095 Meeting Famalies Where They Are , Dr. Wendy Hunter

I fell in love with pediatricians and what they do. They are kind, intelligent, and driven and never give up when their kids need them. This podcast showcases all those things that made me love the practice of pediatrics. 

Dr. Hunter is a mom, drummer, master gardener, former pediatric emergency room physician, avocado and coffee farmer, and pediatrician in La Jolla with Children’s Primary Care.

She is also a podcaster; in her podcast, The Pediatrician Next Door,  she talks about the door knob questions. and deep dives into common pediatric conditions. Every parent would be helped by listening to the podcast.

Chapters

• 0:00 Hello
• 1:26 Introduction
• 2:30 The Pediatirc ED
• 3:33 La Jolla
• 4:14 Working for The System
• 7:23 Nothing Worked in The ED
• 7:56 Physician Owned and Led
• 9:20 The Black Socks
• 13:29 People Don't Know
• 14:39 Dr. Wendy The Farmer
• 15:24 No Gardening with Kids
• 20:19 Da Drums and Peds Band
• 21:36 The Podcast
• 22:47 The Pinnacle Moment " POOP"
• 24:17 What is in the podcast
• 25:27 Reels on Instagram

Transcript

Meeting Families Where They Are AT Dr. Hunter

[00:00:00] Dr. Bravo: Well, hello, George. It's a Tuesday morning and we have a phenomenal guest, dr. Wendy Hunter. Yeah. She's done so many things. I don't know where to start, 

[00:00:08] Dr. Rogu: Her topic is meeting at least where they 

[00:00:10] are at. 

[00:00:12] Dr. Bravo: Well, okay. Well, I'll start with what I like. Dr. Hunter is a avid drum player. So maybe at some point you and her can connect and you can play your guitars and he can do, she can do the drums and I can do the audio.

[00:00:27] She's also an avocado and coffee farmer. She's also a mom. She was a ED doctor. She's a pediatrician in a big physician run and own practice in Southern California. And as if that wasn't enough, she's got a delightful personality. She's charismatic and she has a podcast. Wow. Sounds impressive.

[00:00:55] Doesn't it? Welcome Wendy. It's a joy to have you on the podcast. 

[00:00:59] Dr. Hunter: Hi, [00:01:00] thanks gentlemen. Nice to be here. 

[00:01:02] Dr. Bravo: Wendy, you started your career in the big system working in the emergency department. How long did you do that for? 

[00:01:10] Dr. Hunter: Yeah. I worked in the pediatric emergency department at Rady children's hospital, which is under the umbrella of UC San Diego for 10 years.

[00:01:18] And I learned a lot, a lot of things. Yeah. Usually 

[00:01:21] Dr. Rogu: I tell people that want to go into ER medicine. You have to be done by the time you're 40, because you can't do it anymore after that. I'll give you a personal note. My wife was a New York physician for, for pediatrics since 96. She just left four months ago after all, that's a long career, 25, 26 years now she works in our office.

[00:01:45] And you know, when she quit what they said, why don't you stay an extra month? We don't have enough time to replace you after 26 years, first shift, first patient, the first doctor working there, nothing. [00:02:00] Yeah. 

[00:02:00] Dr. Hunter: Thank you. So thank you. I got a lot out of it because I'm really, I feel like I'm a really strong pediatrician now.

[00:02:06] I've seen so much. That was challenging. 

[00:02:10] Dr. Bravo: So can you level set, like, I think of La Jolla in San Diego as like, you know, where rich people go to die, you know, it's so expensive and so beautiful. But that's not the whole story, right? There's a lot of need out there too. 

[00:02:25] Dr. Hunter: Yeah. Our community is really diverse. One of the things I'm very proud about, about our physician owned group is that we do accept Medi Cal and so savvy families will find us. But we also have a lot of community, a lot of members in our community who are low income and they live in tiny little bungalows in La Jolla. And I think a lot of them want what's best for their kids. So they come here for the school district. But yeah, there's a lot of 

[00:02:50] Dr. Bravo: So when you were in the emergency room for the big health system, you felt some frustration with your ability to take care of with your patients. [00:03:00] 

[00:03:00] Dr. Hunter: Yeah, absolutely. 

[00:03:02] Dr. Bravo: And you got a grant and did something about it. What was that all about?

[00:03:08] Dr. Hunter: So I noticed while I was working there that because I was a pediatrician working in an ER, I didn't see those super high acuity trauma patients. I saw the lower acuity patients and many of them were coming. To the emergency department for primary care problems, eczema, hives. You know, an ear infection things that they should have taken to their medical home, but didn't because they didn't have transportation during the day, or they just didn't know how to get to a doctor and so I realized that there was a huge population of kids out there who are not connected to You know, health maintenance for health education.

[00:03:47] So I also put that together with the fact that a lot of us pediatricians were getting burned out. And so I created this program called health stars and I got a grant to start it initially from a private funder and then a catch grant, and then [00:04:00] ultimately from Kohl's department store. And what we did was we brought pediatricians into communities.

[00:04:06] So we, I connected with low income housing, apartment buildings. Childcare facilities for low income, the homeless shelters. And we brought pediatricians into living rooms in these places and met with families, with parents and children. And we brought them a book each time and we had a set curriculum.

[00:04:27] Each one was about 20, 30 minutes of the pediatrician, just chatting, giving information, and then doing a craft project with the families, because that gave them a chance to just start asking the pediatrician questions. And then we would give them a book and kind of. Demonstrate how to read to your children.

[00:04:41] And we actually did collect data on that and found that families were reading much more to their children after we left. And we also as pediatricians, it really improved our burnout because we didn't have to write down what we were doing. That was lovely. And we really felt like we got to connect with our families.

[00:04:56] So that program is still ongoing. Oh, 

[00:04:58] Dr. Bravo: that's a phenomenal [00:05:00] program and you, you have so many problems that we're having. Right. I call it repetitive stress syndrome. So it's that clicking for measurements and mean nothing and have no value, but have to be documented. Like, you know, it's, I, you know what I feel like, I feel like a little rat and they give me sugar and I touch the button and you know, and then I do that.

[00:05:20] And I think my brain is not too big, but it's a little bit bigger than the rat's brain. And that's exhausting to my brain and the other, 

[00:05:28] Dr. Hunter: yeah, I only spend a small percentage of my time every day doing what I was trained 

[00:05:32] Dr. Bravo: to do. Yeah. And the other problem is you see so much need and we are not adequately paid and we're not given the resources to help these families. You know what they need, but we can't give it to them. 

[00:05:51] Dr. Hunter: Yeah, we do have a new program that is helping with that and I can tell you about that, but I do want to jump back to that emergency department experience. It was really interesting that in [00:06:00] California. Hospitals cannot employ physicians. And so there's this divide.

[00:06:04] So we were, you know, employed by UCSD, but the hospital employed all the rest of the staff and they controlled the budget. So the nursing staff controlled our budget. So I literally did not have a stool to sit on most of the time when I worked in the emergency department. I didn't have tongue depressors, the otoscopes never worked and that was just exhausting and it was a budget issue. You know, drove me crazy. 

[00:06:27] Dr. Bravo: Regrettable, isn't it? Well, I'll have you back and talk more about that. So you jumped to a physician led physician owned mega group, but I think about a hundred pediatricians from San we're almost 

[00:06:42] Dr. Hunter: like 160 now, 160 

[00:06:43] Dr. Bravo: from San Diego all the way up to La Jolla. 

[00:06:47] Dr. Hunter: I'm from Riverside County in San Diego County.

[00:06:50] Dr. Bravo: Okay. And. When we first talked, when I said that, you just lit up. 

[00:06:57] Dr. Hunter: Yeah. It's something to be really proud of. So, and it [00:07:00] goes back and our CEO, who is a physician could tell you more about the history, but we started out as individual owned private practices who realized we weren't going to make it unless we banded together.

[00:07:10] And that's how this practice started. And we're really just a conglomeration and realized that we want to be consistent across each office and profit share. You know, if your office has a bad year, but another office across town is doing well, you know, Yeah. We share that pool of funds and vice versa, you know, going on and on over the years, it turns out to be fair, equitable, and supportive of all the practices.

[00:07:32] Dr. Bravo: You love going to work 

[00:07:33] Dr. Hunter: as much as a pediatrician possibly could. Yes, I've got it as good as it gets. It's a hard environment to work in, right? 

[00:07:40] Dr. Bravo: Yes. But it is 300% better than you were in the health system. 

[00:07:45] Dr. Hunter: Oh, so much better. And I feel like if I need something, someone cares and wants to make it better. Yeah. And having that control and that hope makes all the difference. 

[00:07:56] Dr. Bravo: I listened to your podcast, I'm going to call it the black socks podcast. [00:08:00] I don't know if you remember which one it is. A mom that adopted some children, I feel, I believe, and there was a construction site across the street and the kids were wheezing and she came in and the socks were black above the tennis shoes and white below the tennis shoes.

[00:08:19] Mm hmm. Talked about how Advocate for your patients and our profession. 

[00:08:25] How does a pediatrician, what's a playbook? 

[00:08:28] Dr. Hunter: Yeah, so I realized a long time ago that I can make an individual difference on a family, but there's a lot more impact when you go to that community level and advocate for a change. And it can be something really silly and tiny, like, you know, I noticed that kids can't cross the street to get to this park because there's not a crosswalk. And so they don't go to the park and you advocate to get a crosswalk. But yeah, in this particular case, This was tough. I don't know if we're going to ever solve this problem, but yeah, the school was adjacent to a huge construction project that was [00:09:00] breaking up asphalt and it was raining asphalt on this elementary school and these kids were wheezing.

[00:09:06] And that mom was kind of powerless. So as a single human to do anything about it, but so advocacy is that level at which, you know, it takes one person to get everybody else riled up and get. Everyone on board, have everyone call the construction company and complain or call their local legislator. The thing about legislators that's really powerful for us to participate in, and I know it's a little intimidating, they don't know anything about what we know about.

[00:09:35] It is kind of our imperative as professionals, as pediatricians to, to tell them stuff because they don't know. So on any topic that you care about you can call your local Congressman, Senator, whatever, and they, and leave a message and it will make it to them. 

[00:09:52] But it's interesting because when you talk to the staff, they are 22 year olds, you know, These are not [00:10:00] intimidating people and They pass on the messages to their legislator.

[00:10:04] So, so the first kind of anxiety mm-hmm. is call a politician. Right? 

[00:10:13] Right. So you can email them, which is even less intimidating. Right. 

[00:10:17] Dr. Bravo: But you just take that step, nobody will bite you. Nobody's gonna bite you. Right. No 

[00:10:22] Dr. Hunter: one is 

[00:10:22] Dr. Bravo: going to bite you. And then the second step is to show up at their office and talk to kids.

[00:10:28] 'cause I mean, at my age of 20 old, a kid, yeah. wanna change the world. And maybe they look up at you because they have a connection with their own pediatrician. Absolutely. 

[00:10:42] Dr. Hunter: Or they're thinking about having their first baby they're engaged. 

[00:10:47] Dr. Bravo: So they will have to say even though I'm not so young and I've had gray hairs, they will engage with me and they will ask a lot of questions.

[00:10:57] Dr. Hunter: Yeah. And their questions are so [00:11:00] simple. It's the things that we know off the top of our head. It's part of our daily life. But to share anecdotes. Is really powerful, you know, and you, if you go in there with a story like I shared about the kids who are getting asphalt rained on them every day, that, that gets their attention and they can, that's something they can speak about.

[00:11:18] Okay. 

[00:11:19] Dr. Bravo: And then did you get the mothers involved to call the local legislator after you 

[00:11:27] Dr. Hunter: visited? In this instance, I really just, I just encouraged the mother to take action and checked back in with her. And I was just sort of her support. And sometimes that's all people need. I mean, she had the passion. She just needed the little bit of encouragement. 

[00:11:42] Dr. Bravo: Awesome. We need to create a national playbook what a if we don't stand up, but we don't, I call it getting off our whiny chairs, we're like two year olds on the on the high chair banging on the, on the table and no one's paying attention. We got to [00:12:00] get off the whiny chair. Walk over and, you know, make our own food if we want to eat. 

[00:12:05] Dr. Hunter: Well, the thing about us whining is that we're, we're whining about something that other people don't know about. So if we just tell them about it, so for example, we have two refrigerators in my office for different for vaccines, for different insurance companies.

[00:12:20] Like what? Really, if I run out of private Prevnar, I can't take the Prevnar out of the VFC refrigerator? No, you can't. No. Like, 

[00:12:30] Dr. Bravo: let's fix that. We can't. Will you just put it back in? No. We can't do 

[00:12:36] Dr. Hunter: it. But maybe nobody knows. 

[00:12:39] Dr. Rogu: You're stealing from the state. That's what they look at it as the lot numbers don't match into their inventory, into their system, to their computer.

[00:12:47] And you know, if somebody whistle blows on you, they're going to come and slap you on the wrist and fine. So nobody's going to want to mess with that. And they're not 

[00:12:56] Dr. Bravo: very nice 

[00:12:57] Dr. Rogu: and not very nice, you know, back in the day, it [00:13:00] used to be, you could do that. When it was a paper trail and you know, I guess it was okay, but today with their computers, it just doesn't work.

[00:13:09] Even though your EHR can manage back and forth, the New York state registries cannot do that. 

[00:13:17] Dr. Bravo: So Wendy you're an avid farmer. 

[00:13:19] Dr. Hunter: Yes, I am. Yeah. 

[00:13:20] Dr. Bravo: And I haven't gotten any avocados yet, but I hear I'm going to get some roasted coffee soon. 

[00:13:26] Dr. Hunter: Yeah. Yeah. If you want to be my test audience, I'm also a master gardener, technically.

[00:13:31] Really? Yeah, I just finished my master gardening training. It's across the country. Every community has one. It's six months of training, and then you're required to volunteer as a gardener in your community. It's very organized, very social, very fun. 

[00:13:45] Dr. Bravo: It sounds like manual labor. And, and where do George doesn't like millennial 

[00:13:49] Dr. Hunter: labor?

[00:13:49] Well, I, I manage the hotline. You can call with questions about your garden. Oh, okay. That I 

[00:13:54] Dr. Rogu: can do. Mm-hmm. , I don't like shovels and digging holes. 

[00:13:58] Dr. Hunter: Oh God, I hate to admit this, but I can [00:14:00] tell you guys, I don't want to do any gardening with kids. Is that horrible? 

[00:14:04] Dr. Bravo: No, no, 

[00:14:05] Dr. Hunter: no. There are all these guys that do school gardens.

[00:14:08] I'm like, no, thank you. 

[00:14:09] Dr. Bravo: Now you got me off track, but I have to tell you. There's a great guy that I really, he fascinates me. I much admire, he's a UPenn and he's a father of positive psychology. Okay. Marty Seligman and he's a cranky old man. Okay. And the most endearing story that he tells and he tells it to all his graduate students is the day he realized he had to change. As a human being, and he was out gardening with his five year old daughter and you know how five year olds are, you know, they like to splash water throw rocks and the thought of actually pruning the roses with dad is foreign to them. Right, and snapped and he told us, what are you doing? We're out [00:15:00] here gardening. We're not out here prancing and chasing butterflies. And he said, okay. And then like 15 minutes back, he said, daddy, are you calm now? And I said, can we have a minute to talk? A five year old 

[00:15:17] Dr. Hunter: says this? Yes, 

[00:15:19] Dr. Bravo: his daughter. And he said, sure. What do you want to talk about? He said, remember for my birthday, I had to give up whining. And I've been trying really hard not to whine. Can you give up being grumpy?

[00:15:34] Dr. Hunter: Oh, that's maybe why I like being a pediatrician, a little bit different perspective, huh? And so 

[00:15:41] Dr. Bravo: Marty said, I got, I got, yes, of course I can do that for you, honey. And he's written that his book that he wrote after that is flourish because he's an avid gardener. And so he talks about what we need to do for our kids is strength based.

[00:15:58] What are they great at [00:16:00] and support that? As opposed to keep labeling what you're deficient in this, you're deficient in that. And, you know, because at the end of the day, you want them to flourish, not just to be normal. But that's one of the, when you brought a gardening, Marty, Marty just came up to the bottom of my head and that's a phenomenal story.

[00:16:19] So yeah, I was very great. So I'll get some coffee. I'll have you didn't ask you, are you like. Like a, like a fancy gardener, like, you know, like in my neighborhood with an HRA, if you flush too many times the toilet, you'll get a notice. Okay, so everything is regulated. So I call it a fake garden, right?

[00:16:39] Everything is and I have a friend who's a pH and bought a botany and she has a natural garden and every it's, it's the. The plants that are supposed to grow in this area of the country. Mm 

[00:16:55] Dr. Hunter: hmm. So native gardening. 

[00:16:57] Dr. Bravo: Yeah. And then when they have it all around the [00:17:00] pool, what's happened is when they first moved into the house, we would get bitten by all these bugs. But now that she's got this native garden, it's so inviting to the birds. 

[00:17:13] Dr. Hunter: Yeah. Yeah. I try to attract bees as a matter of fact. And 

[00:17:17] Dr. Bravo: they come in and there's hardly any bugs. 

[00:17:20] Dr. Hunter: Yeah. That's sort of interesting because sometimes you need bugs. It's funny because I've learned that predators are, they sound like negative, but they're good bugs that eat the bad bugs. Yes. So I am reframing 

[00:17:33] Dr. Bravo: things. So which kind of garden are you, are you trying to make it like in my subdivision all pretty or are you trying to make it natural? I'm 

[00:17:40] Dr. Hunter: a productive, purposeful gardener. Everything in my garden has a 

[00:17:44] Dr. Bravo: use. So like tomatoes and basil and... Mm hmm. Exactly. And can you grow it year round in California?

[00:17:53] Dr. Hunter: Yeah, I'm embarrassed to say yes. Oh, nice. I can grow anything, anytime. Mm hmm. Oh, sounds 

[00:17:59] Dr. Bravo: like a lot of [00:18:00] work. Makes you feel successful. 

[00:18:02] Dr. Rogu: I just want to go to Costco and buy my tomatoes and I don't want to know where they come from. 

[00:18:05] Dr. Hunter: Yeah. I gave some figs to one of my patients the other day and they came back and sent, they gave me a picture of this. Toast that they made with ricotta and my figs on top. So, yeah, it's it's part of my practice now. 

[00:18:18] Dr. Bravo: I'm asking too many questions, but yes, you are back on track. No, no, this is so fascinating. So when you say gardening, is it just when you are at the farm that you do the gardening or do you have a community garden in La Jolla that you work at?

[00:18:34] We 

[00:18:34] Dr. Hunter: could do a whole episode on my gardening habits. Yeah, let's go on for a bit. I have a little bit of stuff at the apartment, but mostly it's at the farm. Yes. Okay. All right. All right. It's my, it's my release. It's my get away from work. Hobby. We all need hobbies that are not work. 

[00:18:54] Dr. Bravo: Well, I don't know if you notice, but George has got a bunch of guitars behind it.

[00:18:58] I 

[00:18:58] Dr. Hunter: do see that. [00:19:00] Yep. That's a hobby. Yeah, exactly. We need to use a different part of our brain. 

[00:19:05] Dr. Rogu: I play in two bands, one on Tuesday tonight and one on Thursday nights, classic rock and heavy metal. 

[00:19:11] Dr. Hunter: Oh, that's amazing. Yeah. I mean, I play drums, but I didn't, I don't think anybody wants a middle aged woman drummer.

[00:19:16] Oh yeah. 

[00:19:18] Dr. Bravo: Maybe someone does. Oh, absolutely. You gotta go to a, you have to go to a school. Yep. Okay. It's usually a program. Some more questions. Some more questions. We're talking about my hobby now. I've been there when you play. It's beautiful. It's good. You go to a school. 

[00:19:33] Dr. Rogu: If you go to a school, stop talking.

[00:19:36] How wonderful. If you go to a school, people pay and because they pay, they show up when you do your band. I had a rough day at the office herb. I'm not coming tonight. Then you're done. It's closed. So better to pay. It's usually not a lot of money. Yeah. 

[00:19:52] Dr. Hunter: That makes sense. 

[00:19:52] Dr. Bravo: Yeah. And where do you play the drums? Cause you said you live in an apartment. 

[00:19:58] Dr. Hunter: Yeah, no, I torture my [00:20:00] family. No one wants the drummer in the house. Yeah. I've got an electric kit in my apartment and an acoustic kit at my farm. Oh, 

[00:20:06] Dr. Bravo: well. Yeah, we, we need a, we need a pediatrician band. Mm-hmm. . 

[00:20:10] Dr. Hunter: Mm-hmm. . It's hard to do by Zoom. It turns out. Let's talk about my podcast.

[00:20:14] Dr. Bravo: Oh yes. Let's do 

[00:20:15] Dr. Rogu: that. You gotta control this 

[00:20:16] Dr. Bravo: guy. Wow. She phenomenal. Isn't she a phenomenal guest? Yeah. Let's talk about what we're supposed 

[00:20:22] Dr. Rogu: to talk about. Forget about tomatoes. 

[00:20:25] Dr. Bravo: So, okay. So you do all these things and then you decide you want to do a podcast. 

[00:20:29] Dr. Hunter: , it's a nice creative outlet.

[00:20:31] I actually had written a book is what really happened. And I was standing at a private party at a bar and I was saying this to the woman who I knew had five children. And I said to her, and I'd had a drink or two and I said, Hey, I wrote a book about kids. And I described it to her. I said, is that something you think a parent would like?

[00:20:47] And she looked at me straight in the face and said, no one reads books anymore. You should have a podcast. Then she said, I have a podcast. And she immediately texted her producer and now I have a podcast. So it was definitely a Forrest Gump [00:21:00] moment. But it's been really great because it doesn't take as much preparation as writing a book.

[00:21:05] And I can. I can pivot really quick and, and cover topics that are really timely and I can answer parents questions. And I, it's been wonderful too, because, you know, families will have a complaining clinic or talking about something. And I'll say, you know, go listen to episode 12. It's going to explain way more than I can do right now.

[00:21:22] And then yesterday I had the pinnacle moment, this mom last appointment in the day, which was great. She walks in and. She starts telling me about her child's constipation and then she stops and she says, actually, I listened to your podcast and this week's episode about having poop accidents really spoke to me because I didn't realize that it was not normal for my five year old to have poop accidents.

[00:21:43] And that's why we're really here. And she said, I listened to the podcast. I know what I need to do, but I just wanted to go over the plan with you. That's when I knew I had made it right. 

[00:21:51] Dr. Rogu: No, you did good because people want to hear. I mean, you can find this information. Google anything and you'll find it by some corporation, by [00:22:00] some academy or something.

[00:22:01] But when their physician is speaking to them, it's different, we discovered this in our office. We wanted to, provide some anticipatory guidance. What shots are you going to get? What's going to happen at the four month visit? So we do that and we send out the text message to them before their visit.

[00:22:18] The doctors would like you to watch this video. And it just blew my mind how people are actually listening to that. And then you can just talk and interact with the patient. 

[00:22:27] And I ask them, and they usually say, Yeah, doc, you've already explained everything in the video. 

[00:22:32] Dr. Hunter: Yeah, that's really nice. And 

[00:22:34] Dr. Rogu: what we did is we put a twist on it. We have a younger physician and myself, I guess, senior physician. We get to talk about different diseases. He'll ask me, did you ever see measles?

[00:22:45] And I say, sure I did. That's why you should get the shot. It's not a good thing. Younger physician doesn't 

[00:22:49] Dr. Bravo: You talk on the podcast. Mostly about information that parents need. It's very common and that takes a lot of time to explain in the [00:23:00] exam room, right? 

[00:23:01] Dr. Hunter: Yeah, that's, yeah, at least once a month I do something like that, a deep dive.

[00:23:05] Dr. Bravo: Okay. And what else do you talk about the podcast? 

[00:23:08] Dr. Hunter: I answer the questions that parents, I know are too embarrassed to ask through those doorknob questions. So you're done with the visit and you put your hand on the doorknob and they say, actually I have one more thing I want to ask you. And it's something embarrassing, or it's the things that parents who are friends of mine send me because they don't want to ask their doctor, but they really want to know.

[00:23:29] So I re the show is called the pediatrician next door. And that really is who I am. I am that friend. You trust who, who knows a little bit more than the average person. So those are the questions I ask. 

[00:23:40] Dr. Bravo: Wow. So it's called the pediatrician next door. And where can people find you? I'm on 

[00:23:45] Dr. Hunter: every podcast platform.

[00:23:47] Yeah. 

[00:23:47] Dr. Bravo: Do you have a website or just a 

[00:23:49] Dr. Hunter: podcast? I do. Dr wendy hunter.com or, okay. The pediatrician next door podcast.com. 

[00:23:54] Dr. Bravo: Mm-hmm. . Okay. And so that'll, that'll get you to your website. Yeah. And you'll find it. [00:24:00] And I'm 

[00:24:00] Dr. Hunter: on Instagram as the pediatrician next door and I do some fantastic reels. Yes, 

[00:24:05] Dr. Bravo: you do.

[00:24:05] Absolutely. You do. Cause I follow you and you, you are very entertaining, but you know what I love about you is, well, there's a lot of things I love about you. I love you, Herb. That you're a pediatrician. I'm all jealous. You live in La Jolla and have a 60 acre farm. Oops. That's a little. Yeah, you should be.

[00:24:22] But. I struggle with this because when you're on, when you're on the reels on Instagram, you're still a real professional. So you're entertaining, you're down to earth, you're not using medical terms, but you're a professional. You are a professional. I don't like it with people cross that line from. Professional to media personality to maybe influencer. 

[00:24:52] Dr. Hunter: Yeah, you're not going to see me dance. I'm not going to do it. We're cursing as a doctor. 

[00:24:59] Dr. Rogu: It's not proper. It's [00:25:00] not proper. Cursing, dancing, acting 

[00:25:02] Dr. Bravo: silly. No, it's okay to play in a band though, George. Yeah, you know 

[00:25:07] Dr. Rogu: what? The truth of the matter is, I remember when I started playing, we started doing fundraisers for medical things for the pediatric department.

[00:25:15] And I was embarrassed to tell people, you know, I play in a rock and roll band. I was embarrassed because I thought that that was not professional to advertise. I could do what I want my business, but I didn't think it was professional to advertise it on the office website. And then the patient heard about it and asked me, and then we started promoting it and it's actually a cool thing now.

[00:25:36] Dr. Hunter: Yeah, it is. And it's a good example for your young patients too, to say, yeah, I'm a well rounded person. And, oh, you practice. I practice every day 

[00:25:43] Dr. Bravo: too. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah., I love that you're, you're, they're very well produced in. They're so professional and I really like that. Like I, my friends make fun of me because I will not drink in the community where I practice.

[00:25:57] I won't go to the bar, have a drink. [00:26:00] And people are like, you're being silly. Everybody knows that you're an adult. There's nothing wrong to have a beer with your dinner. And it's like, you don't understand. My, my moms, right? My, the moms of my patients don't see me as a normal human being. 

[00:26:18] Dr. Hunter: Yeah.

[00:26:19] In a quarter mile radius. I am famous around my office. You know what I did? Oh, this is the worst. So sometimes I take a scooter, one of those paid scooters to work. Cause I live that close to my office and I didn't wear a helmet one day. I had all these kids yelling. They could see me cause I'm next to the elementary school.

[00:26:34] Hey, Dr. Hunter, where's your helmet? So yes, we do have to be careful because we are an example. 

[00:26:43] Dr. Bravo: At least they didn't take videos of it and put it on Instagram and tag you on 

[00:26:46] Dr. Hunter: them. Yeah. I have a fluorescent gold helmet to now, by the way, can't miss it. 

[00:26:53] Dr. Bravo: All right. Well, I think I've asked you enough questions, but what have I not asked you that you think is important for [00:27:00] pediatricians and your audience to know?

[00:27:02] Dr. Hunter: Oh, this career is long. That's what I want. Like residents to know and students and high school students who think they want to be a doctor. There is, this is not a race. You know, I think all of us did this, we kind of raced through undergrad medical school residency. And like, there was always the next step.

[00:27:22] And then you get to the end and you're in practice and you're like, Oh, this is. Okay. Now, now you've got this like a hurried mentality, just slow down, you know, not a race. Take your time. I took a year off after high school and I took five years just working before I went to medical school. And I'm glad I did that because this career is a marathon.

[00:27:45] Dr. Bravo: Yeah. 

[00:27:45] Dr. Rogu: Yes. We're still running. We're still running. Yeah, 

[00:27:48] Dr. Hunter: I'm still running. You're still running? Mm-hmm. . 

[00:27:50] Dr. Bravo: Yeah. You gotta, you gotta take time to smell the roses and mm-hmm. , literally your coffee, right? . Yeah. Yeah. Well, Wendy, thank you so much for being on the [00:28:00] podcast. Thanks guys. You, you're a phenomenal human potato as I call people.

[00:28:04] Dr. Hunter: Yeah. Thanks. Well, let me know what I can help you with, you know, anytime. All 

[00:28:08] Dr. Bravo: right. Well send avocados coffee. 

[00:28:11] Dr. Hunter: Listen to the pediatrician next door podcast, share it with your patients. 

[00:28:16] Dr. Bravo: We will definitely do that. Thanks. All right. We'll have a wonderful time. I'm in California. 

[00:28:21] Dr. Hunter: Okay. Thanks. Bye. Stay cool. 

[00:28:24] Dr. Bravo: Bye.