A Greater Plan
By Crystal Bailey Gary

There is something to be said for kids “from the sticks.”  Growing up in the shadows of the Appalachian Mountains afforded me opportunities that others might consider obstacles.  Life blesses some folks with silver spoons while others it simply blesses.  I know that I belong in the latter category.

The second of five children, I grew up where I was born-- in the tiny town of Young Harris, Georgia.  As far as my memory will stretch, I recall that my parents always reinforced with my siblings and me a deep respect for hard work, persistence, and dedication. We balanced our summers working in the garden or water-sealing our driveway with exploring the surrounding woods and creeks.  Any given day might find us decked out in makeshift “jungle attire” which closely resembled my father’s safari hat and faded Muppet-Baby sheets, and armed with nothing more than a pair of trusty contraband scissors to ward off the perils of the forest. If the mountains of North Georgia could talk, they would tell tales of our imaginative exploits that paralleled the equally captivating adventures beamed to us from our analog satellite television receiver.

In spite of our inherent rural ways, technology like the satellite dish, played a large role in our existence.  My father owned a television production business that comprised a camera crew and equipment.  I was almost thirteen when I began filling in for sick crew members, working as a sound technician and grip on location for such productions as Entertainment Tonight, 60 Minutes, and Dateline. These experiences exposed me to a world that even the most cosmopolitan person rarely encounters.  For instance, how many other people can plead guilty to accidentally whacking Patrick Swayze in the head with a boom microphone?  It did not take many production shoots with Hard Copy for me to learn that life encompasses a wide variety of people, all of whom have singularly interesting personal stories. I listened to the diversified complaints, questions, and afflictions that dominated the lives of these storytellers.  These experiences opened my eyes to the burden that one ailment or worry can create.  That knowledge gave direction to my life.   From an early age I learned to appreciate the uniqueness of each individual. After learning to listen, I became interested in doing more than just lending an ear to these personal life stories-- I wanted to intervene.  A profound respect and love for human life drives my desire to help improve the lives of those around me.  What better role than “family doc” enables a person to fulfill this aspiration?  Not to mention, something tells me that I might consider staying away from any career choices that involve boom microphones.  Thus, after twenty-odd years of stumbling through an amalgamation of turnip greens and UHF cables, I can honestly say that I was born to be a family doctor.

My husband’s beginnings are equally as modest.  There are no doctors or persons in healthcare in his family.  He grew up along the banks of Lake Eufaula in Georgetown, Georgia.  He spent most of his childhood days escaping the heat of south Georgia to wet his hook in the lake with hopes of catching a fish that he could take home.  The second youngest of five boys, his family was large, boisterous, and busy.  His father was a school superintendent who also helped to support his family by helping people with their taxes each spring.  Despite no medical background or family members in medicine, Tommy developed an avid interest in medicine during his college years.  Tommy’s heart was large and he knew that he felt best about himself when he was able to help another being.  He wanted to help others.  The work he did as a chemist during his college years simply did not complete him.  Years of watching his own family doctor’s interactions with the townspeople led Tommy to determine that his life would be best spent in the service of others. Tommy knew that in order to best serve those around him, he would need higher training that required years upon years of more schooling and hard work.  So after his years of college, he applied to Mercer School of Medicine to fulfill a plan that was bigger than anything he had ever imagined for himself.

In our world, there is no greater joy than knowing that we made someone feel just a little better.  Whether it is a matter of suturing up a nail-gun injury or reassuring someone about his or her cholesterol, we genuinely take pleasure in making a person feel safer, more comfortable, or a bit more at ease.  With a love of medicine and healthcare, Family Medicine channels that personal satisfaction into a meaningful, necessary endeavor.  Both Tommy and I truly believe that it is our calling in life to watch over the lives of those around me. This does not mean that we can thoroughly avert heart disease, diabetes, obesity, and other illnesses, but we will always try.

While some of our colleagues find great satisfaction in bypassing arteries of the heart or servicing the trauma bay in a large city, both Tommy and I find an even greater satisfaction in helping someone understand the importance of preventing atherosclerosis, smoking cessation, and obtaining a yearly mammogram.  For this reason, we are passionate about patient education.  A patient can be prescribed a medicine or advised on lifestyle modification, but if the patient knows the “how” and “why,” he is more apt to adhere to the regimen.

Family Medicine also encompasses two aspects of healthcare that we believe significant and relevant. We possess a fervent interest in rural medicine and primary care.  As a “country doc” scholarship recipient, my patients live in small towns.  They need a competent, caring primary care physician.  My work with the Georgia Rural Health Association and the Georgia Academy of Family Physicians bolsters this belief.  These two organizations have provided me with an organized atmosphere that allows me to continue to serve those around me.  With a battery of experiences ranging from organizing health fairs to buttonholing U.S. Senate leaders, we have worked, and will continue to work, to advance healthcare opportunities in rural areas and to decrease disparities in rural healthcare services.  

Life presents many uncertainties, but there are some things we can guarantee. We promise continuous vigilance to ensure quality in the work we perform and an unflagging devotion to medicine and our patients.  Even more important, we will always strive to improve the lives of our patients through hard work, empathy, and dedication.  No matter what changes and obstacles life inevitably serves, this will remain our goal and the creed by which we live. We are here to help.  We just want to help.  This is God's plan and our calling in life.