While her family may have been into the lighting business, it is taking care of kids that lights up Michelle Puzdrakiewicz’, world. The California native not only branched out from the family business to pursue pediatrics as a career, she left the Golden State for the Volunteer state. After five years as a pediatrician in Dyersburg, today, Puzdrakiewicz sees most of her patients in the hospital setting as a pediatric hospitalist for Jackson-Madison County General Hospital.
Sacramento, California was where Puzdrakiewicz’ family called home and where her grandfather started the family’s eco-friendly lighting company over fifty years ago. While she remained in the same zip code to attend college at California State University where she majored in biology, it was definitely a big adventure. The product of an all-girls Catholic high school, having boys in class was a new experience. And as luck would have it, the first boy she met on the first day of class ended up becoming her husband.
“Thad was my biology lab partner my freshman year. We ended up dating throughout college and getting married after graduation,” said Puzdrakiewicz. “Although he was a military child, he had grown up in Sacramento since he was eight but lived in a different area than I did so our paths had never crossed until college.”
Puzdrakiewicz had known since junior high she would not follow in her parents’ and siblings’ footsteps to work for the family business. “I just knew I wanted to pursue medicine,” she said. “I did not have a profound medical experience as a child, in fact my only exposure to physicians was working as a babysitter for several. Two physicians in particular, one an orthopedist and one a pediatrician, were in my eyes exceptional people. I think my admiration for them sparked my interest in science and being a doctor.”
Although a newlywed, Puzdrakiewicz headed to medical school without her husband. “Thad and I had decided we would focus on careers first. I was accepted to Tulane Medical School and he got a job as a project engineer with a large contracting firm based in St. Louis but worked in California. We tried to see each other once a month. I lived with a woman who was also married but whose husband was in Montana so I had someone to commiserate with. I was also working on my Masters in Public Health during my first two years of medical school so I was very busy studying. Thad was busy building his career so it made the first years go by quickly,” said Puzdrakiewicz. “The second year he was transferred to Destin so we were able to see each other almost every weekend. My third year of medical school he was finally transferred to New Orleans with his job so we bought a tiny 800 square foot home in the suburbs where we could hear the train at one end of the street and the steam boats at the other. It was definitely a more normal married life.”
In her third year of medical school, Puzdrakiewicz was debating between pediatrics and urology as a specialty. “They are very different specialties but I had strong mentors in both. One is a highly focused surgical setting while the other is very broad spectrum,” she said. “I chose pediatrics and love that decision. With kids, the dynamics change all the time and you see diseases at different stages due to their age. They are resilient and have a great ability to heal and get better.”
For her pediatric residency, Puzdrakiewicz only applied to two places, Tulane and University of California Davis. “Thad had been diagnosed with lymphoma when I was in medical school. And while he had done very well and actually worked while in treatment it was very important to us to be home and close to family for my residency,” said Puzdrakiewicz.
While at the University of California Davis completing her pediatric residency, Puzdrakiewicz was not only busy taking care of kids but also starting her own family in a big way by having twins. “I became pregnant my intern year and had twin girls, Madison and Kayla, in July between my first and second year. My great grandmother had three sets of twins so we were not terribly surprised”, she said. In her third year she had their first son, Thaddeus and as she completed her year as chief resident, she was pregnant with her fourth child, Luke. “I learned a lot about sleep deprivation being on call and a being new mom,” Puzdrakiewicz recalls.
The busy mom of four stayed at UC-Davis practicing general pediatrics as an associate professor. By 2007, the Puzdrakiewicz’s had four kids under nine in private school and both were working full time. “It was just too difficult to keep that pace,” said Puzdrakiewicz. “We made the decision to move so we could have a slower paced life and enjoy our family. We looked at Virginia, Kentucky, East and West Tennessee as well as Oregon. My husband’s engineering background kicked in and he made a spreadsheet of our options taking in to consideration demographics, schools and practices. We ended narrowing it down to a position in Oregon and one in West Tennessee.”
It was the opportunity to work in a medically underserved area in West Tennessee with Med-South that won out and the Puzdrakiewicz’s moved to Dyersburg. In 2011, the family relocated to Jackson for the kids to attend private school and Puzdrakiewicz commuted to Dyersburg to practice. In 2012 family came first again and she joined the Jackson Clinic to do outpatient pediatrics closer to home. Five months later, Jackson Madison County Hospital needed a full time pediatric hospitalists and Puzdrakiewicz took the job.
“The hours are worse but when I am off, I am off unless I have administrative things to attend to,” said Puzdrakiewicz, who serves as medical director of the pediatric hospitalist program. “It is a different kind of pressure than in an office and I wouldn’t say it is any easier or harder. It is just different. Our unit has 13 beds but census fluctuates, as does the intensity. Summer is typically slower but in the winter we are busy and I can be on service for several days straight. You have to learn to pace yourself but with having four kids, I am sort of used to sleep deprivation.”
While the majority of her time is on the inpatient side of pediatrics, Puzdrakiewicz still sees patients in Dyersburg twice a month. The bulk of these patients are kids with chronic care needs and special needs patients. “Most of what I do is administrative health with these patients,” said Puzdrakiewicz. “Mainly it is nursing care orders and prescheduled chronic needs care. There is such a need for this in every community.”
Believe it or not, Puzdrakiewicz says life is easier now even with four busy teenagers and her doctor duties. “There is an event every night with the kids and often we are spread out all over the state. The twins are juniors this year, one runs cross-country and track and the other plays soccer and participates in theater. Our sophomore plays football and baseball and our eighth grader plays football and soccer,” she said. “Thad is a very involved dad and with the kids being older they can help out and keep me on track with the schedule. It is a busy life, but we love it.”
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