About a month ago I had the pleasure of interviewing Ms. Mindy Merritt about her
job as a general surgeon and Breast cancer surgeon. In this article, we get to explore
Ms. Merritt's job and the story behind why she chose it.
The beginning of Ms. Mindy's story starts with a gymnastics room. She did lots of gymnastics as a child and broke lots of fingers and toes. With frequent visits to an orthopedic surgeon, her interest in medical studies sprouted. As soon as she was able to, she shadowed an orthopedic surgeon who also introduced her to a general surgeon, and she shadowed the general surgeon as well. With her mind finally set on being a surgeon, she went to college for biology and pre med at Elizabethtown College from 1999-2003. After that, she went to medical school for four years, she attended Penn State University of Medicine from 2003-2007. The first two years of Penn State, she was in the classroom learning as much as she could, and then during her third and fourth years she did rotations. When she did her general surgeon rotation, she decided that that was what she wanted to do for the rest of her career.
As both a breast cancer surgeon and general surgeon, Ms. Mindy's job is varied and covers many bases. However, some of the things that she does most often include operating on breast cancer patients. For a breast cancer patient, their journey usually starts with a mammogram; this is a screening that is used to find breast cancer in patients who are asymptomatic. The journey can start in other ways as well, such
as a patient noticing a lump on their breasts or reporting yellow and even bloody discharge. Another way is for a doctor, primary caregiver, or GYN to find a lump. Sometimes, breast cancer is prevalent in families, so women and girls in that bloodline are followed and screened often to help find the cancer quickly and get rid of it. Some other surgeries and procedures she does for patients as a general surgeon include
elective thyroid and gallbladder surgery, screening colonoscopies, and other ER surgeries.
No matter what surgery or recovery someone is going into or through, Ms. Mindy's main message is to stay positive and to live a healthy lifestyle. Ms. Mindy is a wonderful woman who helps people in this community daily, and I am very fortunate to have been able to meet her.