Page 129 - South Mississippi Living - June, 2018

Never missing “Do what you have to a Beat
Cdo and move on”
Compassionate, caring, and thoughtful are a few of the words that could be used to describe Chelsea Grow, D.O., and that endear her to the neurology patients who seek her professional expertise. A transplanted New Englander, she brings many more traits to her
medical practice and to life in general.
“No one in my family was in medicine. My parents were teachers and instilled a strong
sense of studying in me, so I knew I could do it,” Grow recalls.
story by Lynn Lofton photo by Katherine Sowers
Grow, who is a neurologist with Memorial Physician Clinics, grew up in Scranton, Pennsylvania, where there’s lots of snow — a factor that made her want to move to the South. She had a fall at age 13 that broke her back, followed by spinal surgery. At this young age, and starting a new high school, she learned how to navigate life in a wheelchair and hasn’t looked back.
“I don’t know how I got through it,” she recalls. “I didn’t miss a beat.” That’s putting it modestly. An honor student, Grow made it through snow that was sometimes three feet deep, drove a car, had her own apartment, graduated from Kings College in Wilkes- Barre, Pennsylvania, and from the Philadelphia College of Osteopathy Medicine, and then served a residency at George Washington University Medical School. She remembers being one of only three students who made it to class at Kings College one very snowy day and the professor’s amazement at seeing her.
“From a young age I was motivated and driven and had a strong work ethic,” she says.
An interest in psychology fueled her decision
to choose neurology as a specialty. “Neurology encompasses a lot of areas such as Parkinson’s, neuropathy, strokes, seizures, and migraine headaches — that’s a lot of what we see in clinic,” she says. “I’ve had no second thoughts about my specialty.”
Always learning (her parents’ influence), Grow did a fellowship for three subspecialties: electromyography (EMG), sleep disorders and headache.
Asked what she enjoys most about practicing medicine, she responds quickly, “Being able to help people. There are book smarts — and we need that formal education — but there’s also the intuitive side
of things, ‘reading’ people and letting them know they’re okay. These things overlap. I also like to steer patients in the right direction; we’ve seen people
who were misdiagnosed. We use general medicine, neurology and psychology, and I like putting all three of those together.”
The fact that Grow doesn’t fit the mold of how most people visualize physicians puts patients at ease,
she believes. “They feel they can be heard; they’re comfortable and open up with me,” she said.
Additionally, Grow says she’s looked at things differently since becoming a mother. Sons, Chad, 9, and Sage, 5, are students at Coast Episcopal School and inspire her every day. “We go through different phases in life and they are the center of mine now; they’re sweet boys,” she says. “Also, I have the best job in the world, which makes it easier to get up and go every day.”
Another source of inspiration is hearing about patients’ appreciation for what she does. “We hear that and ‘thank you’ several times a day,” she said. “There is nothing I would rather do.”
This professional mom likes staying busy. She
drives her children to school and never misses their activities. Admitting she doesn’t relax enough, the boys are her priority, but she also enjoys catching up with friends, listening to music and getting out on the water in her boat.
A bona fide Coast resident, Grow moved here in July 2005 and the next month rode out Hurricane Katrina at Memorial Hospital. “My timing wasn’t great,” she says wryly, “but I wanted to move somewhere warm. I had no idea about hurricanes. This is home now and my sons don’t know anything different.”
What, if any, life advice does Grow give to others? “Do what you have to do and move on.”
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June 2018 • SOUTH MISSISSIPPI Living 129