Hosted by Erica Jolene with special guest Dr. Aline Tanios | Transcription HERE
I am excited and honored to be able to share this new episode with all of you. In this episode, I had the privilege to talk with Dr. Tanios from Cardinal Glennon Children's hospital.
Dr. Tanios helped to establish the Complex Care Medical Program at Cardinal Glennon Children's Hospital in St. Louis, MO, where she now serves as the Medical Director for inpatient services. Dr. Tanios provides a glimpse into her life as she shares with us what led her to become a physician, her passion for working with children who have complex medical conditions, her approach to establishing trusting relationships with patients/families, and her hopes for how our society can work together to improve the lives of those faced with complex conditions. Dr. Tanios delivers a well-rounded and rarely shared perspective as a physician, a mother, and a friend.
Research conducted with this podcast, "Telling the Atypical Truth: Disability Community-Building Through Podcasting," can be found HERE.
Links related to this episode:
Cardinal Glennon Children's Hospital
Episode Transcription
Erica Jolene
Hello, and welcome back to Atypical Truth. I am your host, Erica Jolene. It is an understatement to say that I am thrilled to share this next guest with the world. She is one of my absolute favorite people and I'm confident that you will feel the same after hearing from her.
Dr. Tanios is a Medical Director at SSM Health Cardinal Glennon Children's Hospital. She is also the Associate Program Director of the St. Louis University Pediatric Residency program. Dr. Tanios is the mother of four beautiful children, and she absolutely lights up when she talks about them.
We met Dr. Tanios when Margot was about six months old. At this point, Margot had been life-flighted to the children's hospital several times due to having status seizures. We had only recently transitioned to a new hospital from the original hospital where Margot spent her days in the NICU. I had already felt a great sense of comfort within those walls of this new hospital. However, I was still very guarded and slightly on the defense. In hindsight, it's easy to see now that I was struggling with PTSD.
The first year of Margot's life was definitely a roller coaster of emotions. It was truly a trying time for all of us. From the moment Dr. Tanios walked into our room, our lives were forever changed. It was like we had met our guardian angel in the flesh. Her personality, her attentiveness, her compassion...it immediately disarmed me. I was finally able to let my guard down. And WOW, what a relief it was to just release that burden of distrust. I have never once ventured to think about what our lives would be like without Dr. Tanios because she's become such an integral part of our care team.
I wish for every family navigating a complex medical journey to have someone like her advocating for them. So, with that said, I am so excited to introduce to you Dr. Aline Tanios.
Erica Jolene
Thank you so much for being willing to do this with me.
Dr. Aline Tanios
It's my honor. Really a true honor.
Erica Jolene
I'm just curious to know...on a day off (which is rare, I know), what is your favorite thing to nerd out on?
Dr. Aline Tanios
Oh, maybe so there are a few, but my favorite one is building a puzzle. As you can see behind me. Yeah, you know, these table puzzles with drawers on the side? I have that! I have tons of puzzles that have been framed. Like once I sit, it goes like three, four hours. Unfortunately, I haven't been able to do this lately, but this is very therapeutic for me.
Erica Jolene
What is your favorite song currently to turn the volume up for?
Dr. Aline Tanios
Okay, there are several and in different languages. I love "Roar” for Katy Perry and I love "What Doesn't Kill You Makes You Stronger" for Kelly Clarkson. These are like...I think the whole neighborhood can hear, hahaha...can hear me driving by if they are on. It just gives me lots of positive energy and confidence. And yeah, these two I like. Like I said I do have others that are in Lebanese that I just feel like I'm dancing when I'm driving. (Laughter) I'm driving, and my kids look at me like, "What's wrong with her?" But they got used to that.
Erica Jolene
There's something about both of those songs that can make me go from sitting to just standing up and going, "I've got this. I've got this. I've got this."
Dr. Aline Tanios
Yes, yes. Absolutely. Like it's just so amazing. I think one time I was leaving work not too long ago, and I had a long, exhausting mentally draining day, and this song popped up and I'm like, "That's it. This is a sign that's it!"
Erica Jolene
This was a random one...if you could go anywhere, would you rather sit next to the ocean, a lake, mountains, desert, or forest?
Dr. Aline Tanios
I would say, ocean.
Erica Jolene
I can see that.
Dr. Aline Tanios
Yeah. Yup.
Erica Jolene
Your favorite meal? I'm dying to know this and I know it's gonna make me hungry. I know it's going to make me so hungry, but... (laugher from both parties)
Dr. Aline Tanios
Okay, my favorite meal is the Lebanese cuisine. I'm gonna list some, but there is Tabouli. There is, similar to the kababs, something called Kafta. Yeah. There's a long, long list.
Erica Jolene
You know, I find things to look forward to if we're going to be hospitalized, and one of them is that I can order from PostMates Lebanese food from St. Louis restaurants. You know, I live in a rural area, and we just don't have that. That's right. Yeah. That's something that I look forward to.
Dr. Aline Tanios
Yes, yes, yes. Yeah. Next time I see you, hopefully, not anytime soon (laughter), I'll make sure to bring you something that I made.
Erica Jolene
Well, no pun intended, but you don't need to add anything else on your plate.
Dr. Aline Tanios
Well, yeah. Yeah. No... (laughter from both parties)
Erica Jolene 06:38
Can you tell us a little bit more about yourself and what led you to the world of Pediatrics? What led you to be a physician?
Dr. Aline Tanios
So, you know, this Erica, I grew up in Lebanon. I'm one of six kids. My parent's main goal growing up was to empower us with the best education they could afford. They literally went above and beyond. Back then I did actually I earned both the Lebanese and the French baccalaureate.
Erica Jolene
Wow!
Dr. Aline Tanios
My mom used to say that your education is really your treasure, no one can take it away from you, this is how you're going to stand tall no matter what. Which is absolutely right. So initially, I thought, okay, I'll...I was interested more in journalism. Until a very dear family friend, we were chatting. I used to work at, during summertime at their bookstore. He was showing me my strengthens and he said, "Aline, why don't you think about medicine?". I said, "I've thought about medicine, but..." and then all of a sudden, it was like (snaps fingers) this moment! So, once I focused on this goal of being a physician, I knew I wanted to be a pediatrician. Part of it is, I just love being around kids. I was also like a Girl Scout member then a leader, so I was working with kids most of the time. So, pediatrics was my dream.
Then I met my husband in med school, we came to the states came straight to Little Rock, Arkansas. Back then there wasn't any open pediatric positions. So, there was a pediatric neurology position that was open for me, actually, after I did like some observer-ship. It was difficult. There were a lot of bumps. After one year, I went and reached out to the program director back then Dr. Gordon Schultze, who I owe him, really, my not just the beginning of my career, he is really my lifelong mentor. I talked to him sincerely, I said, "I like I like pediatric neurology, but I feel like I want to do general pediatrics and then decide what next...". So, he made it really easy. Well, it looked easy, actually, it wasn't easy, but he made it look easy for me and I switched to pediatrics, did two years there, and then moved in the middle of my residency because by then my husband was doing his fellowship. I had two little kids, which is not a great idea to have two little kids during residency, and we have no family support. So so that's how I ended up being a general pediatrician.
Erica Jolene
Wow. You recently shifted into a role as Medical Director at Cardinal Glennon.
Dr. Aline Tanios
Correct.
Erica Jolene
...and Associate Professor and Assistant Program Director for the St. Louis University Pediatric Residency Program.
Dr. Aline Tanios
That is correct.
Erica Jolene
Prior to all of that, you worked for many years developing and establishing the Complex Medical Care Program at Cardinal Glennon. And that's how we met.
Dr. Aline Tanios
That is correct.