Hello everybody! My name is Laura Alyce Katz. I have decided to celebrate my 50th year of life on this earth by starting a blog. After decades of living and working, and some significant coaxing from outside influences, I decided to give blogging a go to express my thoughts on an endless array of subjects. Here’s hoping that you may find this blog informative, engaging, and entertaining. As the title of my blog suggests, I am prepared to talk about just about anything. I have packed many years of working as an obgyn and aesthetics practitioner under my belt, as well as being a mother to some amazing daughters and living the life of a musician before that so my life and work experiences are widely varied to say the least. I have found myself espousing in public on an infinite array of subjects verbally already so why not write some of them down? Hopefully some of you might find the information useful or at least worth reading about. So, here goes.
Like I said, I am a 50 year woman. That really does not require further explanation I just thought I would say it again to let it sink in. Wow 50! I guess I don’t really feel any differently, except for the fact that I have more hot flashes and joint pains. I am thankfully relatively wrinkle deficient, thanks to years of working without much sun exposure. I do get a bit crabbier and more short-tempered. But, overall I think I am doing pretty well. Hopefully, those around me would agree…lol
Ok onward. Now a little about myself. I have been a practicing solo obgyn in Monroe, Mi since 2002. My practice has evolved to include everything from general obgyn care to aesthetics to minimally invasive surgery to treatment of sexual pain disorders and even addiction management. Why such a variety you ask? I feel like it is my duty to patients and myself to continue evolving and learning as long as I possibly can to continue to strive to be a one stop shopping place for safe, compassionate, comprehensive care for women everywhere. That is one of my top life goals. People always ask as well…What were you thinking being a solo obgyn? Don’t you want any kind of a life? Don’t you ever want to see your family? To that question I have multiple responses. The first is that, as a solo practitioner, I can be assured of the quality of care that I provide almost 100 percent of the time and I can be sure that that care follows my codes of ethics, responsibility and duty. The second is that I have been conscious of family/work balance from the very beginning of my career and have made every attempt to balance my patient and office load with my home life as much as possible. I am not the person that sees 50 + people in the office every day or delivers hundreds of babies every year. That is by intent for two reasons. One, when you get that busy, you find yourself getting into a herd of cattle mentality with regard to your patients and could very likely miss crucial diagnoses that could affect their health. I am a person that gives 110% in everything that I do and I couldn’t live with myself if I inadvertently put someone in harm’s way because I didn’t have the time to spend with them. Two, I would virtually guarantee that I could never make it to a single recital, sporting event or family gathering. That is just not me. My family comes first. I never signed up to be a guest star in my personal life. Having said that, there is an trade off in that I make less money. But, I did not start this profession with money as main goal anyway. That is not what I became a doctor for.
A little more about myself. I am a wife and a mother….to two teenagers! ( Sometimes three if you count my husband….jk) In all seriousness, I have been head-over-heels in love with and married to my best friend for 20 years now. There is not a day that goes by that I do not realize how lucky I am. My husband, also a physician, is the first person I think of to call when anything good or bad happens. At our best, we really do make a great team and I would not have it any other way. I have two teenagers in the house at the moment, both girls. My daughters are both intelligent and amazing and yes I am completely biased. This estrogen-heavy household scenario does make for some interesting tribulations for my husband and the dinner table conversation often drifts to a variety of female “sensitive subjects.” There is also no shortage of drama, depending on the time of the month, but overall we do ok.
Well, those are just some introductory thoughts. Talk to you again soon! Have a fantastic day!
Dr. Katz
