( continued from page 27) ewan’ s tuberculosis, which is endemic in the population. A disease most people think of as being bygone isn’ t, because it has to run its course, and they got their first exposure a couple hundred years after the Caucasian population.”
Coming in to contact with leprosy was eye opening for Dr. Seneshen, as well as almost every young physician who set foot on the island. So there was some minor enjoyment to be had in seeing confident physicians suddenly faced with what they least expected.
“ On bedside rounds, the concept of pimping is to humiliate( and illuminate) the trainees on their lack of knowledge on any topic,” she recalled.“ So, the doctors would ask these guys from Harvard, from Yale,‘ Tell us about Hansen’ s Bacillus( the bacteria that causes leprosy). And no one from a Western university knows anything about it because they’ re never going to see it! So they have a look of panic, and we’ re all snickering because we were here last week when they asked the guy from Princeton the same thing.”
Fiji was immediately followed by New Zealand, which Dr. Seneshen fondly recalls as‘ probably the most beautiful place in the world.’“ Now, because of the Lord of the Rings films, everyone else knows that too. But I knew it before!” she laughed.
Before that once in a lifetime trip in her fourth year, Dr. Seneshen met her husband-to-be, Dr. Michael Eldemire, who hailed from Montego Bay, Jamaica. In their graduating class of just 59 doctors, Drs. Seneshen and Eldemire were one of five couples to get married and four who have stayed together ever since.
Today, Dr. Eldemire practices family medicine here in Louisville, just across the river from his wife. They have two children, Adam and Katharine, who are 21 and 18 respectively.
But how did they end up in Louisville?
After medical school and an internship in North Vancouver, British Columbia, Dr. Seneshen returned to Saskatchewan for her residency in general surgery, which took place in Regina at the Plains Health Centre. When she arrived, there were no other female attendings or residents in the department.
“ I have to mention the worst discrimination I got as a trainee … At the end of my residency, all the residents were sitting and talking, and they said the head of the department, Dr. Keith, had such a mouth on him. But I had never heard the man swear. He never swore in front of me. That was the only discrimination I encountered. I was taught by a bunch of gentleman,” Dr. Seneshen said.“ In terms of acknowledgement and how to behave with patients, I was taught by a good bunch of human beings.”
Once she finished residency and looked to start a career, bureaucracy got in the way of what should have been a simple decision.“ There was a 2-year span when all of the Canadian Health Administration was enthralled by a couple of health economists who determined that
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