injuries and taking care of your body, the importance of conditioning, having ideal form,” she said.“ Growing up in a team environment, that was something I really wanted to learn more about and be a voice for other athletes in the future in terms of medicine and the intersection of both.”
That connection between athletics and medicine has never faded. Even today, she swims, lifts weights, practices yoga, bikes, plays tennis and enjoys Lagree fitness( a grueling workout with a platform machine), finding ways to stay active despite the demands of medicine. Her interest in wellness extends well beyond exercise, encompassing nutrition, mindfulness and preventive health.
Sports also shaped the way she thinks under pressure. Competitive gymnastics taught precision. Every movement mattered. Every routine required focus. Mistakes happened quickly, but panic only made them worse. Those lessons prove invaluable in the operating room.“ I think it’ s been very instrumental,” she said.“ When I go into the OR, I think of it as playing a sport. It reminds me of the days of being on a team and working together and having the discipline.”
She credits athletics with teaching discipline, time management and communication, skills that seamlessly transferred into medicine.
Her interest in injury prevention and optimizing athletic performance has also become an important part of her pain management practice, allowing her to combine lifelong passions in meaningful ways.
Although she knew she wanted to become a physician while still in high school, she didn’ t immediately know which specialty would become home. UofL’ s Guaranteed Entrance to Medical School( GEMS) program gave her early exposure to medicine while also allowing room to explore other interests. She studied psychology, completed her premed requirements and still found time to take business courses and even a snowboarding class.
“ It allowed me to do things I was passionate about,” she said.“ It was nice because it let me explore other interests, and that’ s what college is about, making you more well-rounded.”
That willingness to explore carried into medical school. She shadowed physicians across multiple specialties before discovering anesthesiology. It wasn’ t simply the procedures or pharmacology that appealed
to her, it was the culture. The operating room reminded her of the gym.
“ I love being in the OR,” she said.“ I was drawn to how much anesthesia leans toward a team approach and it reminded me of being a gymnast. Everything is such a team effort. Nothing gets done without your scrub tech, your nurse, your surgeon, everyone.”
For someone who had spent years learning that success depended on trusting teammates, anesthesiology felt familiar. Today, that collaborative mindset remains one of the defining characteristics of her practice.“ I always pick up the phone and call a surgeon or a colleague and tell them about my plan and ask for their input,” she said.“ That is how you optimize patient care. You don’ t just work in a silo.”
While anesthesiology offered everything she loved about physiology, pharmacology and procedural medicine, she found herself wanting something more – a chance to build lasting relationships with patients beyond the operating room. She found that in interventional pain medicine.
“ I realized that I liked pediatric anesthesia, but I wanted to do something more procedural and be able to have a closer relationship on a regular basis with my patients,” she said.“ I shadowed one of our pain physicians at UofL and I loved the procedural aspect.”
Pain medicine also created an opportunity to combine her lifelong interests in athletics, injury prevention and holistic wellness. After completing fellowship at Columbia University in New York City, she returned home to Kentucky, where she found the rare opportunity to practice both anesthesiology and pain medicine at the University of Louisville.
Rather than choosing between the operating room and the clinic, she found a career that allows her to move comfortably between both. Sometimes, the same patient she reassures before surgery later returns to her clinic for ongoing pain management. Other times, patients she has treated for chronic pain find themselves under her care again in the operating room.
The operating room is often described as controlled chaos. Emergencies unfold without warning. Decisions are measured in seconds. Yet colleagues who work alongside Dr. Chenna know her for something
( continued on page 32) September 2026 31