by Jori May, MD

For every issue of Letters to Tinsley, we select a third year resident to highlight based on nominations from within the program. In this issue, we are highlighting a resident who was described by her peers as a "wonderful leader" and someone who "demonstrates all the core values of this program." One of her interns went on to say that "she always advocates for our patients and always supported me in my learning."

That very special resident is Dr. Kaely Bade.

Kaely Bade, MDKaely was born in Fort Wayne, Indiana, and stayed in her home state for college and medical school. When asked where she got the idea to become a doctor, she credits watching medical shows on TV with her sister as a kid.

She found her way to Birmingham for residency after "falling in love with UAB." She explains that after her interview day and a particularly memorable interview with Dr. Lisa Willett, she knew UAB was the perfect fit. Kaely recounts that "Match Day was one of the happiest days of my life."

While at UAB, Kaely discovered her love for Gastroenterology. She participated in multiple research projects and attended the American College of Gastroenterology's annual meeting. Luckily for Tulane University, she will be starting her GI fellowship in New Orleans this fall.

In addition to being an excellent clinician, teacher, and future gastroenterologist, Kaely is credited as being one of the funniest people in the hospital. Her responses to our interview questions below speak for themselves:

What is your favorite moment during residency?
Wow. One moment. You know it's hard to pick out one moment but there are several I think about.

• Anytime one of my clinic patients hugs me.
• The time I ran my first code.
• The time I went to the helipad after it snowed and threw snow balls at [Chris] Capps.
• The time at the Coop [Cooper Green Hospital] I stuck a candle in some cheese toast for [Josh] Stripling's birthday.
• The one day the MRI machine was working at the Coop and Will Crosland was running around like crazy transporting all of our patients down to radiology before it broke again.
• The time Lindsey Hinton and I pulled out a patient's tooth because Respiratory was nervous to put BiPAP on him with a loose tooth.
• Anytime on overnight call I get a no hitter.

What does your ideal practice 10 years from now look like?
I guess my ideal practice would be spending a few days in clinic figuring out GI diagnosis puzzles and the rest of the time in endoscopy doing EGDs and Colons and maybe a few rectal/esophageal dilations. Taking out all sorts of precancerous lesions like it is no big deal!

Now my ideal endoscopy room would be lined door to door with those squishy memory foam mats that make your legs and back feel good. And there will be lots of awesome music on nearly all the time. And there will be an abundance of coffee in the break room that will never be too weak or twelve hours old and no one will tell me I'm not allowed. And snacks in case I get hungry. And I hope to be giving some GI lectures to med students to show them how awesome it is and make them want to do it too.

Anything else interesting or exciting about you that I forgot to ask about?
I really like Star Wars, and I think the success of any ward month is dependent on the amount of gummy bear intake.

A few quick facts about Kaely (loosely adapted from James Lipton of Inside the Actors Studio):

• What is your favorite medical word? Hemorrhage
• What is your least favorite medical word? Mucus
• What is your favorite part of residency? My friends and our intern summer trip to the beach
• What is your least favorite part of residency? CCU (am I allowed to say that?)
• What hospital sound or noise do you love? The sound of a brewing coffee pot
• What hospital sound or noise do you hate? The nighttime chorus of different beeping noises in the MICU that starts to make you feel a little dissociated and maybe a little crazy
• What is your favorite thing about Birmingham? Traffic, hahaha NOT. It's probably a tie between the nearly always amazing weather and the super oriental grocery store
• What profession other than physician would you like to attempt? I would like to own a moderately large sized catamaran and host booze cruises and snorkeling expeditions in Mexico. Or become a professional sommelier (wine taster extraordinaire!).
• What profession would you not like to do? Anything where I sit at a desk
• As you leave residency and head off to fellowship, what would you like to hear Doctors Heudebert and Willet say to you as you go? Well, huh. I guess I would like Dr. Heudebert to say "you did good kid, ya did good" and maybe give me a little shoulder pat. And I guess I would just like a hug from Dr. Willett and for her to tell me that she'll miss me.