Take Good Care: Season 5 Episode 6 – Colorectal Care

Dr. Mironda Williams:

Welcome to Take Good Care Podcast.

Dr. Deanna Guthrie:

An endeavor that grew out of our love for obstetrics and gynecology.

Dr. Karen Greene:

Our aim and mission is to serve as a source of vital information for women of all races, ages, and walks in life.

Dr. Mironda Williams:

I am Dr. Mironda Williams.

Dr. Deanna Guthrie:

I’m Dr. Deanna Guthrie.

Dr. Karen Greene:

And I’m Dr. Karen Greene.

Dr. Mironda Williams:

Welcome to our show.

Dr. Deanna Guthrie:

Welcome to our show.

Dr. Karen Greene:

Welcome to our show.

Dr. Mironda Williams:

Welcome to this episode of Take Good Care Podcast, I’m Dr. Miranda Williams.

Dr. Deanna Guthrie:

I’m Dr. Deanna Guthrie.

Dr. Karen Greene:

And I’m Dr. Karen Greene.

Dr. Mironda Williams:

We are so excited that we’re back. We took a little hiatus from season five, and as you may notice, those of you who are listening to us and watching us on our YouTube channel or on our website, we have a wonderful guest here today, we are so excited. We mentioned when we took a break that we were really expanding what the podcast is able to offer, and to do that, we wanted to bring in some subject guests as well as just some very interesting people that we think our audience will find very engaging.

Today, we are excited that we have a wonderful colleague in our medical community here in the southern part of Metro Atlanta who’s here to talk to us about her subject matter, and I’m going to introduce her in just a second, as well as just to talk about life being a business owner, being a mom, being a wife, doing all the things that we all as women tend to do. We have Dr. Erin King-Mullins, who’s with us today, and she is a colorectal surgeon, has done phenomenal things in terms of her training and everything that she brings to our medical community. I’m going to give her an opportunity just to talk to you to let you know who she is, where she’s from, give some of her personal information she’d like to share, as well as what her medical specialty is all about.

Dr. Erin King-Mullins:

Hi ladies.

Dr. Deanna Guthrie:

Hi.

Dr. Karen Greene:

Happy new Year.

Dr. Erin King-Mullins:

Happy New Year. Listen, I have to actually start off by giving myself a pat on the back, we are now 18 days in the new year, and I think I’ve only written 2023 one time.

Dr. Karen Greene:

That’s an accomplishment.

Dr. Mironda Williams:

You’re doing good.

Dr. Erin King-Mullins:

I think a part of it was that I really wanted to get out of 2023.

Dr. Deanna Guthrie:

I was just about to say that. I was so happy 2023 was gone. I haven’t written it once.

Dr. Mironda Williams:

Awesome.

Dr. Erin King-Mullins:

Yeah, thank you so much for having me today. I’ve listened and seen you all both on the podcast and just in person in action at the hospital. I will truly tell you that you are three ladies that I really admire lookup to holistically, medically, spiritually as I think we’ve had some great conversations amongst ourselves about various topics and as now entrepreneurs and business owners. Yeah, so as you mentioned, I’m Erin King-Mullins. I’m a colorectal surgeon here in the southern metro Atlanta. I’ve been in practice 10 years this year, which is pretty crazy to me.

Dr. Mironda Williams:

Wow, that something, that’s an accomplishment.

Dr. Erin King-Mullins:

Thank you. I just ventured out on last year to start my own practice.

Dr. Deanna Guthrie:

Congratulations.

Dr. Erin King-Mullins:

Thank you. I just feel like this point with the ups and downs of a new practice, and I actually had my second child last year, basically right in the middle of doing the construction on the new office. Those are just kind of some of the ups and downs that kind of wanted me to move forward. I’m sure we’ll get to some other topics later. I lost my father last year, so there was just a lot that went on and coming off the tails of a pandemic into the plateau of everything that happens after that and the social unrest, I mean, it was just so much over the past couple of years. I just feel like 2024 is just a good place for me to not necessarily start over, but at least unpack a lot of those things in a way that’s functional for both myself and my patients moving forward.

Dr. Mironda Williams:

Absolutely. Absolutely. Dr. Greene, do you have some specific questions you want to get us started off with?

Dr. Karen Greene:

I do. Welcome Erin. First off, I kind of wanted to know the how and the why because most people may or may not know female colorectal surgeons, there aren’t a lot of y’all. There is not. As I was thinking about this the other day, I said, why colorectal surgery? Why did you pick that particular specialty? Then my other question was how, and so that would get into how you got, you said you just went into solo practice, your own practice. You’ve been doing this for 10 years, which I was not aware of until just now, but kind of your background and how you got into this because I can imagine that it may not have been your first choice or maybe you didn’t even think about it or maybe you didn’t even know about it, I don’t know. How did you, Erin, get to be a colorectal surgeon?

Dr. Erin King-Mullins:

Oftentimes I answer that in that it found me, my specialty, everything. I’m going to try to compact this because there’s a lot that went into it. When I started medical school, the first question that you get is, “What do you want to do? What do you want to do?” I didn’t know exactly what I wanted to do, but I told everybody I know one thing I don’t want to do was surgery. I had this whole concept of what a surgeon looked like, how they behaved. My mentor actually, I went to Emory Med School and I was paired with a very early on, Dr. Stacy Higgins, who’s still there, an internal medicine physician there. She said, “Be careful what you say.”

Dr. Karen Greene:

Yes, God’s listening.

Dr. Mironda Williams:

God has a sense of humor.

Dr. Erin King-Mullins:

He laughs at your plans.

Dr. Mironda Williams:

Uh-huh.

Dr. Erin King-Mullins:

I started my rotations, I was assigned surgery first and I was like, yes, I’m going to get it over with so I can really get onto what I really like so I can make my decision. I somehow fell in love with it. Then after that I just really couldn’t. I tried so hard to get it out of my mind because again, still even with some of the interactions that I had with the surgeons that were there, there were some people that were nicer, but there wasn’t anyone that looked like me. There wasn’t anyone that I could really connect with kind of background wise how you get to this point. I just tried my darnedest to not like it and find something else that I liked. I really enjoyed my OB/GYN rotation, honestly, well mostly the GYN part now in retrospect, not so much the OB part.

Yeah, so had some great experiences there. Thought I was going to ultimately be a trauma surgeon, all the Shady Grady nights, just having fun. At that time we had two of the biggest and hottest trauma surgeons there at Grady who took me under their wing and mentored me. I went back home to Orlando level one trauma center down there and within six months was like, “Nope, trauma’s not it.” I then just said, okay, I’m going to be a general surgeon, but got paired up with some great colorectal surgeons down there and first off, I didn’t even know colorectal was a specialty thing when I even started residency. Doing those rotations and over time I realized that it matched me the most, I think with, I like to do a lot of different things. We do talking to patients and counseling them in office, small procedures in office, small procedures at the hospital, big procedures, colorectal cancers and Crohn’s disease, ulcerative colitis.

I tell myself and patients and colleagues, I feel like a colorectal surgeon is kind of like the epitome of all things medicine and science. Again, I’m a nutritionist sometimes, I counsel people on their diet, prevention with the colon cancer awareness and screening. Sometimes I’m their psychologist when I am giving bad news, telling them they need an ostomy and walking them through that, walking them through those difficult conversations with their family. Then I’m their champion, I’m their cheerleader when we do that major surgery and we cure them from their cancer and I get to see them and them grow up. I’ve seen patients get married and have kids and see their kids grow up. It’s literally a little bit of everything that keeps me going.

Dr. Mironda Williams:

That’s awesome.

Dr. Deanna Guthrie:

That is.

Dr. Mironda Williams:

So much of what you said before you go on, Karen, just resonates, I think with all of us. In our first season, we did our origin stories about how we ended up in the various fields and very similar types of scenarios. Some of us went in with a little bit more of a decision about what direction we want to not so much for others. I think what you said, how it found you, that resonates I think with us because sometimes you go in thinking one thing and you come out with something totally different and just your passion for what you do comes through, which is why we really enjoy sharing and sending our patients to you for consultations and things like that.

Dr. Deanna Guthrie:

It’s great that you found what fits you because a lot of people don’t. They just kind of get stuck in a track that kind of was maybe laid out for them or they felt they should do and aren’t very happy. It’s not very many people that can say they found what’s their true passion, what’s their true love.

Dr. Karen Greene:

It’s interesting because I had never heard of colorectal surgery coming through residency either. As you told your story, it’s interesting how I enjoyed my surgery rotation, but I did not like the surgeons. I think it was because they didn’t, in my mind, take care of patients. The way you describe colorectal surgery is kind of how I see gynecology now for our practice, for myself, that we’re taking care of our patients. We’ve seen patients that start off as little and we treat them for this thing, we treat them for that thing, we give them bad news, we give them good news. That whole concept of being holistic about taking care of our patients is one of the reasons why we continue to do what we do, why we started this podcast, and that really resonated with me. I really appreciate you telling that story because what I really wanted to know why, and you answered the how.

Dr. Erin King-Mullins:

Yeah.

Dr. Mironda Williams:

Anything else?

Dr. Karen Greene:

No.

Dr. Mironda Williams:

All right. Dr. Guthrie?

Dr. Deanna Guthrie:

Well one of my questions was what Karen asked you, what do you say to another woman to encourage her in a male dominated field?

Dr. Erin King-Mullins:

Know your truth, know your worth, and know who you’re serving.

Dr. Deanna Guthrie:

Oh wow.

Dr. Mironda Williams:

That’s excellent. That’s excellent. Say that again.

Dr. Erin King-Mullins:

I made it up on the fly.

Dr. Deanna Guthrie:

Let me write that down.

Dr. Erin King-Mullins:

Know your truth, know your worth, and know who you’re caring for and I think that is springboarded a little bit over time. Again, in male dominated, particularly a white male dominated field, you sometimes get bogged down in this idea that you have to compete. While this is true, you do have to compete because obviously we have to put food on the table. At the end of the day, you have to put food on the table, but who are you serving? Who’s coming to see you and why? In a lot of ways, sometimes that competition just gets laid to rest by nature of you don’t all run in the same circles, you don’t all necessarily see the same demographic. Be proud of that.

A lot of people are like, “Oh man, you’re brave. You’re crazy to leave, one of the biggest institutions in the metro Atlanta area and just go by yourself and start your own.” I’m like, “I don’t have to see every butt in Atlanta.” I don’t. I just need to see enough to make sure that I’m fulfilling my needs and paying the bills. Once you recognize some of those things, it frees you up in so many different ways. This is, I think we’re coming up on the years of the underdog now.

Dr. Mironda Williams:

Very true.

Dr. Erin King-Mullins:

Patients want to see their provider, they want to see who they chose, they want to feel cared for and nurtured in that environment and they don’t want to feel like they’re a part of an algorithm and just a number. I think the same thing for physicians. They want to feel like they’re valued and they’re not just a number and that if they have an issue, don’t just send an email to this nebulous place like, “Who can I talk to about actual change?” I think that’s what’s motivated me to continue and on those nights where you want to cry and be like, “What the heck did I do?” You get that feedback from the patients who sometimes you walk in the room and they say, “Hey, I don’t even know you yet, but before talking to you, thank you for having a person answer the phone. Thank you for getting back to me.” Just kind of those little things, and so they appreciate that.

Dr. Mironda Williams:

Absolutely. Absolutely. Do you have something else? I was going to make a quick comment.

Dr. Deanna Guthrie:

No, go ahead.

Dr. Mironda Williams:

We’ve talked about covid and how covid changed everything forever and it brought some things into sharp focus about what’s really important. To your point, how do we serve the community that we serve the best? One of the things, and I know you and I have had this conversation, we’ve talked about we, the three of us, when we made the decision to go to a four-day work week, it wasn’t a business decision, it was a quality of life decision for us. It was a decision to try to be very efficient in how we were running our business, but also realizing that for me and for us to serve our patients the best, we have to have a balance that we were just not getting.

It had gotten so crazy doing all the things we talked about, all the things, the businesswoman things, the mommy things, the wife things, the significant other things, the daughter things, all the things. Then you get to the end of your day and you have nothing left and you can’t, we talk about it all the time, you have to put, in the planes, put your own washing mask on first because you can’t run around putting everybody else’s mask on because you’re going to pass out.

Dr. Karen Greene:

Right. Yeah.

Dr. Deanna Guthrie:

Thank you for that. Then another question I was going to ask, what are some of the inequities you see treating colon disease?

Dr. Erin King-Mullins:

I think, man, that could be a whole episode.

Dr. Deanna Guthrie:

I know.

Dr. Mironda Williams:

We had an episode on here, we have to bring it back.

Dr. Erin King-Mullins:

I think the first thing is just conversations. Part of it is some patients feel comfortable in certain situations and with certain providers, not only outside of that, some providers feel comfortable with certain patients, so they don’t know exactly what’s medical care versus, “Am I getting in your business?” You know what I’m saying? Coming at the same place, I think the biggest inequities that we face are when we talk about colorectal cancer screening, there are studies that show the number one reason people don’t get screening is because they were never told to just for whatever reason. Not blaming any providers, some rules and, not rules, but some guidelines and recommendations change that other specialties may not be aware of so they’re just not alerting the patients when those times have changed.

Also, offering certain services, making sure that you’re fully understanding the full compliment of that patient. Are they the primary breadwinner for their family? What other responsibilities and things that they may or may not have. I think all of those things, I think it all boils down to the communication that leads to the inequities and whatever that may be, diagnosis, treatment, screening, medications, whatever’s offered.

Dr. Karen Greene:

For that, you have to know the patient. You have to actually have had a conversation with the patient. Otherwise, you’re just giving them an order and hoping they fulfill that and they really, you don’t know why they can’t.

Dr. Deanna Guthrie:

Yeah, because sometimes if you don’t talk to them, like I said, you can hand them the paper and say, “Hey, you need to have a colonoscopy, get it scheduled,” but they have to understand the why and like you said, you never know what’s their life situation. Are they the breadwinner? “I can’t take a day off.” Well, what else can I do? Stress the importance.

Dr. Erin King-Mullins:

Follow up to that, while as a colorectal surgeon, not just procedurally because I enjoy doing it, I know that the best yield for colorectal cancer screening and prevention is going to be the colonoscopy. If you see a polyp, you can remove it right then and there, you’re one and done. A lot of patients will ask about some of those other kind of stool-based studies and things like that. Their socioeconomic situation plays a role into which they can do now. While I would prefer someone get a colonoscopy, if they have a situation where they can’t do it, then by all means any test is better than nothing.

Dr. Deanna Guthrie:

Nothing, exactly.

Dr. Erin King-Mullins:

Sometimes it doesn’t even just boil down to insurance coverage. The colonoscopy is a procedure, so now you’re engaging a second party who has to potentially take off work, bring this person to work, or even if it’s not that they have to take off work, caring for the kids, someone has to make sure that the children are taken care of and they can’t be out of pocket for so many hours escorting someone to the procedure. There’s a lot of logistics that go around with it too, that those conversations need to be had. Again, I’d rather somebody, if I can’t do a colonoscopy for you, let me know, then let’s look at some other options so we can just make sure you’re at least taken care of.

Dr. Mironda Williams:

Great. That’s a great segue. What I wanted to do at this point, we’ve done a couple of episodes and shows where we talk about what are the screening guidelines, why it’s important, who may be a good candidate for some of the stool-based tests versus those who need to have something more invasive and more advanced. Can you just talk about that a little bit in general, what the screening guidelines are, and again, why it’s so important for people to be screened?

Dr. Erin King-Mullins:

Yeah, definitely. I think the biggest thing is to first provide the education on what screening is compared to a diagnostic colonoscopy. Screening means that you are of age, risk, family history to where you’re not having symptoms, we need to actively go start looking for a potential problem. A mammogram after a certain age, prostate screening for men after a certain age. Screening, the number one risk factor for colorectal cancer is just age. The US Preventative Services Task Force-

Dr. Deanna Guthrie:

It’s a lot.

Dr. Erin King-Mullins:

… they updated the screening guidelines for all comers back in 2021 to the age of 45, all comers, meaning men and women, you don’t know how many men get dragged in by their wife and, “I told him, you need to do colonoscopy.” I’m like, “Did you have yours?” She’s like, “No, I don’t need one.” “You have a colon.” Men and women all comers age of 45. Caveat to that, if you have a family history of not only colorectal cancer, colon polyps, polyps are a pre-cancerous state. We need to know about that. If there are other cancers that run in the family, all of those things need to be provided so that you could be recommended to the appropriate screening age for your colonoscopy. Then the frequency with which you need it is based upon what is found on your examination, but also that family history. Once you get beyond there, you really got to talk to your provider and know your specific situation on how often to get it. That’s it.

Then there’s the gold standard would be the colonoscopy. It’s what we call as both diagnostic and therapeutic, meaning if I find a polyp, I can remove it right then and there, send it off to the lab. We can know what type of polyp it is so we can again know your risk, so I can do something about it if I see it. If you do some of those other stool-based tests, what they’re testing for is maybe microscopic blood in the bowel movements or abnormal cells. If that comes back abnormal, then you have to follow that up with a colonoscopy to figure out why it was abnormal. However, those tests are not for everybody. Those are not for people who have a family history of colon cancer or if they’ve already had a polyp in the past or if they experience bleeding, even if it’s just intermittent bleeding from hemorrhoids or something like that, again, something may come back abnormal and now we don’t know if something’s really going on or is it just aggravated by maybe you had a hemorrhoid or something going on.

That’s the kind of concept around screening for colorectal cancer. The one thing that I always, always stress to people is the other reason to do a colonoscopy is for diagnosis. If you have a problem, so it doesn’t matter what age, you should obviously talk to your provider about something. You have the change in your bowels that is different for you and it persists, blood or just something, abdominal pain, something new or different that persist, a colonoscopy is also a diagnostic tool, just like CT, X-ray, blood work or whatever. It can be used to find out why you’re having a symptom. I think these are conversations we’re having more and more about a younger person goes and they have a complaint and someone’s like any provider can do it, looking at their family history, “Oh, you’re young, it’s probably just a hemorrhoid,” or this and that. “You don’t have a family history.” If something persists, we should really look.

Dr. Mironda Williams:

I appreciate you pointing that out. We definitely try to encourage our patients to get the screening tests based on what the recommendations are, whether it’s age, family history, those kinds of things. Everyone, I think us included, truth be told, push back a little bit on the colonoscopy just because of the logistics, but also some people think it’s the prep, it’s this, it’s that, it’s the other thing. I think your point is it’s a one and done. The biggest issue we have with those things that are bad, meaning cancer, pre-cancerous conditions, is the delay in the diagnosis, which then delays the treatment. We really try and encourage patients, don’t think about the possible inconveniences of the test because cancer is a whole hell of a lot worse.

Dr. Erin King-Mullins:

Yes.

Dr. Mironda Williams:

Us included, have had to get over it and figure out a way to make it work. Again, you want to think of the long game, not just the day or maybe two days with the prep, of the colonoscopy as being inconvenient, logistics, all of those things. You want to make sure, our whole motto is you want to live a long life. You want to live a long and healthy life. You want to be able to do the things that you want to do with your friends and your family and just have a great life. When a screening test, like a colonoscopy can be both diagnostic and therapeutic, one and done, let’s get it, let’s get it out of there. If there’s something that needs to be removed, it can be done and then you can go on. Really appreciate that.

Dr. Erin King-Mullins:

You brought up a couple of points that I talked to with my patients a little bit about that is, number one, when you have your annual visits with your providers, whether it’s your GYN or your primary care doctor, part of the updates that you need to provide is also your changes in your family history. If, yeah, last year you had your colonoscopy and you were squeak squeaky clean, but your sibling had a colonoscopy and the polyps removed, now your 10 years are out the window.

Dr. Deanna Guthrie:

Exactly.

Dr. Erin King-Mullins:

Your family history’s different, so now you’re on a five-year schedule. We have to update family changes as well, so our providers can guide us appropriately on what we’re at risk for. Then you hit the nail on the head when you’re talking about you want to live a healthy long life. Sometimes I come at people with the angle of, “Okay, do you have children?” I’m like, “Yes.” Okay. Okay. “You would do anything for your children, right? You jump in front of a moving train, you jump in front of a bullet, lift a car? They’re like, “Oh yeah, oh yeah.” “Why not live for your children? Why not make sure you’re there for them, but also help them know what their risks are.” If you have something that you could pass on to them that can threaten them in their life, let’s be accountable for that and make sure we get those tests done.

Dr. Mironda Williams:

Excellent, excellent.

Dr. Deanna Guthrie:

That’s so true. As Dr. Williams was saying, because a lot of the hindrance for people getting it scheduled is not knowing the exact kind of procedure, whatever.

Dr. Erin King-Mullins:

Sure.

Dr. Deanna Guthrie:

For a lot of people, the prep is the issue. Can you speak to the different types of preps and things like that because a lot of times they don’t know, they’re just hearing from other people, word of mouth, right?

Dr. Mironda Williams:

Google.

Dr. Deanna Guthrie:

Can you speak to the preparation for colonoscopy and what that entails so that it may not be something as onerous as somebody may think meaning?

Dr. Erin King-Mullins:

Sure. There’s different types of preps. The whole concept of the prep is to prepare your colon. If we just start by the concept of what I’m looking for for a colonoscopy, I’m looking for polyps, which are small little lumps or bumps, little moles that grow on the inside lining of the colon. We have to get your colon cleaned out so those can be seen. You prepare your colon by taking a laxative preparation so you can evacuate all your bowels essentially and just get it down to liquids, mostly clear if we can. There’s a litany of different preparation options and they’re very provider specific. Some doctors like one versus the other, and then some are better for certain patients based upon whatever history they may have if they have heart problems or kidney problems with electrolyte issues. It totally varies, there’s several options. If someone really lends towards constipation, sometimes we do have to prep you over a two-day period. We don’t want to waste your time, right?

Dr. Mironda Williams:

Exactly.

Dr. Erin King-Mullins:

We want to make sure we can see what we can see. We can give you that long span of time before you have to return. Yeah. Before, you are semi fasting, so no solid foods, so jellos, juices, broths, popsicles, things that are clear. That’s what you’re going to do that full day beforehand. Now that trips people up sometimes because they freak out and then they go ham the day before that they eat everything in sight and I’m like, “No, that defeats the purpose.” It’s going to be okay. Yeah, so that’s the preparation, just really bad case of diarrhea the day before, clean the colon out.

The procedure itself, you come in to wherever it’s going to be performed, an IV gets placed, so you’re sedated, so you don’t feel it, you don’t remember it, you’re in whatever beach you want to go to, you come to pretty quickly. The good news is that you actually know as soon as you wake up, your provider will talk to you and let you know if they found polyps or not. If polyps are found, they’re biopsied, and then you await those results from the lab.

Dr. Deanna Guthrie:

What’s the average time of a colonoscopy?

Dr. Erin King-Mullins:

Sure. The procedure itself takes about 20 minutes, and that can be plus or minus 10 minutes just depending on how many polyps are found or if there’s any additional procedures that need to be done. I just tell people for me, I do mine at the hospital. You’re at the hospital total about three hours. Some of the more outpatient centers that are kind of a little bit smaller and have less of the hubbub of a formal hospital, you can be even in and out sooner than that.

Dr. Mironda Williams:

Very good. Excellent, excellent questions. This again just speaks to why we were so excited about finally being able to have guests come into our studio space or virtually. I’d be remiss if I did not take a little moment to give a shout-out to our production team. Just Eldredge Media has been with us now for two years, and they have really, I think taken our production value up tremendously. We’re very appreciative of all that they have done and will continue to do because they just gave me an idea today that I’ve got to talk Dr. Greene into. Anyway, I digress.

Dr. Karen Greene:

That was a louder ding.

Dr. Miranda Williams:

Thank you Just Eldredge Media for all that you have done for Take Good Care Podcast. We’re going to continue with these kinds of shows, getting guests in. To that end, we’ve created an email [email protected], [email protected]. If you’ve enjoyed this, if you’ve enjoyed our wonderful guest and the information she has provided, please send us an email. If there’s other information, different topics, things that you want us to delve into, please let us know about that. If you have some things that you want us to get to Dr. King-Mullins, send us those and we’ll forward them onto to her so we can make sure. Before we end, I’ll make sure she gives us her website information so that you all can search her out.

Before we wind down this episode, we’ve alluded to the fact that we’re all business women, wives, mothers, significant others, daughters, and you, congratulations, have stepped out into the world of business ownership. What would you think has been your biggest challenge so far this first year of opening your medical practice?

Dr. Erin King-Mullins:

Just learning the business of medicine.

Dr. Mironda Williams:

That part.

Dr. Erin King-Mullins:

It’s a whole new lingo, whole new language, whole new set of, but I’ve enjoyed the challenge and I think just being in my own driver’s seat just has made it worth it because I understand that there’s immediate reward for the effort that I’m putting in and not just this little portion of reward for that. Yeah, that’s been just the biggest challenge, just balancing both the business and clinical. I’m in a position where I’m now offloading some of the business because I do have a practice manager now.

Dr. Mironda Williams:

Yay. That’s helpful.

Dr. Erin King-Mullins:

Yeah, definitely, definitely helpful.

Dr. Mironda Williams:

Yeah. One of the things we’ve really learned, especially these last few years is building that team, building that support team around you because your real job is taking care of the patients.

Dr. Deanna Guthrie:

That’s what you supposed to be doing.

Dr. Karen Greene:

That’s what you supposed to be doing.

Dr. Mironda Williams:

Sometimes the business things can start to filter in and again, that work-life balance, remembering why, your strengths, and who you’re serving means we have to sometimes build that team around you that can help you manage the business aspects of things while you continue to take great care of patients. Similar to that, what do you think has been your biggest reward so far? What is the biggest lesson you think you’ve learned so far? You’ll continue to learn the lesson.

Dr. Erin King-Mullins:

Yes. I think the biggest reward is that people actually want me as their doctor. Just you go out and you just want to put it all on you. I’ve had a great training and a great experience, and you want to fill your CV and you got all this stuff on your CV that you think people are going to drive to you, and people don’t always care about that. I think that’s been the biggest reward. Also, just being able to truly interact with my patients in a way that I feel that I can meet them where they are and not have to worry about someone looking over my shoulder like, “Why didn’t you operate on that person?” I can truly offer patients what they need when they need it, which has allowed me to be a little bit more creative as a person. I’ve been doing a little bit more social media. I wrote a book.

Dr. Mironda Williams:

Yes.

Dr. Deanna Guthrie:

What was your book?

Dr. Erin King-Mullins:

I wrote a kid’s book.

Dr. Mironda Williams:

Awesome.

Dr. Erin King-Mullins:

My goal in life would be for no one to need me as a colorectal surgeon. Hopefully that’s later on after I retired and getting a few royalties. I actually written two books now. The first is Mommy! I Made a Boo-Boo. Yes. This one is focused on that bowel movements are normal, the process of digestion, it talks about some of the digestive organs. It’s called Mommy! I made a Boo-Boo. That’s the first one. The second one that just got released earlier this month is Mommy Gets a Colonoscopy. My challenge to you and all your listeners is actually to start engaging your children in these preventative services and conversations early so when mommy’s going to get it or daddy or whoever’s going to the doctor to get a procedure done, “Why?” “So I can make sure that I am healthy and strong for you. Mommy Gets a Colonoscopy is the second book in the series.

Dr. Mironda Williams:

Awesome, and that’s available where?

Dr. Erin King-Mullins:

On Amazon.

Dr. Mironda Williams:

Thank you. Okay. Amazon, the provider of all things.

Dr. Erin King-Mullins:

I know, I know. Self-publishing, self-publishing.

Dr. Mironda Williams:

I’ve self-published as well, but Amazon’s a great, great, great, great avenue for that. Wonderful. Congratulations on that. Congratulations on that as well. Tell us more about your practice so that those who may want to seek out your services, how can they reach you?

Dr. Erin King-Mullins:

Sure. The name of my practice is Colorectal Wellness Center. We’re located in Fayetteville and colowellness.com, that’s C-O-L-O-W-E-L-L-N-E-S-S.com is the website and you can find us there.

Dr. Mironda Williams:

Awesome. That is wonderful. Ladies, do you have any other things that you want to talk about, bring up?

Dr. Karen Greene:

I guess the only thing I would say is that I appreciate the fact that the books are designed to get kids to understand the importance of wellness. I think a holdback for a lot of people is I go to the doctor when I have a problem and I know the three of us, we talk about wellness and to hear that you’re talking about that as well is important for people to understand. It’s like, no, we want to see you when you’re well. We want to talk about things you need to do to stay well. If kids get that idea that that’s why I go to the doctor, that’s why mommy went to the doctor, then that can kind of perpetuate hopefully to the next generation of more wellness visit and the elimination of the things like cancer.

Dr. Mironda Williams:

It takes the fear out of it.

Dr. Deanna Guthrie:

I was just about to say that.

Dr. Mironda Williams:

Go ahead. Go ahead.

Dr. Deanna Guthrie:

I was going to say not only that, but when kids now hear that you’re going to the doctor, they may not be as anxious. They know that going to the doctor doesn’t mean a shot every time or a surgery or something bad every time. You can go to the doctor when you’re well in that case.

Dr. Erin King-Mullins:

It’s also teaching the adults through the children, right? It’s like you’re reading this book to your kid so your kid can learn, so you can actually learn yourself. There’s so many things that I just assumed everybody knows everything about the stomach just because that’s what I do, but then you really realize that, whoa, we’re way over this conversation.

Dr. Mironda Williams:

There’s the knowledge gap.

Dr. Erin King-Mullins:

Yep. Yep.

Dr. Mironda Williams:

Yep. Yep. Yep. I think shout out on a plug for women in medicine, I think that we always talk about representation, why representation matters, why diversity matters. Again, it helps to bring a lot of viewpoints and outlooks and perspectives to the table that may or may not get the spotlight sometimes. I think one of the things that our healthcare system has focused on, and I don’t have a problem with that, is sick care, attacking diseases, which we needed to do. I am not saying it’s a bad thing, but it’s just like we become so focused on disease management, that we have lost, I think a little focus on wellness and how do we prevent the disease that we need to manage. It’s a balance, right? It’s not all one or the other. It’s wellness and going to the physician and having procedures done, not be so onerous and scary that, “Oh, they’re going to find something.” Well, more than likely we won’t find anything because you’re healthy, but it’s that fear.

Dr. Deanna Guthrie:

You want to find something early.

Dr. Mironda Williams:

If you’re going to find it, early is better.

Dr. Erin King-Mullins:

If you’re going to find it, let’s find it.

Dr. Mironda Williams:

Right.

Dr. Erin King-Mullins:

If you’re guarding your pockets, the overwhelming majority of preventative services are covered by your standard premiums that you’re already paying for your insurance. Once you get to the point when you’re getting sick, now we’re ordering extra texts and that’s going to your deductible and that’s taking the money out of your pocket. You got to put it all in perspective, so I try to kind of just meet people where they are and explain why this should be done this way. Yeah.

Dr. Mironda Williams:

Absolutely. Well, this has been exciting and this has been, I think we’ve gotten as much out of it as I think our audience will have when they get to listen to this. Please stay tuned to wherever you get your podcast. This episode should be dropping and so you’ll be able to get it fairly quickly. Then we’re going to proceed on with our fifth season of this podcast. We launched in the middle of covid in 2020, and we started with iPhones and a ring light in three different rooms, spread all out. We are now in a studio.

Dr. Erin King-Mullins:

A fancy studio, may I add.

Dr. Mironda Williams:

We are excited. This is why. We want to be able to have wonderful people such as yourself. Thank you for bringing a wealth of information, just your personality and again, why we resonate and why we are just so excited and thrilled for everything that you’re doing with your medical practice, with your books, with your family. We appreciate everything that you do.

Dr. Erin King-Mullins:

Thank you.

Dr. Mironda Williams:

Just want to continue to encourage you, anything we can do to try to lend you any wisdom that we have. We’ve been here a little longer than you have, so any wisdom that we can share.

Dr. Erin King-Mullins:

Listen, I needed somebody to blaze that trail. I don’t know if I ever could have did it alone. I appreciate who you all represent to me.

Dr. Mironda Williams:

Thank you.

Dr. Erin King-Mullins:

You may not really realize it, but you are all great inspirations and truly a guiding light.

Dr. Mironda Williams:

Thank you.

Dr. Karen Greene:

Thank you

Dr. Deanna Guthrie:

Thank you.

Dr. Mironda Williams:

We hope you have all enjoyed this episode of Take Good Care Podcast. We’re so excited that we have had a wonderful guest with us today, Dr. Erin, our first guest, our first real guest. Dr. Erin King-Mullin’s here with us in studio. Thank you for listening. Thank you for checking out our website, rosagynecology.com. Thank you for finding us on all of our social media platforms and for wherever you get your pods. Until the next time. I’m Dr. Mironda Williams.

Dr. Deanna Guthrie:

I’m Dr. Deanna Guthrie.

Dr. Karen Greene:

And I’m Dr. Karen Greene. Take good care.