Tera Bollig

Describe your job at Children’s. I work in the marketing and communications department. My main job is to ensure that materials and information given to patients/families about Children’s services are accurate so families have a positive experience. I work with various internal departments, print vendors, photographers and designers to ensure print and online collateral is accurate and meets Children’s brand guidelines for design and writing style. My ultimate goal with all my projects is to give patients/families a consistent experience with the information they receive before they get here, while they are here and when they leave. I also work on initiatives such as wayfinding improvements, Wash ‘em Proud and events such as the Minnesota State Fair and Rock the Cradle.

What drew you to Children’s? I started at Children’s as an intern in the marketing department more than five years ago. I knew somebody who worked in the department at the time, and I applied for the position. Once I started my internship I knew I wanted to work here – and luckily a full-time position opened up.

What do you love most about working here? I love the passion that everyone has for making kids feel better. Whether it’s the patient care staff on the units or the staff behind the scenes, everyone has enthusiasm for what we do at Children’s.

Do you have a favorite memory working here and, if so, what is it? One of my favorite memories is when I was an intern and was assigned to accompany the media at the Santa visit at Children’s – St. Paul. Members of the St. Paul police department dressed like Santa, Mrs. Claus and elves and distributed presents to the kids. It was fun to see how happy and excited the kids were! I saw firsthand how special Children’s is and how much members of the community care about the kids here.

How do you spend your time outside of work? I’m usually training for a full or half-marathon, and I help coach at a local running club. I love to spend time hiking around the state parks, and I always enjoy sitting on the porch and reading on a nice summer or fall evening.

Leonard Gloeb, master gardener, has been providing horticulture therapy at Children's - St. Paul for 27 years.

After a bad experience with tonsillectomy as a child, Leonard Gloeb had an aversion to hospitals. Lucky for him – and lucky for Children’s – Leonard got over his fear. For the past 27 years, Leonard has been volunteering his time and talents as a master gardener to provide horticulture therapy to our patients and their families in St. Paul.

Horticulture therapy is the purposeful use of plants and plant-related acts to promote health and wellness for all people. Its use dates back to ancient times, and today, it is widely accepted as a beneficial and effective therapy to help build and improve cognitive, physical, psychological and social skills.

Leonard visits Children’s  twice a week to perform a variety of plant-related therapy activities with patients. The program he has helped develop, called “My Little Green Friends,” consists of 35 different activities, including planting, seed art and aromatherapy, to engage patients in the healing benefits of working with and/or enjoying plants. In the past, Leonard maintained the Children’s greenhouse and now donates plants he grows in his personal greenhouse for his activities with patients.

“The project started as a way for me to get in my volunteer hours required for the master gardener program,” says Leonard. “But it has turned into a real passion and a commitment to the children.”

With more than 15,135 volunteer hours now under his belt, Leonard is a familiar face at the St. Paul campus. He works closely with the Child Life team to schedule his visits in the pediatric intensive care unit (PICU) and surgery playrooms, third and fourth floor inpatient units, the short stay unit and the epilepsy unit.

“Leonard brings a lot of smiles to the kids he visits,” says Tom Marsolais, child life associate. “He’s a kind and gentle man, and the kids pick up on his calming influence. The horticulture therapy he does with them is a good distraction during their time at the hospital and provides a learning experience for them to discover more about plants and nature.”

Leonard has seen his work come full circle, with some former patients now returning as parents who still have the plants he gave to them years ago. Those, and some of the stories that stand out the most, are Leonard’s “little miracles” – the examples of how horticulture therapy has improved the care or life of a child.

“One of my favorite success stories came after a planting activity with a group of children in a playroom,” Leonard recalls. “A little boy picked up his potted plant, turned to his mother and said ‘Look mom, my plant.’ It didn’t seem like a big deal at the time, but I found out later that those were the first words he had spoken since coming to the hospital five days before. It was a tremendous impact with little effort on my part. One time, a doctor told me that the work I was doing was more important than his,” he continues. “I thought he was crazy at the time, but after seeing events like that one, I realized that what I was doing really does make a difference.”

Throughout the years, patient families have asked Leonard if he gets paid for the work he does. “I tell them ‘I get paid more than any CEO.’ Even if I wasn’t a master gardener, I’d still be here. It’s one of the most rewarding projects there is.”

Toddlers develop a heel-toe walking pattern about 20 weeks after they begin walking alone and should no longer be toe walking, said Nicole Brown, DPT. If left untreated, toe walking can lead to future injury or pain in your child.

“I think with little ones everyone thinks it’s adorable because you don’t know if it’s causing problems,” said Sara McGrane, whose daughter Molly started seeing Brown when she was 5 years old.

At her daughter’s check-up when she was 3, the primary care physician told her parents they needed to encourage her to stop walking on her toes, McGrane said. When she was 4, the parents were told again to keep working with Molly. It was at her visit when she was 5 that her primary care physician noticed she was toe walking and referred her to the Children’s Rehabilitation Clinic in Minnetonka.

“When she was little, it was cute,” she said. “She had always been a toe walker.”

Often, Brown doesn’t see patients until they’re 6 or 7 years old. There’s a misconception that kids will grow out of toe walking, she said.  Those who are seen at 2 or 3 years old have a better prognosis, and treatment time is generally shorter. She has treated patients as young as 18 months and as old as 13.

“We want to get these kids in earlier. By the time they’re 6 or 7, they can have structural damage to their foot,” she said.

Treatment varies and depends on the severity of the condition. If Brown can see a patient before there’s limited range of motion, she can re-train the child to resume a normal walking pattern through physical therapy, which on average lasts six months, she said.

If there’s limited motion in the ankle and the child is consistently toe walking, the child is put in serial casts or carbon fiber braces, she said. The serial casts are like a typical fiberglass cast for a broken leg. They’re taken off every week and put back on to accommodate the new range of motion that was achieved. Once a child’s motion improves, Brown uses ankle braces. Physical therapy is also part of the prescription and on average lasts about a year.

In Molly’s case, her heel cord was tight enough that she required bracing, Sara said. She met with Nicole for physical therapy for about 10 months.

“We were amazed at how quickly the process went,” Sara said. “We are big believers in the program.”

What is toe walking? Toe walking is a diagnosis in which a person walks with bilateral toe-to-toe walking pattern.  There may be a medical cause or it may be idiopathic in nature.

How does Children’s treat patients who toe walk?

• We offer serial casting, orthotic intervention, and physical therapy treatment for treatment of toe walking.
• Serial casting has been proven to be an effective intervention for toe walkers in treatment of tight heel cords to increase the range of motion and to also weaken the heel cord muscle to allow us to re-train the child’s walking pattern.
• Children’s and Orthotic Care Services have designed a new type of solid ankle foot orthotic that mimics serial casts for treatment of toe walking.
• The orthotic brace is a two-pull carbon fiber solid ankle foot orthotic.  The carbon fiber on the outer shell decreases the amount of multi-planar ankle motion that is available which mimics the effects of serial casting through increasing range of motion through the heel cords as well as weakening the heel cords but allows the child more flexibility in that they can take off the brace to shower or participate in certain activities.
• After serial casting or carbon fiber bracing intervention has been completed, children are then placed in a two-pull plastic ankle foot orthotic to re-train their gait pattern to allow for a consistent heel-toe walking pattern.

Research in toe walking is underway at Children’s. We’re comparing outcomes in treatment of toe walking gait with carbon fiber orthotic intervention and serial casting.  Children are being enrolled in this study, and results have shown good outcomes.  This research study offers financial assistance as well as a team approach in the treatment of a child’s toe walking pattern.

If you would like more information about your child’s toe walking gait or to see if your child qualifies for this research study, please contact Nicole Brown, DPT at 952-930-8685 or by email at Nicole.Brown@ChildrensMN.org.

You’re an annual giving officer at Children’s. What does that job involve? My title is annual giving officer, a position on the annual fund raising team working with donors who give gifts to the hospital for the first time or every year, usually in the $1-$1,000 range. Specifically, my job is to work as a patient family representative from the Foundation. Eighty percent of gifts to hospitals come from families who have had a patient experience. I visit families while they are at Children’s and thank them for their past support, report their stories for our giving blog and stewardship reports and connect families to events and hospital programs of interest. I am helping to build a culture of generosity throughout the hospital by assisting physicians and nurses when they encounter the families who want to give back to Children’s after a powerful experience.

Margie puts a tattoo on a child at the HeartBeat 5000.

Your position allows you to develop unique relationships with families. What do you love most about getting to work with families every day? My children don’t live at home anymore, so I love the opportunity to visit with children and families of all ages and learn about their lives, their schools, how they are feeling and what they love to do when they are not at Children’s. Parents who I see in and around the hospital are genuinely surprised to be thanked in person for past donations and support to Children’s. I think they feel a powerful relationship to the hospital when they are recognized, and it feels great to be the person bringing this to them at a time of great worry and stress.

What drew you to nonprofit work and, specifically, Children’s? I have volunteered at nonprofits since college, when I was an EMT for my home town fire department. Giving back to communities and causes is a family value shared and enjoyed among generations in my family. I feel privileged to be able to build a career in a non-profit or service organization like Children’s as it is easy to put your heart and soul into the mission and work. While working in an underserved children’s non-profit educational organization, I started as a volunteer on an Integrative Medicine Task Force at Children’s and was recommended for the Foundation job a few years later. It is a perfect fit!

What do you think makes Children’s, Children’s? The big things like the people (outstanding doctors and nurses) and the beautiful buildings and then the little things like the kids and the extras; music and pet therapy, hugs, art, games, understanding (child and family services.)

What has been your favorite memory to date working here? The families who have lost children often come back to give gifts so that other families have an easier time. I have learned from them and grown into a better person in the light of their healing generosity.

This pasta dish with asparagus-pistachio pesto is from my days as a chef at Café Un Deux Trois in the ’90s. I’ve made this recipe for hungry crowds ever since with amazing results. The smoky bacon and rich, salty pistachios are perfectly balanced by the fresh veggies and fragrant herbs. This ‘sauce’ can be used with any type of noodle, but I recommend penne, macaroni or rigatoni. — Andrew Zimmern

Photo by Madeleine Hill

Ingredients

1/4 cup pine nuts

1 1/2 pounds asparagus, cut into 1-inch lengths

3 medium carrots, chopped

1 medium shallot, chopped

1/2 cup packed basil leaves

2 garlic cloves, thinly sliced

1 tablespoon honey

2 teaspoons finely chopped thyme

1 1/2 teaspoons finely grated lemon zest

1 teaspoon cumin

1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil, plus more for tossing

Kosher salt

Freshly ground pepper

1 pound penne

1/4 pound sliced bacon

1 cup chicken stock or low-sodium broth

4 tablespoons unsalted butter

1/4 cup unsalted roasted pistachios, very finely chopped

1/3 cup chopped parsley

Freshly grated Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese, for serving

Instructions

Active: 45 min
Total Time: 1 hr 15 min
Servings: 6 to 8

Preheat the oven to 400°. Spread the pine nuts in a pie plate and toast for about 3 minutes, until golden brown.

In the bowl of a food processor, combine the asparagus with the carrots and shallot and process until finely chopped. Scrape the mixture into a 9-by-13-inch glass or ceramic baking dish. Stir in the basil, garlic, honey, thyme, lemon zest, cumin and the 1/4 cup of olive oil. Bake for 25 to 30 minutes, stirring once, until the vegetables are soft and just starting to brown. Season with salt and pepper.

Meanwhile, in a large pot of boiling salted water, cook the pasta until al dente, 12 to 14 minutes. Drain, reserving 1/2 cup of the cooking water. Transfer the pasta to a baking sheet and toss with olive oil.

In a large skillet, cook the bacon over moderate heat until crisp, about 6 minutes. Drain the bacon on paper towels and finely chop it.

In a very large skillet, combine the cooked vegetables with the chicken stock and butter and cook over moderate heat, stirring occasionally, until hot, about 4 minutes. Add the pasta, pine nuts, pistachios and the reserved 1/2 cup of pasta water and cook, tossing, until the sauce is thick and the pasta is coated. Stir in the parsley and chopped bacon and season with salt and pepper. Transfer the pasta to bowls and serve, passing the grated cheese at the table.

A mom of three kids already and a natural protector, she wondered, if her child was born, was there something she could do to enhance his chance of survival? Bed rest gave Clark, who had a background in respiratory therapy, time to research.

She landed on an article in the magazine, Mothering, about kangaroo care in Colombia. Kangaroo care is the practice of holding your newborn baby skin to skin, which provides benefits to both the parents and the child. It helps premature babies develop. At the time – 1989 – kangaroo care wasn’t being practiced in the United States.

“I read the article through and thought, ‘Oh, my gosh, they’re holding babies skin to skin and the babies are doing better,’” she said. She contacted a researcher listed in the article, shared her condition with her and asked for medical literature supporting kangaroo care. The researcher sent the information overnight – she doubted Clark had much time before delivering.

Hours after getting the literature, Clark was rushed to United Hospital where she gave birth to Danny, who arrived at just 29 weeks on May 7, 1989. He was taken to the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) at Children’s Hospitals and Clinics of Minnesota in St. Paul.

Danny, born on May 7, 1989

As soon as Danny was born, Clark started asking the neonatologist, Dr. Mark Mammel, if she could try kangaroo care.

“I was interested and also cautious. Maybe it’s growing up in the ’60s, but it seemed like a good idea. Parents holding babies – rocket science? No. But we all worried about the issue of temperature control, monitoring, airway obstruction, and so on,” Mammel said.

Clark persisted. “I asked every day if we could please, please try it,” she said.

Five days after giving birth on Mother’s Day, Clark held Danny for the first time. There were two crash carts and two resuscitation teams nearby – ready in case anything went wrong, she said.

“It was crazy. (Some of the staff) appeared terrified,” she said.

But the minute Clark started holding her son, terror and fear disappeared. She found only comfort and connection.

“It made me feel like his mom,” she said. “It was like I was in my own world with him.”

“Chris was very smart about the process. She initially saw the technique mentioned in a magazine…which I was familiar with as a fringe publication. It was not a great source for me to rely upon. Chris knew this!” Mammel said. “She gathered the actual medical literature – though there wasn’t much – and brought it to me and the group to review. Like all change in a NICU setting, a champion is needed to bring others along. I liked what I read – kangaroo care looked safe and probably beneficial, as well. So I became that champion, working with my partners and the nursing staff to pave the way for Chris to be the first.”

Clark holds Danny skin to skin

Initially, Clark spent about 30 minutes twice a day using kangaroo care.

Danny ultimately spent about nine weeks at Children’s. During that time, he needed nine blood transfusions, experienced numerous spells where he stopped breathing, and early on required a ventilator and 100 percent oxygen.

Prior to leaving, Danny required hernia surgery. Clark held her son for about 24 hours before the operation.  The anesthesiologist visited afterwards to tell her Danny was the “most relaxed baby” he had worked with in his years of surgery.

Danny just turned 24. He’s run a marathon, has no lung or sight problems and is a singer/songwriter, Clark said.

“I believe Danny is who he is because of kangaroo care,” she said.

Kangaroo care is now a standard practice at Children’s and beyond.

“I’m a fairly strong advocate and a fighter for what I think is best for my kids. The fact that it has helped other kids feels like this might be the purpose of my life and, It’s enough,” Clark said. “I was blessed to have enough people that believed in and supported us.”

Today marks International Kangaroo Care Awareness Day – a day we celebrate at Children’s.

“We had always seen ourselves as ‘family-friendly’ – trying kangaroo care was a way for us to really walk the walk. We became recognized around the country for this, though it was never a focus of our research efforts. Others took on that task,” Mammel said. “Today, all our families benefit from this practice, which is as routine as turning on the lights in the morning.”

How long have you worked at Children’s? I’ve been here for 25 years.

Why Children’s? I knew early on in nursing school that I was most happy in my work when kids were involved. Children’s was called Children’s Health Care at the time I applied, and it was “the place” for pediatric care. 

You work in the diagnostic center at our clinic in Minnetonka. Can you describe your job? I have been so lucky in my career. That is the beauty of the nursing profession. I have done camp nursing, home care, private duty, clinic nursing, nursing management and now have landed at Children’s–Minnetonka in the radiology department. The environment is “team focused,” and I am one of many who work with children for sedation procedures done. It is less intense than some of my other positions, which allows me time to “play with kids” at work.

It’s National Nurses Week. What do you enjoy most about your job? What I love about pediatric nursing are the 3- and 4-year olds. If you haven’t had a conversation with one lately you are missing out on life.

If you could travel anywhere in the world, where would it be and why? It took me 50 years, but I have found my passion in nursing. I travel one to two times per year to remote areas of the world with a team of pediatric health care professionals to perform surgery on children who have no access to health care. The poor, orphaned, abandoned and forgotten children. My eyes have been opened, in a whole new way, watching the resilience of a child. I have learned that anywhere in the world you go, all parents want the same thing for their children. A chance at a better life.

Happy Nurses Week to you all!

Today’s children are born into diverse families, both big and small. Grandparents (even great-grandparents), siblings, aunts and uncles, cousins, step families, half families – the family tree can boast many branches.

But not all children are blessed with nurses for family.

On a frigid and snowy January morning, our son, Ziggy, made up his mind to arrive at just 30 weeks. He had a mess of black hair, and he was a true wriggler.  His first cry burst my heart open like a firecracker, breaking it up into a million little pieces of joy that rained all over inside me.  We posed for one brief photo opportunity and then he was promptly admitted to the Special Care Nursery. It was in the nursery that he was cared for by many fabulous nurses, including Kirsten, Martha, and Kelli. Today I want to tell you about Kelli.

Sometimes when people ask me how long we were in the nursery, I tell them Ziggy lived in the nursery for 64,800 minutes (six weeks). As Ziggy’s primary nurse, Kelli was by our side for thousands of those minutes.  On any given day I would spend 720 minutes or more by Ziggy’s isolette, watching him sleep and cry and stretch and kick and try to free himself from the IV jabbed and taped into his ankle or foot or arm. Kelli taught me how to dab Vaseline on his lips when they cracked and position his head so his airway was clear. She patiently taught me how to pick him up when he had more cords attached to him than Clark Griswold plugged into his home at Christmas time. She made me smarter, making sure I understood all of his procedures, even checking up terms with me online. Every inch of his skin, literally, was touched for and cared by so preciously by a woman who had otherwise been a complete stranger to us.

After about 20,000 minutes, I began to notice how his eyes would seek out her voice when she entered his room. I would watch how he’d snuggle into the nook of her shoulder when she burped him, or smack his lips against her gloved knuckle when he was hungry.  When she talked with him, her voice was tender and sweet, with the tone of a healer and a mother and a cohort. She sat watch over his isolette, she fed him, she held him as he literally grew in her hands over time. Many mothers might be jealous of a relationship like this, and I would understand it. But I never was. I considered it an unbelievable honor that this woman was in my son’s life.

Toward the end of his stay, Ziggy surprised everyone by suddenly falling ill with a serious gastrointestinal illness with a high mortality rate. By that time, so many minutes had passed that Kelli knew Ziggy inside and out.  She was able to spot the symptoms when they were still minor, and, because of her attentiveness, an x-ray was given, treatment was started, and my son’s life was probably saved. It was an incredibly emotional time for me. One morning I collapsed into a chair by his isolette, completely beside myself with worry and sadness (and lack of sleep and physical energy). I just wanted someone to tell me when he was going to get better.  It was all I wanted that day, it was all I wanted for so many of those minutes we lived through. I just wanted someone at the hospital, anyone, to tell me he was going to get better.

Kelli didn’t do that.

Instead, Kelli hugged me that day, picked me up enough to keep moving forward.  She entertained me with conversations about reality television.  We looked at photos from blogs about Wal-Mart shoppers and discussed recipes for the CrockPot. We swapped movie recommendations, urging us to stop at a Redbox and watch a movie she and her husband loved (it actually turned out to be half decent).  She gave me fashion advice and we talked how I might recover from bang regret with my new haircut. She talked me through those 900 minutes, and the next 720 minutes after that, and the next 720 minutes after that. All while we checked his temperature dutifully, changed his diapers, monitored his central line, snuggled him through his hunger pains. But she never once told me he was going to get better.

She told me I was going to get stronger.

You know what? I’m proud to say I did. And my husband did. And my son did, too.

After all those minutes together, I realized I didn’t need false promises from anyone that my son was going to get better. Because the little boy who could turn my heart into a firecracker had more strength in his 3-pound body than a 300-pound lion. That was all that mattered.  No need to worry about future minutes when time is so precious right now. None of those minutes in the nursery ever got easier from one day to the next. But each day, with Kelli, we got a little more light-hearted, a little wiser, a little stronger.

You can’t just call Kelli a nurse.  Kelli is family.

Specifically, the agency approved Plan B One-Step, an emergency contraceptive intended to reduce the possibility of pregnancy following unprotected sexual intercourse – if another form of birth control like a condom was not used or failed, the FDA said. It’s a single-dose pill that is most effective in decreasing the possibility of unwanted pregnancy if taken immediately or within 72 hours after unprotected sexual intercourse.

“Research has shown that access to emergency contraceptive products has the potential to further decrease the rate of unintended pregnancies in the United States,” said FDA Commissioner Margaret A. Hamburg, M.D. “The data reviewed by the agency demonstrated that women 15 years of age and older were able to understand how Plan B One-Step works, how to use it properly, and that it does not prevent the transmission of a sexually transmitted disease.”

This presents a timely opportunity to talk to your child about safe sex. Think your kid isn’t having sex? That may be true. But, that doesn’t mean you should avoid talking about it.

We spoke with Children’s physicians Dr. Dave Aughey, medical director of adolescent health, and Dr. Rachel Miller, a pediatric gynecologist, about safe sex.

How/when do I start talking about sex with my child? How often should I have the conversation?

Dr. Miller: A 2011 national survey of high school students found that 19 percent of female and 24 percent of male ninth-grade students were sexually active. The percentage increases to 51 percent of female and 44 percent of male high school seniors. Rates of sexual activity, pregnancies and births among adolescents have continued to decline during the past decade to historic lows, however many adolescents remain at risk of unintended pregnancy and sexually transmitted infections (STIs). The United States has the highest rate of unintended teen pregnancy of any industrialized nation and adolescents acquire half of all STIs in the country each year.

Dr. Aughey: Parents should look for every opportunity to talk and encourage discussions with sons and daughters about feelings, emotions, friendships and relationships. In general, boys have fewer of these opportunities and a lower comfort level than girls.  Use these discussions to reinforce expectations and values. Ground these discussions in their lives — their music, movies, games, schoolwork. Frequent conversations build comfort and trust. Mothers have a particularly strong influence on their daughter’s sexual attitudes and behaviors.

Realize that most teens have their first sexual experience between 16 and 18.  If the current generation of adolescents ends up marrying, it’s not likely to be until their mid- to late ’20s.  So, the “sex talks” need to include protecting oneself from Chlamydia, dating violence, exploitation, getting drunk, and using condoms in addition to the risks of unplanned pregnancy or fathering a child.  Scare tactics never work.  But being responsible includes all of this and more.  Young men, in particular, need to hear these messages more than ever.

Parents hope their children will delay these things as long as possible. But it won’t be forever. The longer your child knows someone, the stronger their feelings, the more in love they are, the more the bets are off. Rather than being scared about the physical aspect of sex, parents should prepare their children to be prepared emotionally, spiritually, and if needed, contraceptively.

My child says he’s not having sex. Should I make protection available anyway – just in case?

Dr. Miller: Condom education and availability programs improve use of condoms, delay sexual initiation of youth and reduce the incidence of STIs and pregnancy. It has been shown that an advanced prescription increased the use of emergency contraception and decreased time to use. No randomized study has shown an increase in sexual activity or decrease in ongoing contraceptive use in adolescents given advanced access to emergency contraception.

Dr. Aughey: Be honest with yourself. You’ve known your child for at least the last 15 years.  What do you think? When teenagers fall in love, everything changes.  It’s not hormones. It’s human nature. It pains me when a patient tells me her mother found her birth control pills and threw them away. Or threw his condoms away.  Really…is this logical? In 25 years, I’ve never encountered a teenager who, in this situation, has said, “I’ve seen the errors of my way…I will break up with my lover.”

What are the most effective forms of protection for my child?

Dr. Miller: It is not only the use of contraceptive method but also the type of method used that can significantly impact unintended pregnancy. Long acting reversible contraceptives demonstrate the greatest success in reducing unintended teen pregnancy. Examples are the subdermal implant and intrauterine systems. I always recommend dual use of a condom to protect against STIs.

Dr. Aughey:With few exceptions, contraception is safe for adolescents, much safer than is pregnancy, by comparison.  That’s not even factoring in all the economic and social perils of unplanned pregnancy or fatherhood.  Long-acting methods like the intrauterine device (IUD) or implant are best as it is difficult for anyone to consistently use pill, patches, rings or condoms.

Plan B is “emergency” protection.  It is never as good as an ongoing method of birth control.  It’s most effective taken as soon as possible.  It needs to be easily accessible to the teen for “emergency” use.  This doesn’t mean calling a clinic the next day, waiting for a prescription, getting it filled, finally taking it and hoping for the best. Ideally it’s taken within 12 hours.

I know my daughter is sexually active. If she needs emergency contraception, where can she get it?

Dr. Miller: Emergency contraception is available at most every pharmacy. One dose usually costs $40 plus tax. Comparatively:

• Four months of oral contraceptives are $9 per month. Without insurance, it’s about $36 plus tax at some local retailers.
• 120 Lifestyles Ultra Thin condoms (3 40-count boxes) are about $33 plus tax.

For more information on talking to your child about sex.

Dr. Molly Martyn joined Children’s General Pediatrics Clinic in Minneapolis last September. She completed her residency and chief residency at Seattle Children’s Hospital and previously worked as a hospitalist and Urgent Care provider in Seattle.

Dr. Molly Martyn

You have some special connections to Children’s.  What are those? I grew up in the Twin Cities and my connection to Children’s started long before I became a pediatrician. I have been a patient, a family member of a patient, and a volunteer at the hospital.

When I was 8 years old, I had my tonsils taken out at Children’s. I remember everything from the Child Life specialist who met with me the morning of my operation to the orange Popsicles I got to eat after my surgery.

The most important way I was connected to Children’s in the past was as the family member of a patient. My younger brother underwent brain and spine surgery at the Minneapolis campus when he was in middle school. It was a scary time for my family, but he was in competent and caring hands, and my family is thankful to this day for the excellent care he received during his hospitalization.

I volunteered at Children’s during college when I was home for the summers. The hospital looked a lot different back then, but the spirit of the volunteer program was the same. Every time I see a volunteer in a red vest around the hospital, it makes me smile.

What drew you to Children’s? The Children’s philosophy of patient-centered care was part of what attracted me to the organization, as was the diverse group of patients we serve. I have the opportunity to work with amazing families in the General Pediatrics Clinic.

There are many things that make our clinic unique, but two aspects stand out for me. One is our Special Needs Children program, focused on providing a medical home for children with complex medical needs. The other is our access to high quality interpreter services, which helps us as medical providers to communicate and connect with every family in their language of preference.

How did you decide to go into pediatrics? Pediatrics has been the perfect career for me because I get to blend the two things I have always enjoyed the most, learning and helping others. In general pediatrics, we join families in conversations about safety, nutrition, preventative medicine and everything else that goes into keeping their children healthy. Parents and guardians are the true experts on their children, and I enjoy partnering with them to provide medical care that is a good fit for their families.

What about kids’ health are you most passionate? I am passionate about ensuring that all children (regardless of their family structure, financial situation, language of preference, etc) have access to high quality healthcare. My hope is that every child has the opportunity to thrive and be as healthy as possible, and an important way to achieve that goal is to create a healthy environment around them.

How do you spend your free time? We provide books at well-child visits through the Reach-Out-and-Read program, which is fun for me because reading has always been my favorite pastime. I also like to do just about anything outside, including biking, swimming, hiking, and playing tennis.  I enjoy everything more when I am around family and friends!