Neighbors
We planned our daughter, Allison, based on the hope that my best friend would be “job sharing” with me, and that I’d be able to work part-time as a pediatrician in the Watertown practice I’d joined. But my friend and my senior partner had a falling out and the “job sharing” was not to be. (My husband said,
“You plan too much”… I hate it when he’s right.)
I was thirty-three years old, the mother of three year old Ryan and eight month old “planned” Allison, and I was commuting sixty miles per day. I’d drop our children off at a babysitter’s (at the peak of separation anxiety for Allison), make 7 AM hospital rounds, return to the office for a full day, then often go back to the hospital (private doctors took care of their hospitalized patients at that time), return to the sitter’s to scoop up our kids, drive back home to Shelton, dinner, baths, bed, and start over again.
Early one morning (2 AM) I had a page from a parent about their child with acute abdominal pain (this was ‘back in the day’ when the pediatrician would meet you in the emergency department).
Simultaneously, my husband (an obstetrician) left the house to deliver twins. As I watched his tail lights recede, my neighbor across the street, Ellen’s, living room lamps popped on and I phoned her. “Can you come stay with my kids?” and then I rushed thirty miles to the hospital.
My young patient had a ruptured appendix. I had a personal crisis.
I had made the wrong career choice. I could not keep up this pace. I could not be a good mother and a good doctor at the same time.
I mailed a rash of applications for high school teaching positions and discovered that an “MD” degree does not qualify you to be an educator in public schools. My brother, a middle school art teacher, warned me that creative teaching was not encouraged and that my ‘passion for autonomy’ would not mesh well with teaching regulations. I didn’t get it. He said, “You will not be your own boss.”
Several days later, with Allison on my lap, I brainstormed with my neighbor, Donna (yes, this is the same
Donna at PediCare’s front desk) and proposed starting a pediatric after-hours walk-in center. I would be able to be at home with our kids during the day and go to work in the evenings.
My husband and I took out a big loan, our house for security, and PediCare was born. I hired my neighbor, Ann, as an X-ray tech, my neighbor, Joyce, as a nurse, and eventually, my neighbor, Donna, at the front desk. Kathy joined us (still there!) and then Marie and Juliane and Olga. We were all working mothers, taking care of our families during the day and other families from 5 PM to Midnight.
We lost income.
We almost lost our house. (My husband said, “You didn’t plan enough” …I hate it when he’s right.)
But, I thought, if I don’t take a salary for another year, I could hire another doctor, extend to full day hours, and expand our practice and our income. So, I added charm and charisma and captured two docs for the price of one: Dr. Nick and Dr. Mel  .

We added daytime hours. Our neighbors began bringing their children and PediCare grew. Greta (at the front desk) brought her four children to us, and now we care for her grandchildren. Lori (in billing) married Dr. Nick’s cousin and we care of their two children. Dr. Michelle and Dr. Christa joined us and I had Weston, my third child. All of the Docs started their own families and we took care of their children.
We were a fertile group. (My husband said, “You planned that right.”)
We now have 8,000 children from thirty surrounding towns in our PediCare neighborhood. And what a wonderful neighborhood it is.
A young, recently widowed father brought his ten year old daughter for her well-visit, and asked, “can you talk to her, you know, about growing up and everything. Without her mom, I’m just not sure how to tell her…”
A single mother calmed her autistic seven year old before a shot, “the wheels on the bus go round and round, round and round…”
New parents came in with their baby who has Down’s syndrome, dressed in a tee shirt labeled, “Keep
Calm, It’s Only an Extra Chromosome.”
Courage, compassion, resilience. For twenty-eight years, I’ve had the privilege of participating in how we care for one another.
Thank you.
It is hard to let your two month old go to daycare, your five year old to kindergarten, your teenager to college. (I was one of those mom’s who followed my child’s first school bus ride with a video camera— and cried while I filmed.) But transitions also allow for hope and growth and gratefulness.
This spring (March 1), I will transition (retire) from the PediCare household and move up the street to manage a children’s head injury practice. Although I hope your child will not need my specialized care, you can still come see me. I’m your neighbor.
XO
Dr. Karen
Medical Director, HeadZone
Ivy Brook Medical Center
2 Ivy Brook Road, Suite 213
Shelton
Phone 203-538-5400