About Me

Hello!

Here is a little bit about me..I am a licensed Physician Assistant and practice in Neurology. I graduated from Daemen College in Amherst NY with my Physician Assistant degree. In addition I have a Master's Degree in Biology from Duquesne University in Pittsburgh, PA.

I have been specializing in headache medicine for over five years.

In addition, I taught medicine in, and helped run a Physician Assistant Program in the Western New York area for five years. I still lecture there as an adjunct professor.

Both my supervising physician, who is a headache specialist, Dr. Laszlo Mechtler and I lecture nationally on the subject of headaches.

Some of the lectures have been for:Pfizer Pharmaceuticals, Glaxo-Smith-Kline, UCB Pharmaceuticals, Endo Pharmaceuticals, Abbott Labs, and the The American Academy of Physician Assistants.

I currently practice full time in headache medicine (with some general neurology!) and also participate in research about headaches. I have also designed research protocols for headache and migraine.

The Road To Headache Medicine

But how did I get here?

I had a really nice career about 15 years ago as a pharmaceutical rep..company car, stock options the whole bit. I traveled alot and meetings were always in nice resort style places.

So what's wrong with that? Nothing if you feel like you are the best at what you do and really make a difference in other people's lives. Well that was the problem. I didn't feel that way.

The job became almost unbearable. I was always up against myself to prove I could do my job. How is that? Well a sales representative is always compared to last years sales and has to do better. Talk about stress!

And to top it off, I had one of the worst bosses as my manager, that I ever had in my life. This guy was the type of person, people write books about that usually start with "10 Biggest Mistakes You Can Make In Management".

So put those two stressors together and I started having worse headaches, more frequent and I would lose time out of my territory because I was sick. And oh boy! Did I hear about it from the boss! More stress.

Well the job finally came to an end on a Friday the 13th when he laid me off on voicemail. No kidding. I was a top performer but that was not good enough for him. (I wasn't the only one to go that day..over half the sales force got cut)

Making Lemonade From Lemons

But hey.."I am too old" I said. I can't go back to school, risk my career....or can I?

Most of my family was supportive..I think a few thought I had lost a marble or two upstairs.

After all, such a risk! Spending money, taking out loads of loans and going back to school!?! I will admit I was scared..after all I was pushing 40.

Well I found the answer..Physician Assistant. I looked into a school near my house..10 minutes away to be exact and the minute I set foot on campus I knew that it was the right decision. The place was great and the course work interesting and exciting.

Finally! I could do something that would let me make a difference to others without worring about the almighty dollar and sales (or as my former boss used to say "Mary Kay we are not here to help people, that is for doctors, we are here to make money.").

Real winner wasn't he.

So off I went to PA school with a bunch of twenty year olds who could stay up all night and study and not find their brains turning to mush by 11pm. Class work started at 8AM everyday and went until 9PM at night with breaks here and there.

This was the most stressful thing I ever did..but hardly any headaches during this time! Why? Because I loved what I was doing. The stress was good for me and I felt alive.

I can honestly say the happiest day of my life was graduation day. Now I could practice medicine!

I met my supervising doctor at a meeting where he was lecturing about migraines..since I was in the middle of a headache I thought I would ask him some questions..he happened to be pretty good at the answers!

One thing led to another and I ended up working for him and so far it has been a great place to be!

But what about this website? After a few years of practicing headache medicine, I began to wonder how patients without access to a headache clinic were doing. It felt like something was still missing.

Well in reading some things on the internet the answer was..not too well! Most sites were written by doctors and a little too much medical jargon. Forums were filled with patients who were frustrated, feeling that no one cared about them.

Those migraine sites written by headache sufferers were well meaning, but usually got their conclusions about medications and treatments from reading the package or trying to figure out journal studies with no background in science....hmmm.

So What Is The Solution?

Well and I have to admit..the fact that Ken is a physician who became passionate about websites attracted me..I figured he has credibility and kept reading about this system of how to have a website in a few weeks with no experience.

Hey that's me! I thought..no knowledge about the website stuff at all. But at Site Build It they help you do this..they teach you all about finding the right way to narrow your topic for a site..how to market the site..even how to put videos on it!

If you want to see one of their videos on the system, take the video tour and learn more.

There are thousands of SBI sites now and more are being added everyday. Just about any topic you can think of has become a successful SBI site.

I still get a kick out the fact that one of the most profitable sites is on asphalt..go figure. Here are more stories about sucessful SBI sites.

So how is MY site doing? Well it is gaining popularity. Patients have found it, visitors are coming from all over the US and indeed all over the world.

The blog is keeping people up to date on the latest in headaches and oh yeah..I even make some money!

Every time someone clicks on a Google ad I get paid. This site is only nine months old as of summer 2008 and it has paid for itself and is making money.

I expect by next year it will be even better!

Epilogue

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