Rekha Chandran- Oncology Doctor and Author

Links:  Amazon
               Report on alcohol use and breast cancer
               Rekha's website

Rekha  Chandran was born in India and went to school in Nigeria where her father worked.

She became an oncology doctor and practices in the Pacific Northwest.

She has written two books: The Empress's Guilt and The Final Puzzle, both available on Amazon.

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Find me on my website: jan-johnson.com

Transcript

Rekha: I think the single most important thing that I would say of a take home, would be that alcohol, even one drink a day, is not safe, especially for women. One drink a day increases the risk of breast cancer.

Jan: Hey there, listeners. Welcome to Women of the Northwest, where I get to interview ordinary women leading extraordinary lives. I want to apologize for not having an episode last week, but I got to go to Hungary for my birthday, so my kids were so nice to give me a ticket to go there and visit my brother and his wife and my nephew and his wife and three kids. It was a delightful experience. I would recommend it to anybody. Well, today's guest is Rekha Chandran, and I think you're really going to enjoy this episode, so let's listen in.

Jan: Welcome to the show, Rekha.

Rekha: Thank you, Jan. Happy to be here.

Jan: You grew up in India. When you remember things about going to school or growing up, what kind of things are different for your daughter here in the States, as they were for you to grow up?

Rekha: My schooling was a bit unconventional in the sense that I went to kindergarten in India, in the state of Kerala, where I was born. That's the southernmost state. And because my father's job, I went to Nigeria, and that's where I started schooling.

Jan: Oh, I see. Okay.

Rekha: And I don't know how my dad managed to get me into school at the age of four and a half, but I was told not to say I was four and a half, but stick with six.

Jan: They didn't have a birth certificate. Check your birth certificate.

Rekha: I think they did show the birthday, but he knew how to pull strings. But he got me into school. I think it must have been my younger sister was there at home, and I think they just wanted not to have to deal with two kids. I was small at that time also, and they said, there's no way you are six years. But I enjoyed my schooling in Nigeria. It's funny because I have a friend now in Chicago who is my faculty, where the hospital I worked, we found out that he and I both went to the same school.

Jan: Really?

Rekha: Yeah, the first grade. We were in the same school.

Jan: Oh, my.

Rekha: Yeah. We didn't know each other then, of course, so it's a small world around I wouldn't say ten years. Eleven is when I returned to India. And that was a shock for me, because in Nigeria, the women are very strong, and we're not afraid of boys. So from there, too, even though my home state of Kerala is the only state that has a higher female to male ratio and the most educated state, and women are traditionally strong, despite that, the expectation was to not look at boys, not talk to boys, kind of keep them inside of the room, which was very shocking to me. And not really in line with my personality was a bit frustrating. So compared to that, I don't think my daughter has those restrictions. She was born here in Portland, and she's gone to school except for a brief couple of years in Idaho, she's pretty much been at the same school. It's a lot more outdoorsy, and she's growing up very independent, pacific Northwest. I would like her to be a little more independent. I think there's more opportunities, but she has more opportunities to explore who she is here.

Jan: Well, i in India, are girls education, is that valued?

Rekha: I think so, yes. I think I've been fortunate in that education has always been a huge emphasis both in my family as well as just our state. Coming from Kerala, historically, that is the expectation. That's the most educated state, and there's no excuse if you saw somebody not wanting to because college is pretty much.

Jan: Free.

Rekha: If you're not going to try to study. Unfortunately, some people do out of economic reasons they cannot. But I was fortunate. My parents were both working. I got to go to good schools, and that was always emphasized that you need to study. Well, in Nigeria, I went to good school, so that's been a big part of my life.

Jan: Yeah. Interesting. I just think it's always interesting to hear how other countries deal with things, to compare them to how things are here too.

Rekha: Yeah.

Jan: Okay, so then you ended up getting a degree. What was your degree in?

Rekha: The system in India is slightly different from the US. And that we don't have to do a four year college. After high school, you can appear if you know what you want to go into, and most of the time, it's our family that decide for us because you're just out of high school, you appear for a test, and you choose to go into engineering or medical school. So I went into medical school right.

Jan: Out of high school. Engineering or medical school.

Rekha: Right. It's a binary choice for most people. I think that's changed nowadays. I think my cousins, younger and cousins kids, they're all choosing other things, like being an accountant or almost always, it used to be you want to become a doctor or you want to become an engineer.

Jan: That interesting. Oh, that is very interesting. Okay. All right. So you chose a medical career, and then did you do all your training there, or you did some in the States?

Rekha: So I finished my medical school and residency in India. I came over to the US. Because I was married at that time, and I went through the residency part of it. Again, after peering for the medical licensing exam for a short period of time, I got to go to England because that was my original plan, and I worked six months in the oncology unit there. So that was an interesting experience. I could see the difference all the three systems are different. In India, the UK and the US.

Jan: Are all different. So you can take all the best of everything exactly. And combine them. So you're specifically to Oncology then.

Rekha: Correct. I did my residency training in Chicago. After that, I worked for six years as a hospitalist in Vancouver, Washington, and then I went back into training for three years. I was in Wisconsin, hematology and Oncology, and came back here.

Jan: So just all types of cancers then?

Rekha: All types of cancers. But I would say that I'm more of blood cancer. That's just my area of interest. But when you're working in the community, you pretty much have to see whoever.

Jan: Comes through your door. Correct. Right. What are some difficult things about that job?

Rekha: I think you have to make a real effort, as it is with many professions, to find that work life balance. And for me personally, I have always valued being a mother above my career, and I have found that that is not necessarily viewed favorably yeah. Especially among women in oncology. And it seems pretty much an expectation that you would forego your family in order to focus on your career. And that is not for religious reasons or anything. It's just my personal belief that it was a choice to have a kid. And I want to be a mother and enjoy being a mother.

Jan: Yeah.

Rekha: So that has required me to make certain choices. So I don't work full time in a permanent position, especially with COVID. I chose to work what's called locum, where I can set my own schedule, and I still work three days a week and one weekend a month, but I have a little bit more control. And the rest of my weekends I spend with my daughter to go for walks. And just yesterday, she just came back from her beginning of the school camping trip, and I think all the kids were talking. She's like, I have to thank you for how much time you spend with me. And she's beginning to appreciate that.

Jan: Yeah, that's good. And you become a friend as well.

Rekha: Right. And my working theory has always been that children going through their teenage years, it's not that they're a headache because of the children, but sometimes it's just a problem with the communication that's happening. And I wanted to make sure that I was fully available.

Jan: Right. Yeah.

Rekha: Once she's on her own, I think I can focus a little bit more on patient.

Jan: Really? It's just a matter of years, really. It's not that long, and it's just a season that you have that opportunity to be that parent to her. Yeah, that sounds great. What kind of things is she interested in doing?

Rekha: She likes to draw. I want to say I'm blanking out on the name, but it's the Japanese.

Jan: Oh, the anime.

Rekha: Yeah. She loves the library. She asked me to drop her off at the library. She likes to hang out and read and she and I together, we joined an art class in near our house which sets something I wanted to do as a kid. My dad wouldn't let me. He was very and so now it's a mother daughter thing that we do. We sit next to each other and we have our assignment that we finished.

Jan: That's fun. I take some art classes with my daughters as well. Yeah, it makes a fun kind of bonding.

Rekha: Correct time.

Jan: Back to the oncology. Is there any kind of advice or anything that you would give people just in general about cancer? I don't know, that's kind of a broad question.

Rekha: But I think the single most important thing that I would say if take home would be that alcohol, even one drink a day is not safe, especially for women. One drink a day increases the risk of breast cancer.

Jan: Wow, that is an eye opener. Doesn't do well for the brewery business, really.

Rekha: We traditionally thought that it's good for the heart. But I know that cancer has replaced heart disease as the number one killer in more than 20 states in the United States. So as we live longer and people are not smoking as much and more aware of healthy eating habits and the alcohol still is part of the diet. So we have to think about that.

Jan: Are there other things that people eat that make a difference or environmental things that you see are causes?

Rekha: I think we have a lot of processed foods. I believe there was just a report that came out that increased consumption of processed food does contribute to increased risk of cancer. When you think about the older generation or way of living, at least in my grandparents time, my grandmother for example, she died at age 90. There was no cancer in the family at all. And I don't think her diet was necessarily controlled because she ate what she wanted.

Jan: Right.

Rekha: A lot of fatty food, but it wasn't red meat, it was a lot of fish. She like sugar and stuff. I make a conscious effort to cut back on sugar. I'm not that good at salt. That's my weakness.

Jan: Yeah.

Rekha: I found out through personal experience that what we put in our bodies makes a huge difference. We may not realize that when we are in our twenty s and thirty s. Yeah.

Jan: That is going to catch up with us. Yeah. So you just wrote a book. Tell me about the book.

Rekha: Thank you for asking me about that. So the title of the book is The Final Puzzle and I wrote it under a pen name, ore. It's a historical section. It was set in the 16th century Mughal empire. So the thrust of the story is about the friendship between the emperor Akbar who was the third Mughal emperor and the grandfather of the emperor who built the Taj Mahal was considered one of the most successful of the Mughal Emperors, and he ruled over for 50 years.

Jan: Okay.

Rekha: And this novel deals with probably 25 years of that. And really, it's his friendship with a man who is popularly known as Birbal. That's not his birth name, but that's what the title that Hugburg bestowed upon him. There's a story behind that that is not well known, but I have written about that in the book.

Jan: Okay.

Rekha: And it deals with even though it's set in 16th century India, and even though I started writing it because I chanced upon something very intriguing, the trust of it is very relevant today. It's about people exploiting religion for their personal benefit and creating tensions between ordinary people to cover up ill intentions and how the only way that can be solved is with good leadership, and the leaders are not corrupt or the person at the top. So Emperor Akbar was unwilling to be swayed by some of the corrupt influences, and his friend became a target for his enemies.

Jan: Okay, I have the book here. Could you just read what you have on the back of it to give us an idea?

Rekha: So this is a sentence from the prologue. It starts with that. A sly smile appeared on Lakshmi's lips. She was glad her father had warned her. She had never liked sharing things, least of all her husband, whether the law permitted it or not. And I have a summary. Behind set in the 16th century Hindustan modern day Indian subcontinent, emperor Akbar discovers an incomplete astological chart. It may hold a secret that could threaten his life and the Empire. He assigns the sensitive task of uncovering the Charts mystery to his brilliant adviser, Mahesh Das. This journey takes Mahesh to the heartland of Hindustan. Mahesh, however, was not expecting to fall in love. He stoned between his heart and his loyalty. Why did Emperor Akbar bestow the title of Raja Birbal on Mahesh das? His closeness to the Emperor and meteoric rise, spark jealous enemies to target him. Amid the backdrop of religious tensions in the Empire, Akbar moved forward to promote religious tolerance and root out corruption. Rebellions against Akbar and personal attacks against Raja Birbul become more common. After multiple attempts on Birbal's life, his enemies believe they are successful. In 1586, while battling the hilly tribes of the northwest frontier, raja Birbal is declared dead, but his body was never found. What really happened?

Jan: Oh, intriguing. I cannot wait to get started on this. That'll be fun. Are you thinking of writing another book?

Rekha: I am. Well, I'm actually working on a collection of short stories based on my experience in India.

Jan: Okay.

Rekha: Some of the stories yeah, that's been lingering in my head for a while, so I'm working on that. But the other book that I would like to sit down and write is something called Why Did My Doctor Leave? And that I think it's not historical fiction. I'm hoping to write it as a satire because this is a problem that is also growing in the US. Doctors are moving or leaving their jobs. So almost you or people you know would say, I love that doctor, and that doctor left. And almost always the doctors will say that's because of family reasons that I'm leaving. But there's always more to that.

Jan: Yeah.

Rekha: The loss is $4.6 billion lost to the health care system per year because of physician turnover.

Jan: Really?

Rekha: And there's a reason why this is happening that's been studied, but the willpower to effect change is lacking. And my hope through that book is to bring awareness about this issue, including physician suicide and physician turnover. That's a big issue, how it can devastate communities. I want to bring that issue forth as well. So that's something I'm working on. But I'm also working on a few other historical stories, so it won't be full length.

Jan: And all interesting. All interesting subjects. Yeah. Can't wait to see what happens with those. That is great. Rekha, this has been such a pleasure to talk with you and to share your story. I hope you enjoyed it, too.

Rekha: I did very much. And thank you so much for giving me the opportunity. I hope your readers enjoy the conversation.

Jan: Thank you very much. Thank you.

Jan: Thanks again, everyone, for listening. I've put links in the show notes.

Jan: To the statement on alcohol and cancer risk, as well as links to Rekah's.

Jan: Books that are available on Amazon into.

Jan: A website which is under her Pen name Juhi Ray.

Jan: Have a great week and we'll see you next time.