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“Value yourself.” 
“Life doesn’t give you an option when tragedy strikes.”
“I was accused of ‘making up patients’.”
“I didn’t match in orthopaedics……twice.”
“I can do this!”  
“I sat for many hours in a quiet hotel room contemplating the future and whether I wanted to be part of it.” 
“You may not be right for us as you seem like an indecisive woman.” 
“Don’t accept the narrative that women always make less money than men in orthopaedic surgery.”
“If you dream it, it will come true.”
“You talk too much to fit the mold of an engineer.”
“How does one shed a label?”

“We help each other, even on short notice.”

“We met over pie and fell in love” 
“I want to earn my gold medal here.”
“I became involved with the Perry Initiative.”
“I let geography influence my choice of a residency program.” 
“I learned to be stronger and developed my ‘professional backbone’ early in my career.”
“We want them first to survive, then thrive, and finally, to take the reins and lead.”

“When I took on a leadership role, I never realized I would become a target.”  

“The thrill of victory and the agony of defeat.”  
“I lost it and started screaming at him.”

“I told no one.” 

“You have no right to become pregnant as a resident.”

“I trained in a ‘different’ orthopaedic subspecialty. It was not sexy. It was not popular.”
“This style of practice was wonderfully gratifying but also very isolating.” 
“They would have followed me over a cliff.” 
“Community is more than teamwork, it is multiple teams working together.”
“You’re supposed to be an orthopaedic surgeon.” 
“I was allowed in ‘if I kept quiet’.”
“There is not a mistake I have not made or witnessed being made.”
“Go to medical school if you like people or get your PhD if you don’t.”

“I’m going to be her when I grow up.”

“I wanted to be a ‘bone doctor’ since the age of three.”
“He blossomed with the role of ‘stay-at-home-father’.”

“I am wary that the term ‘Imposter Syndrome’ comes from internalized racism or sexism.”

“My fellowship director became a mentor but he also became my ‘sponsor’.” 

“What he didn’t realize was that his words solidified my passion.  He lit a fire!”

 

“Surgery is a team sport.  The ‘Lone Cowboy Orthopaedic Surgeon’ is gone.”
“Throughout my residency and career, patients have always been thankful for their care and the fact that I listened to them.  Maybe that’s why I was never sued.”  

“When I was named an attending at the same institution (I trained at), I gradually realized that I was being excluded from activities I normally would have been invited to when I was a resident.” 

“I was a ‘double negative’, meaning a minority woman.” 
“We worked hard, we had fun and he couldn’t escape us.” 

“Hey look, the sun just came out.”

“Be so good at what you do that they can’t ignore you”
“I look at life as a maze.  Someone at each corner points to the next direction to go.  Each was one of my angels.”

“Find your ‘sweet spot’ professionally.  If you want to have kids, make it a priority.”

“I am a unicorn in orthopaedic surgery.”

“Each of us must adjust or adapt our practices to allow for the best care we can deliver but “still keep the lights on.”

“I did feel rising panic but eventually moved into ‘robot mode’ where I simply did my job.”

“This experience taught me how pernicious silence can be.”

“Laughter is an effective tool to break down barriers with colleagues and patients.  Use it skillfully.”

“The most memorable speaker was a man from a well-known island nation who included a number of semi-clothed and nude women among his teaching slides.”

“During my career, I have aspired to change the face of orthopaedics and to defy stereotypes.”

“Orthopaedics is solid geometry, it is sculptural reforming of the human body.  It allows the surgeon to take the crooked and make it straight.  Then, God allows the bone to heal without a scar.”

“I may not be as bright as these guys, but I am tougher and I will make it.”

“There is no one person you meet who should be discounted.”

“A bad job is a direct path to burnout.”

“I went from being the worst resident who had ever lived during my home rotations to being the best resident who ever lived on my away rotations.”

“My work with Navaho, Zuni, Hopi and Apache tribes has taught me the difference between ‘fixing people’ and ‘healing’ them.”

“It’s a great time to be a woman in orthopaedics,  I love what I do.”

“If a woman asks a question in the workplace, a man may assume she does not know the answer and may penalize her for that.”

“After finishing my fellowship, I was coveted as a female.”

“I did not realize I was gay until halfway through my training program.”

“I was less upset about his tirade than what he was doing to the involved patient.”

 “This led to an immediate change in who was on the Nominating Committees and, thus, improved our society’s leadership diversity.”

“Use your clinical skills and respect your intuitions when a patient presents with what appears to be an atypical diagnosis.”

“I have learned many lessons from doing things wrong.” 

“I was an anglophone thrown into a francophone pond.”

“You have just been served.”

“I felt like I was in a career that I loved but that didn’t love me back!”

“I hope you realize you have a very talented wife.”

“No problem, we got it!”

“This issue is decades old and continues to persist: the sizing up of a female surgeon’s personality by OR staff and how that assessment affects how she is treated and the help she is given.”

“Once you leave the “favored daughter” status in the department and become a voice for change, your identity can take a nosedive.”

“Being part of the team is not hard, becoming team leader is.  Be ready for criticism and less support than you experienced as a team member.”

“I had an eating disorder which began in college when I was a Division I athlete.”

“Humanitarian and volunteer work can lead to immense career satisfaction.”

“The biggest bonus is that I get to operate with my father every two weeks.”