-: My name is Melissa Byrne Nelson.
I'm a pediatrician in Richmond, Virginia.
Pediatricians take care of children from birth,
generally to about 18,
some take care of kids all the way up through 21.
Actually, in our practice,
if we have a child with special needs, let's say,
we tend to take them till they're 21.
But most other children, we let them go when they turn 18.
A developmental behavioral pediatrician
really digs a little deeper, and spends a little more time,
sort of, sorting out which parts are delayed.
Is it a motor skill, for example,
or their legs not working right, is it a speech delay,
or is it something to do with their social skills,
which can be really subtle and take some time.
And several days a week, I'm off around seven in the morning
heading to the hospital to see newborns,
which is always really exciting.
And after my newborn exams and visits in the hospital,
I head on over to my office and begin seeing children
for check-ups or sick visits.
Sick visits tend to be quicker,
could be an earache, it could be a sore throat,
sometimes they're longer, stomach ache for months,
and you're trying to sort out
is this a child who's having constipation issues
or is this a child who's suffering from school worries,
and the stomach aches are just before school,
or is this a child who has really serious chronic illness?
So, calls can be hard,
and we're on call pretty often, as pediatricians.
So an earache in the middle of the night
can be a really big thing for an entire family,
depending on their, how bad the pain is,
the living situation, if everyone's suddenly up
and everyone, you know, parents have work in the morning,
so it can be really stressful.
And for me, you know, it's just a simple earache,
so it's sort of, even in the middle of the night,
those calls, trying to understand the perspective
of the person who's calling you,
they're scared,
and so you're trying to figure out
is this something that can wait till the morning,
is this something that needs to be dealt with right now,
or they need to be, you know, get up and go to a hospital.
But the call is definitely a big part
of the lifestyle of a pediatrician.