108: Dr. Aparna Mele’

Gastroenterologist

When asked how Covid-19 impacted her work, Aparna Mele’ MD, a gastroenterologist at Digestive Disease, described how hard she and her team worked to keep her patients and her staff safe. The work had to continue despite a pandemic. 

Careful protocols and procedures were followed diligently and consistently.  Covid positive patients were treated in the hospital; non-covid patients could come to the clinic. During procedures, she and her staff do enter the body and had to be especially careful to utilize PPE effectively. She was sad to say that she did see some patients who did not survive covid.

She took care of herself through the stress of the pandemic by being home when she could be home, doing some art work, journaling, and playing the piano. These practices helped restore her. 

Through the course of the pandemic she found that her appreciation for the value of her work deepened. Both she and her husband are physicians who are front line workers and she felt they were both much more intentional with all they did. 

Something that was very helpful was connecting with virtually family members who are far away. 
Dr. Mele emphasized that science is separate from politics.

This is the first time in her lifetime where our society has had to address public health this all over the world. She would like us to remember that vaccinations are the key for the greater good 

As often as she could, Dr Mele volunteered to vaccinate others at clinics and found this very rewarding. To help her stay grounded, Dr. Mele wears shoes with a message she wrote on each shoe. The message on her left shoe says “Do what you love” and the message on the right shoe says “ Love what you do.” Clearly, Dr. Mele lives this.