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AI: Okay, so we're continuing with Dr. Ruby, and before the break, one of the things you told us about was how some of your own experiences with your kids affected the advice that you gave to your patients, some of them. And I was wondering if there were any other examples of things, for example, that you experienced when you had your three kids and bringing them up, that affected the advice you gave to your patients?

RI: About, according to my own experience with children?

AI: Yes, right, because, of course, you had your training when you were younger before you had had any kids.

RI: Uh-huh.

AI: And you mentioned that a lot of your training was from women doctors who had not had children, either.

RI: Uh-huh.

AI: So I was wondering what --

RI: Oh, yes. Well, when I was pregnant... when I think about it now, I think, "Well, I guess I didn't know any better," but I must've looked terrible because I was so short. [Laughs] Big. But I remember when I was pregnant with my second child, I must have been about seven or eight months pregnant, and in the middle of the night I went to Providence Hospital one day because I was called to deliver a patient. Well, at the entrance, the nurses were gonna admit me. They thought I was the patient coming in, in labor. But I said, "No, I came to deliver somebody else, they called me and she's almost ready for delivery." So that was one instance.

Then, another time, when I was pregnant and I was talking to another physician over the phone, and, "No, I don't think I'll go because I'm pregnant so I shouldn't be doing..." then he said, "Oh, that's too bad, you're pregnant." And I always resented what he said. Why would he say that that's too bad just because he's a man and he can't be pregnant, maybe. [Laughs] But anyway, I remember that comment from a male physician. Then another thing about being female, is that in a doctor's office there's also always lots of drug representatives, pharmacy representatives, who come trying to tell you about new medicines. And one day, one of 'em said to me, "How come there's so many men sitting around here?" I said, "Well, they're my patients." And he said, "I thought women physicians only treated women." I said, "No. I have lot of men physicians -- men patients." And he was so surprised. So then I was thinking that lot of my male patients, I think they feel more comfortable with a woman. Maybe they don't feel as threatened, maybe they, they're not as scared -- well, they're always scared, anyway, but maybe they feel more comfortable, maybe I'm sort of like their mothers or sisters, or something like that. So I always felt that having a male patient was fine, that they were comfortable.

But I remember one man telling me -- I think he was in his seventies -- and I examined patients without a nurse assisting me, I do everything myself. I help them get dressed and undressed and all that. And I was examining his chest and listening to his lungs. He said, he said to me, "If I were a younger man, your feeling me would get me aroused," or something like that. He said it in Japanese. I says, "Oh," and then I just went on doing whatever I did. But you know, from then on I was trying to be very careful. But at least he told me that, which was fine. But I never hesitated doing full examinations on male or female, you know, whatever needed to be done, I did. And they accepted whatever I did, so there was no problem.

I always felt that treating the Isseis was a teaching episode, too, because many of them, while they were being examined they'd talk about their lives and how they are at home. And one Issei lady told me that she came to Seattle as a bride about nineteen years old and immediately her husband started to call her "baasan." And she said she was so insulted but that was the Japanese male ego, calling a young nineteen-year-old a grandma, and ordering her to do this and that. And, and she was telling me about her early life so they told me a lot about their stresses and what hardships they went through. So it was very interesting. I, I really liked the Issei people because I always felt that gosh, they were so trusting, whatever I told them, they accepted. I don't remember anyone refusing to get an operation because they didn't want to, or, you know, not -- I mean, going against medical advice. I don't remember anybody refusing anything. And I thought, "My gosh they're really trusting me so much, I better be very sure that I'm giving them the best information." [Laughs] So I always felt that responsibility to them because they didn't question whatever I asked them or whatever I told them. And if I didn't know I would refer them to another doctor. So...

<End Segment 41> - Copyright © 2003 Densho. All Rights Reserved.