Hi y'all and welcome back to the next episode of the podcast.
You'll notice I've taken a little time off in the last couple of weeks and it's just because I've needed to recenter myself,
Reground myself,
And get a little rest.
It's a lot of work putting these episodes out and while I do so love the work,
I've realized that every once in a while I'm gonna need to take a step back and take a breath so that I can come back even better and brighter than before.
So thanks for your patience and thanks for continuing to listen to the pod.
This time I'm introducing you to Dr.
Amy Loden Tiffany,
A physician-entrepreneur,
TEDx speaker,
And international best-selling author.
But guess what?
She's also a mother of five.
You know,
She spent years trying to fit into the completely unrealistic roles demanded in academic and corporate medicine and then finally she said,
No,
No more.
I'm gonna create something new.
I'm gonna create something different and that's exactly what she's done and you'll hear a little bit more about that if you're listening to the long-form interview.
You know,
In between all of this she delivered a TEDx talk which was called Pregnancy is More Than the Birth of a Child and then wrote an international best-selling book,
The Postpartum Pivot.
Yeah,
She's kind of insanely incredible and I think you'll understand that by the time this conversation is over.
So let's get to it.
Here's my conversation with Amy Loden Tiffany.
Probably the thing that sticks out to me the most is my husband twice has miraculously been found to have kidney cancer before he had symptoms.
Two different types of kidney cancers and before anyone would look for them.
Well,
I'd love to ask you the main question of the podcast.
So,
You know,
This podcast is about magic,
About miracles.
I've interviewed 300 people.
I've had every story you could ever imagine.
But I ask people,
I would so appreciate if you would share,
It could be one story,
It could be two stories,
Of something maybe that you witnessed.
It doesn't necessarily have to have happened to you.
Something that you witnessed or experienced that you thought was magical,
Miraculous,
Or mysterious.
Yeah,
Definitely.
There's mystery in all of medicine.
There's so many times that I don't understand why someone's gotten better or the flip side is you're like,
How did they not get better?
We did everything right.
So mystery is always in medicine.
I think what comes up for me is how deceived I was,
Finishing medical school and maybe even residency.
I trained at one of the best places in the world for residency.
And how deceived I was about not understanding what it meant to listen to people and to have them tell me their story and to have them be able to tell me what was wrong with them without a test.
And I think it was,
It's not one,
It's a series of multiple conversations over years of just realizing and being humbled and thinking,
You know,
These interactions didn't happen coincidentally,
Right?
I do believe that God puts people in my life and puts me in their life to have conversations.
And multiple times,
Would I have made the same decision in retrospect,
The information I have now probably not.
Probably the thing that sticks out to me the most is my husband twice has miraculously been found to have kidney cancer before he had symptoms,
Two different types of kidney cancers and before anyone would look for them.
But because of the insistence I had that his doctors do what I had learned,
Which was listen to the man,
There's something wrong with him and look for the problem.
Being able to advocate for him,
He's effectively cured of both cancers.
And I don't think that came coincidentally.
I think that came from all my patients teaching me to listen to them so that I could then advocate for my husband to be listened to from his doctor.
That doesn't mean it won't happen again,
Right?
And there's not more learning to do.
But I think the mystery and the connection and the magic of the connection with each person is seeing the humanity and acknowledging that we're all here together.
And we're all here in a community.
And I see the image of God in each person I care for.
And I hope that they can respect where I'm coming from when I am the patient.
Being the patient does change a lot for how I practice as a physician.
Oh my gosh,
I was just thinking to myself,
I've been watching this show that was,
You know,
Filmed in 1994.
So quite a while ago,
It's basically about this guy who he lives on,
You know,
In a really small town in Scotland,
And he's the sole police officer.
And you know,
There's a motley crew of ragtag residents.
And one of them is the town doctor.
And it was it's so fascinating.
I was like,
Oh,
My God,
This is what this is how it used to be.
You know,
He doesn't have a car.
So he'll basically start walking to someone's house.
And if someone drives by,
They pick them up,
They drop them off at the house.
And then he spends a few hours with those people sitting with them,
You know,
Saying,
So what's going on,
But not only that,
Getting,
You know,
Let's catch up what's going on and everything,
You know,
Versus just their,
You know,
Aches and pains or what have you.
And,
And so is getting like this really rich experience and hearing of their entire life.
And I just thought,
This is how you find out what's really going on.
And we're,
Yeah,
We don't do that anymore.
We can't because doctors don't control healthcare,
Insurance companies control healthcare,
Hospital CEOs,
And their staff control healthcare.
But that's probably the most frustrating thing in my role is people don't realize that they think the doctors are in control.
And so until the people revolt,
And the doctors are willing to walk away from instruments,
And I say doctors loosely,
Because it has to be your physician assistants,
It has to be the nurse practitioners,
It has to be everybody who can walk away does for this to change,
But it also has to be massively be patients has to be legislated,
It has to be policy that says you can't have all the expenses for the last 30 years be mostly from admin salaries and admin costs that doesn't work economically.
So that's where do we go?
I hope that's a future thing where we can have longer appointments.
That's why I love the system.
That's why I created what I do.
Our appointments are 30 minutes to an hour,
And we have unlimited appointments in your memberships,
Because we want people to have as close to that as we can.
And there have been times where I have looked at someone and said,
You know what,
I don't know what's wrong with you,
But you don't look right.
And we're gonna do some testing.
So let's do that.
And we've I found early heart attacks,
I found early cancers,
I had all sorts of things,
Because I know these people.
And that's what we all want,
Right?
At the end of the day,
We want to be listened to,
We want to be known,
We want to be loved.
Those are basic human needs that I can help me.
Oh,
Yeah,
You know,
It moving about the world.
You know,
With I've always had this,
I don't know what it is,
But people,
Strangers will just start talking to me and telling me everything,
Which is great.
Like,
I love it.
But it has made me realize that so few people in this world feel heard.
Yes,
They do not feel seen.
And they feel absolutely disposable.
And so when you have an encounter with someone who is there to engage and deeply listen and be present for you.
That is healing in itself.
It is so powerful.
And I think that's what you're talking about.
It's it's they don't have to look like me.
They don't have to agree with me.
I definitely have people whose politics or religion you know,
They are different than mine.
We even talk about it sometimes because you can have a dialogue right when you're in that kind of trusting relationship and they just need to be heard.
And I can do that.
And that's it.
That's a wrap on my conversation with Amy.
I really appreciated her capacity for deep listening,
As well as deep empathy.
Her story is really remarkable.
And I think hints that maybe there is a better way forward for all of us in the medical arena.
That's at least what I'm hoping.
Please do consider writing a little review or maybe even leaving a rating.
Those you know,
Five star ratings help other people find this little podcast of mine and I'd be ever so grateful because it just means so much to me that,
You know,
People appreciate the work that I'm putting out there.
Thank you for listening.
And here's my one request.
Be like Amy,
Always understand that your life can change if it needs to,
Whenever it has to.
I mean,
We're all taught that you live your life and it's kind of linear.
And this is what you do.
You know,
For example,
Like you go to high school,
You go to college,
Then you get a job,
Then you work that job,
Then you retire,
Etc,
Etc.
Well,
Life doesn't have to be like that.
It can be curvaceous,
It can be meandering,
It can be so many different things.
So in the middle of your life,
If you suddenly decide things could be different,
Things might be better.
Then take a chance just like Amy to redefine what goodness looks like in your life.
Always have the belief that you can make something even more gorgeous out of the life that you're currently living.
All right,
See you next time for the very next episode of the pod.
And until then,
I hope life is easy.
It's filled with beauty.
And it's filled with great conversations with people that you really,
Really love.
