Louisville Medicine Volume 65, Issue 6 | Page 32

( continued from page 29)

tions involved organized medicine. Advocacy was my background, so it seemed like a perfect fit. I ran for the position and got it, so I became a KMA / AMA Representative and that led me to GLMS.”

In her second year, Dr. Tailor became president of the KMA / AMA Student Association at UofL, in which she directly helped students get involved in KMA Committees. She even collaborated with GLMS to promote a concert benefitting student-run medical clinics.

Through those activities and many more, Dr. Tailor quickly bonded with other members of her medical class. Everyone studied together, and during rare free time, they went to community service events or festivals around the city.

“ My class went through a lot of ups and downs, and we became very close,” Dr. Tailor reminisced.“ The analogy I always heard was that medical school is like trying to drink water out of a fire hydrant. That’ s very accurate, but we depended on each other and I think it helped a lot.”

Almost every rotation was enjoyable, an exception being pediatrics, which Dr. Tailor had initially set her sights on as a career choice.“ It may have been a mistake to do a pediatric rotation in December. I spent most of that rotation sick. I liked just about everything else, but internal medicine was the one that made me think,‘ Huh, I could do this.’ I liked the Sherlock Holmes aspect of the work, figuring out each person’ s puzzle and making them feel better.”

In 2010, Dr. Tailor moved to Gainesville for her first year of residency, to try something new. It was in Florida where Dr. Tailor had one of her first truly affecting moments as a physician.

“ I was very close to some of the patients I had in Florida,” Dr. Tailor said, looking back.“ In this case, the patient was in her late 30s. She had a 10-year-old, had just gotten out of a bad relationship and tried to commit suicide by OD’ ing on Tylenol. She had acute liver failure from the attempt, and so she was on our rotation because we were trying to rehab her liver.”

The patient had been in the hospital for several weeks before she met Dr. Tailor.“ She was ready to turn her life around. She was a teacher and liked art; I’ m named after a painting. So, I’ d go in and check on her, and we’ d end up chatting about art and other things. Before we could get her well enough to go home, she had a massive GI bleed. Liver disease is so volatile. She ended up dying, and it was one of the saddest moments. I remember seeing the upper levels resuscitating her, her mom crying in my attending’ s arms … It was really hard,” Dr. Tailor took a deep breath before continuing.

“ So many patients will affect you in different ways. I’ ve had more stories since, and I’ m sure there will more to come.”

There were happier moments during her time in Florida as well. Dr. Tailor and her cousin visited Disney World and even ran a marathon as Anna and Elsa from“ Frozen.” With her intern year over, Dr. Tailor was ready to go back to her Old Kentucky Home and finish her residency at UofL.

“ Residency is stressful. You’ re on the go. But, when you see a patient as a resident, you can go to a wiser and more experienced doctor and say,‘ Here’ s what I’ m thinking. Am I crazy or is this okay?’ When you become a doctor, suddenly you decide what happens with the patient. You have days where you know exactly what you’ re doing, and other days where you’ re second-guessing everything. But that’ s something else you have to navigate.”

After a year as chief resident, Dr. Tailor stepped out into the job market in 2014. She promptly became faculty at UofL and began teaching internal medicine, not long after she’ d been sitting in the students’ chairs herself.

( continued on page 32)

30 LOUISVILLE MEDICINE