There are many different surgeries that can be done with da Vinci®robotic system. We use it for hernias, ventral hernias, as well as inguinal hernias, gallbladder surgery, colon surgeries, and for gut surgeries on the stomach and the esophagus. When we use a robot for surgery, it's not the robot that's doing the surgery. I'm in charge of operating the robot.

I dock it over the patient, connect it to the ports that we would normally use laparoscopic surgery, but there's much more movement and much more precision involved with the instruments that are used with the robotic system. There are a lot of advantages of using the robotic system over a standard laparoscopic procedure, those being less postoperative pain and shorter recovery for patients. From a surgical standpoint, using the robot gives us better control over each of the instruments. It's more precise. There's less movement. And also the instruments that we use with the robot have the ability to articulate at a wrist, whereas when we're doing laparoscopic surgery, you only have movement in one plane. So using the robot is more of an extension of the surgeon's hands. Like, we had our hands inside of the patient, but it's on a much smaller scale.

I love that I'm able to provide the newest technology for the patient. That means they're getting the best possible surgery without having to travel to a bigger city.

My role as a neonatologist here at Baptist Health is to provide care for newborns who need intensive care. Our job is to make sure once an infant is born, that we're there to do any resuscitation, admit that baby if necessary and provide the care until discharge. We do keep babies down to about twenty six weeks now. It just depends on how the baby is doing and what the baby might need.

It was important for us to come to Baptist, because they had the NICU available here in the hospital. And with us finding that we needed to have the emergency C-section with how early she was at twenty nine weeks. They were able to provide those services here. We were transferred over here by ambulance within twenty minutes because they had the NICU here.

A level 3 NICU is a third tier in the levels of nursery care, from level 1 being newborn to level 4 being the highest level of care. And that could range from a 22 or 23 weeker up to a full-term infant.

It was so important that we are closer to home because having to leave Emma at the hospital when I got dismissed, it made us as comfortable as we could be. It was a blessing with us to be eight minutes away and be up here having 24-hour access.

We brag to really anyone that we talked to about Emma's journey of how amazing Baptist staff and the NICU staff have been throughout our entire journey.

Benign prostatic hyperplasia, also known as BPH, is a disease that affects men where their prostate gets bigger and it can affect the way they urinate. It can affect sexual function. It affects approximately fifty percent of men age fifty to sixty. The symptoms of BPH are difficulty urinating, weak stream, sometimes hesitancy, so it may take you a minute to get started. Urgency or the feeling that when you gotta go, you better get there. And frequency to urinate.

Enlarged prostate is very treatable. We would want to know what your symptoms are and and do all the appropriate diagnostic procedures.

Your doctor may do a cystoscopy where we look inside your bladder and actually look at your prostate see what it looks like. And based off of all those things, we would recommend a treatment. The treatment options that we offer here at Baptist Health Lexington range for medication all the way surgery. We offer a wide range of surgery from something called transurethral resection of the prostate all the way to robotic surgery.

We offer minimally invasive options such as urolift and aqua ablation. So there's a gambit of treatment options that we offer here.

The fact that I'm able to help patients and treat them and help give them a better quality of life is very rewarding. And, when a patient is happy and they they get relief, that's the best part of our job.

Long COVID is also referred to as post COVID syndrome. It is a constellation of symptoms in patients who were infected with COVID-19 infections in the past. We have lots of patients that come in with post COVID pulmonary symptoms with chronic lung disease. These patients have shortness of breath, have decreased quality of life, need of oxygen.

You know once I got home, I realized I couldn't take a shower by myself. You know I couldn't walk. I had to have assistance going to the restroom. I was basically helpless.

In our hospital here we have outpatient pulmonary rehab center where we service all of the central Kentucky area. We individualize our therapy based on the patient's specific needs.

With the pulmonary rehab team, it's sort of like me going to work. It gives me a reason to get up out of the bed, go up there and they were just very inspirational. They cheered me on. They pushed. They wanna see me do better. And it's like a family. You know, I've met a lot of people in there, made a lot of friends. It's been good for my physical as well as for my mental aspect as well.

When I was in the hospital, my lungs were in bad shape. I had been told that I was a good candidate for a lung transplant. They didn't think that my lungs basically were repairable.

When I heard that news, I think that even made me want to push more and, you know, it even try harder. And with the doctor's help, the pulmonary therapy, that's, you know, that's not even in talks today.

Nowadays, I'm getting back to a more normal lifestyle you know, a lot of people talk about normal as boring, but it's not. I would like to be bored again.