Gynecologic Oncologist Johanna Kelley, MD

[00:00:00]When I was four, I wrote down options about what I might wanna do when I grew up, and I guess one of them says "I want to cure cancer" (laughs) on it, so (laughs) I think that it's been there from the beginning.

[00:00:11]I'm a gynecologic oncologist, which means that I take care of women with cancer or patients who have any gynecologic malignancy.

[00:00:21]And my special areas of interest within that include complex surgery, HIPEC, which is hyperthermic intraperitoneal chemotherapy at the time of surgery, and then also fertility-sparing options for patients.

[00:00:37]I'm privileged to be able to do both their surgery and chemotherapy, which gives me great continuity of care with patients.

[00:00:44]First visit with a patient, we talk about what current symptoms they've been having, what brought them into my office, what their medical history is, their family history.

[00:00:55]I try to focus on the patient themselves and get to know you as a person and what's important to you, you know, what roles you have in your life, whether you are a caregiver for other people or working, and what activities you have going in your life that are essential for you to maintain in order for you to have good quality of life.

[00:01:19]I try to give them an overview of what everything will look like, but also spend time answering all of their questions and assuring them that we have a great team here and that we will be with them every step of the way.

[00:01:34]I actually work to lead our GYN Oncology Tumor Board Conference, and so that includes coordinating the care between all of those different specialties.

[00:01:45]So for complicated cases, we review them all together and make a plan as a team.

[00:01:51]I'm also part of a team that is working on fertility-sparing options for patients with colorectal cancer, so doing something called a uterine transposition to move the uterus and then exit out of the radiation field while they receive treatment for that.

[00:02:08]And then later on putting them back down into the pelvis.

[00:02:12]We get to know everyone's family and really get to see them get back to their life after cancer treatment and enjoying the things that they love to do, which is the most rewarding part.

[00:02:25]So I have two young children that I'm spending my time with at home along with my husband, and we like to do things outside in nature.