: We do gas cards for our, our ladies that need the diagnostic workup, but you gotta remember we’re serving that rural area.
Dr. Neal: Yeah. Right.
Dorothy: And if one of those ladies needs to come back for a follow up, it’s a two and a half, three hour drive. I mean, wow, this is not an easy thing. And the, the counties that we serve, half of them do not have a mammogram center, a breast center. They do well to have any kind of physician presence in their community. So. It’s a drive for them anywhere they go. So it. the mobile stay.
Dr. Neal: Do you send your mobiles out there.
Dorothy: Mm-hmm
Dr. Neal: But then when they have to have the diagnostic [00:18:00] stuff, have they come back here to. Gotcha.
Dorothy: One of our goals is to turn a couple of those units into a diagnostic.
Dr. Neal: Wow.
Dorothy: But that’s a few steps away. You know what I mean?
Dr. Neal: I know.
Dorothy: It. It just takes, it takes so much. Alright, so I have this one question that has just really bothered me. And I wanna hear the story about how you met your husband. I know there’s, I know there’s a love story in there and I just, I think everyone realizes that you’re a huge community support volunteer. You’re a huge, the gifts you’ve given to make our medical center, especially Methodist, are just phenomenal.
Dr. Neal: Well, thank you.
Dorothy: But it’s. Always kind of like the two of y’all doing it together.
Dr. Neal: It’s, it’s, it’s because we are a, we’re, we’re very aligned as a couple. So back when I was in college, went to LSU in Baton Rouge and it was a summer, had just broken up with the guy I had been dating for a while [00:19:00] and one of my pre-med friends ’cause you have a, you know, a network of all the people you know that are in pre-med and he wa he. He dropped by, he, he lived in an apartment in our building and um, he had this friend with him. And so we met, I met Ron through Jose, and at the time I was with my roommate. We, we look similar. I mean, we’re the same height brown hair, you know.
Anyway, after the meeting, Jose mentioned to Ron that I wasn’t dating anyone. The, he should call and ask me out. So, so he, he did, and it’s back to the old, regular, those cell phones, right? And so he called in that Saturday we had arranged to have a date, and that Saturday I answered the door miraculously I was actually ready on time and, and he, and he saw me and it was like there was this little startle and he said, oh, you’ll do.[00:20:00]
And I didn’t know at the time he really thought he had a date with my roommate, which they would never have kicked it off, but, you know, they’re dear friends. But it, it, it was just kind of humorous. I didn’t know what you’ll do, man. I thought, you know, as dressed appropriately or whatever. But, um, it was this very strange night when I got home.
My, my, my, oh, he, yeah, that was the other thing he took on our first date. He took, he had a key to the life science building. ’cause he was doing some physiology research. He’s not, he didn’t go into medicine. But anyway, he, he was in this, um, graduate research class and, um. I just thought it was incredible that you could get into the life science building after dark on a Saturday.
Dorothy: He impressed you.
Dr. Neal: Yeah. So he took me there and then explained to me that the tarantula had gotten loose that week. So that sort of ended that little opportunity to visit longer. And so I told my roommate when I got home, I said, that was the [00:21:00] strangest date I’ve ever been on in my life. And, and she said, well, are you gonna go out again?
And I said, well. Well, yeah. You know, I wanna see what the next one’s gonna be like. And I told my dad that I was gonna laugh every day for the rest of my life. And I have, and we’re, we’re very aligned in our, um, in, in our values. Um, we don’t always agree politically or about everything about child rearing.
There were some times in there where I was good cop. He was bad cop, but you know. Uh, in the long run, we have such respect for each other, and, um, we both feel that, you know, you need to leave this world better than you got, than it was when you got here. And whatever it is, if it’s little things, little acts of kindness, little whatever, you know it, that’s, that’s what’s important.
He also, we always told our children, marry someone who’s kind and marry someone that you wanna be better for every day. That [00:22:00] you wanna be a better person just because you’re with that person.
Dorothy: Oh, that gets be chills.
Dr. Neal: And, and so we’re, we’re, you know. We, we do things together. We, we, we sat down and we made decisions about where we wanna help. We do it together, making that decision. And, uh, no, he, he’s a special guy.
Dorothy: Well, it sounds like it.
Dr. Neal: Yeah.
Dorothy: And you’re about to celebrate.
Dr. Neal: We will, this year’s, 49 years. Next year we’ll be 50. I hope we’ll do something kind of special for that. We have to. Yeah.
Dorothy: Congratulations.
Dr. Neal: Thank you.
Dorothy: My goodness. See, it’s those stories that keep us going.
Dr. Neal: Yeah.
Dorothy: You know, you’re both professionals. You both had a lot of responsibilities and stress, I’m sure, through these years, but boy, when you have that person that’s.
Dr. Neal: You have that partner who’s got your back. Oh my gosh. Was he a Mr. Mom? I mean, he, he really carried a lot of weight when I had three kids and was delivering [00:23:00] all those babies and doing that. So, yeah.
Dorothy: Your time is Johnny.
Dr. Neal: But you know what he said? He, he said. I would always apologize when I’d come off a weekend call and I was just wasted. ’cause I was on call for so many doctors and stuff, and he would say, he, I’d say, I’m so sorry you had to do this. And he goes, it is not a burden, it’s a pleasure. You know, you’re giving me an opportunity to spend one-on-one time with my children and let’s face it, if you were here, you know, they’re about mommy, so. You know, he’s very close to our, our grown children now. So that is, that is a good story.
Dorothy: Whole different way of looking at it.
Dr. Neal: Yeah. You know? Again, challenge, opportunity. You know?
Dorothy: I don’t think we’ve heard that expression on this show very often, you know? But that is a great one. Great.
Dr. Neal: Thank you.
Dorothy: Great model. Why do you believe the new therapies that are coming out for cancer are so important?
Dr. Neal: I do. Um, when I was an intern at [00:24:00] uh, in the medical ICU at Methodist here in Houston, um, we had a lady who had terrible breast cancer that had literally like invaded her skin that you, I mean, you saw the tumor and she had already gone through all the chemo and everything. Um, and she, um, she was staying alive long enough to try an immunotherapy technique. That was really just starting back then. It was, you know, we’re talking 40 years ago and, you know, she was, she was very brave. I look at her as like, you know, just one of those, those amazing people, but that stirred in my mind that, you know. All before that, it’s radiation and chemo, which is essentially poisoning a lot of your own cells. You know, your good cells just to get rid of those [00:25:00] bad cells. It wouldn’t it be great if you could target it, you know? And so then, then that all ha started happening in the course of my career of, you know, all this. The, you know, it took a lot of, a lot of steps along the way to figure out all that Immunology and all the, how, how the process could happen. And I don’t begin to understand, you know, a minuscule amount of it, but it just made sense. If we can, if we can do that. Melanoma is one of those cancers that seems to have responded.
There’s a lot of drugs they’re using for melanoma. You know, there’s a lot of things we have yet to learn though, because there’s so many cancers that there’s, you know, it is still a death sentence, pancreatic and some of those things. But, um, we just, you know, Ron and I were trying to figure out where can, where can an impact be made? Where does it need to go? And it’s not like I don’t believe in, in [00:26:00] chemo or radiation. I think those are, those are, you know, sometimes those are the, the, the most direct and better ways to treat some of these things. But, you know, it’s, it’s a, it’s a field that’s just just, going crazy with the, the amount of discoveries that they’re making and the personally, my daughter-in-law’s mom was diagnosed, uh, five years ago with, uh, with lung cancers.
Never a smoker. Wasn’t that kind. And, um. She had chemo and her cancer just laughed at it. I mean, just, just, you know, and she got on the, an immunotherapy regimen and here she is five years later. That lady is blowing and going and you know, she still has cancer, but, but it’s like, under control. She has, you know, there’s side effects she has to deal with with the treatment, but she looks at it as every day she has with her grandchildren is a blessing, you know, so, you know, [00:27:00] we never thought that she, she would have five years, but yeah. It’s, uh, so, so these, these, uh, you know, this is a whole new frontier really.
Dorothy: It is, it is. And it’s so promising. Oh my gosh.
Dr. Neal: Yeah.
Dorothy: But you know what, a story, 40 years ago you were being told there’s, there’s a way.
Dr. Neal: Yeah. It was like planted a seed there and, you know, it probably, she may have been the one and only patient that they did that with. Um, but, you know, because, but still, yeah. But still.
Dorothy: It, you know, it’s an exciting time to live. Especially in medicine and So much you look back at, at what we did 40 years ago and so different now. So we should be, we should be, uh, what’s the word? Positive. We should, we should be anticipating.
Dr. Neal: Right.
Dorothy: So much more.
Dr. Neal: Right.
Dorothy: That, that could be out there.
Dr. Neal: It would be, you know, it’d be, it’d be great, you know, if we could just, you know, X out cancer as a, [00:28:00] you know, you treated it like everything else. Like think about it, 20 years ago, HIV was a death sentence.
Dorothy: Oh yes.
Dr. Neal: Now it’s a chronic illness that you take care of, like hypertension, diabetes, you know.
Dorothy: Tuberculosis.
Dr. Neal: There you go.
Dorothy: Go back to, you know, we just forget. I mean, I lived in the time of the polio. Uh, and had cousins that were in iron lungs. And you were terrified of that time, but. Look at us now. It’s, it’s, it is exciting.
Dr. Neal: Yes.
Dorothy: It’s a great time to be here.
Dr. Neal: It is. It’s very exciting.
Dorothy: Well, I wanna thank you personally for all the ways you’ve helped The Rose. And there’s so much more that we can do in the communities that we serve. And I really, really appreciate that you’ve taken that on. That’s a, that’s a different world.
Dr. Neal: Yeah.
Dorothy: Yeah. But it, it is great. It’s been great to have you here.
Dr. Neal: Thank you. Thank you.
Dorothy: And I love to love stories. It’s a little quirky, but, no, it’s great. Sometimes I think we forget we’re women first. And we [00:29:00] always, when we, when we are fortunate enough to find that person, then it’s not just for us, it’s also for them. We don’t talk enough about love in this world.
Dr. Neal: Oh, that’s very true. That’s very true.
Dorothy: And that’s really all we have at the end of the day.
Dr. Neal: That’s right. And that’s why we’re serving people too. I mean, that’s the way you give.
Dorothy: Oh, it is. Yeah.
Dr. Neal: It’s, it’s not, it’s not giving to the whole, you’re actually often giving to the one-on-one, and that’s where it’s really important.
Dorothy: That is, that’s so true.
Dr. Neal: Well, thank you.
Dorothy: Any last words, any, any advice you wanna give? Anyone who’s thinking about community service or?
Dr. Neal: Oh wow.
Dorothy: Being a doctor or?
Dr. Neal: So I tell all of the. Pre-med students that will, you know, we have a, a few that rotate through San Jose, they come as translators. ‘Cause my Spanish is very rusty. And I’ll sit ’em down and say, well, you know what, what got you here? Why do you think you wanna do this? And I say, I wanna, I wanna impart a little bit [00:30:00] of my advice. And that is that medicine is a life of service that if that is not a, a primary motivator for you. You’ll be a frustrated physician. You won’t, you know, if you’re always looking at, you know, your bottom line on the money or whatever. That we’re, we’re really here to, to help people. You know, I mean, it’s very rewarding job. It’s intellectually stimulating. You’re never gonna be bored. No two patients are the same. Those are all good things. But you have to, you have to give up yourself. That’s why I’ve loved what I do, because it allows me to, to do that. To give. Yep. Yep.
Dorothy: Great advice.
Dr. Neal: Yep. Yep.
Dorothy: Thanks again for making this journey and for being with us today.
Dr. Neal: Well, thank you, Dorothy. Thank you. Appreciate it.
Post-Credits: Thank you for joining us today on Let’s Talk About Your Breasts. This podcast is produced by Speke Podcasting and brought to you by The [00:31:00] Rose. Visit therose.org to learn more about our organization. Subscribe to our podcast, share episodes with friends, and join the conversation on social media using #LetsTalkAboutYourBreasts. We welcome your feedback and suggestions. Consider supporting The Rose. Your gift can make the difference to a person in need. And remember, self care is not selfish. It’s essential.
