NSUCO - The Visionary Fall 2010

the VISIONARY • Summer/Fall 2010 10 I chose the eye since the synaptic mor- phology is very similar to the ear. After falling asleep several times while working on the electron microscope and waking up looking like Rocky the Raccoon, much to the entertainment of my faculty adviser, I realized I couldn’t spend the rest of my life working in a dark room. I knew surgery would not be my forte from my work with the inner ear, and since I was comfortable with the eyes, I decided to go into optometry. Yeah, that was the ticket, plus it would get me out of working in a dark room. Having been to the north- west corner of the country, I decided to see how it was like living in the Northeast. I cranked up the VW and headed up to the Pennsylvania College of Optometry (PCO). I had pretty much decided during my first year that I wanted to do a resi- dency in Baltimore at the VA Medical Cen- ter that was associated with Johns Hopkins because of its renowned research and clinical reputation. Four years later, I was starting a residency in Baltimore. A Career as an NSU Educator Beckons I had no intention of being an educator, and because of my hearing, I planned to work with veterans because they were al- ways shouting at me due to their hearing loss, which meant I had no problem hear- ing them. I contacted an SVOSH friend of mine from PCO, Michelle Caputo, O.D., about staying a few nights at her home in Baltimore until I found a place to live while I did my residency. Those few nights turned into many months, which was why she always told me I never moved out. Dr. Caputo, who had also done a residency at the VA Medical Center the year before me, decided that after a year with me say- ing how great it was in Florida, we needed to go live with the palm trees nestled in the tropics and hurricanes. Since she was thinking of going down to the Bascom Palmer Eye Institute in Miami, I converted my sailboat trailer into a makeshift U-Haul and we loaded up the thing and headed to South Florida. The first thing that flew out of this makeshift U-Haul, which I didn’t have time to build a top for, was a roll of toilet paper that whizzed by Dr. Caputo as we crossed the border out of Mary- land. And with that we said farewell to the Northeast. When we first came to Florida, I worked for a staff model HMO in Palm Beach when someone brought to my attention the fact that a new optometry school was close by in North Miami Beach. I started my new job at Southeastern University College of Optometry (the precursor to NSU’s College of Optometry) on Decem- ber 1, 1992. During my first day of work, I was told I would be teaching a course in systemic disease to third-year optometry students starting January 2, 1993. Let the fun begin! Arnie Patrick, O.D., who was one of my new students that first winter, always ribbed me about my handouts being so fresh off the copier in the morning that they were still radiating a nice warmth. I just wanted to make sure they had the lat- est up-to-date information. Because of my learning experience in the area of neuro- eye, where during residency rounds Dr. Neil Miller at Johns Hopkins would wheel patients in with different neuro-eye prob- lems for us to observe and at- tempt a diagnosis, I started teach- ing the neuro-eye course at Southeastern. Then, as we made the big move to Davie to merge with Nova University, I added a hands-on course on physical diag- nosis and injections. One day, walking down the wrong hall at the wrong time (just kid- ding!), I ended up teaching an on- line course in information searching for clinical research, which now has grown into several advance disease courses for our online master’s program. In addi- tion to our primary care clinics, several years ago I was helping one of our Ph.D.s with the beginnings of our electrodiagnostic service, which I now head up, and draws patients from as far away as Central Florida to our north and the Caribbean and South America to our south. So what makes me still get up early in the morning once a week, well before dawn, to drive or catch a flight down to Davie from either my home in Satellite Beach or the cabin in North Carolina? There are three reasons: ONE The students. Each class brings something new to the table, keeping me on my toes to provide the latest informa- tion and share my patient experiences and clinical knowledge with them. TWO The patients. The ones I see in clinic, especially at the Broward clinic, would probably never get any eye care if it weren’t for us being there. THREE My colleagues. There is not a day that I don’t learn something new by lis- tening to them talk about their experi- ences and what they have read. I guess in the end I’m still a student, and as long as I keep on learning each day, I’ll keep sharing this information as a teacher. And when I stop learning, there’s always my surfboard and the waves. Cowabunga!