I used to be an elite gymnast. I competed all over the world, including the Olympics, for my home country of Venezuela. I was never the tallest or the strongest or the most flexible gymnast on the team, but I was small and somehow graceful. My favorite event was floor exercises, where I could escape into the music and lose myself in the dancing, jumping, and flipping.

World-class gymnasts start young. I was just 5 years old when I began training. It was fun—a lot of fun, actually—but the work was grueling. I trained up to 8 hours a day, and 8 hours every day before major competitions.

The discipline and commitment required to compete at the highest level proved valuable in multiple areas of my life, including school. There was no time for naps or television. I remember doing my homework at school because I had to go to the gym and train for at least 4 hours every afternoon. Planning life around those long hours in the gym taught me time management skills that proved invaluable when juggling my responsibilities as an oncology fellow.

Unfortunately, I had to retire at 16 because of multiple injuries. I twisted both ankles, injured my back and right knee, and fractured multiple fingers. Eventually, I became too old and too injured to continue, but this allowed me to focus on school. 

Gymnastics gave me the discipline and commitment to do my best in all the diff erent areas of my life. Therefore, I decided to apply to medical school, which became the most important competition of my life. I attended the Universidad Central de Venezuela, where 19,000 applicants competed for 150 medical school spots. Getting in felt like the most crucial gold medal I'd ever won.

While in medical school, my former coach asked me to join her as a gymnastics coach for the Special Olympics teams. I accepted her off er and managed to teach gymnastics 3 days every week whenever I wasn't on call. I worked with 17 athletes who had intellectual disabilities, mostly Down syndrome and autism, from ages 8 to 32.

In 2011, I became the National Team's head coach for the World Summer Special Olympic Games. I traveled with 8 athletes, all with Down syndrome, to Athens, Greece. As with any national team, we trained together, slept together, ate together, and lived together. I had to make sure the athletes took all their medications as prescribed and help them get dressed for the training sessions and competitions.

My 8 gymnasts won 30 Special Olympic medals: 15 gold, 8 silver, and 7 bronze. In 2012, 6 athletes brought home 22 medals from the Pan-American and Caribbean games, including 13 gold.

The transformative power of sports to infuse confidence, improve health, and inspire a sense of competition is at the core of Special Olympics. The experience changed my life completely. When trying to find any available extra time to teach, I realized that I learned more from these athletes than what I could ever teach.

Sometimes people ask me what the biggest challenge is when training athletes with special needs and intellectual disabilities; the honest answer is just patience. They can achieve anything and everything asked of them. It takes a little more practice and a little more time, but eventually, they will get there.

On the other hand, I learned so much from these athletes and their unconditional love, open hearts, spirit, and dedicated and supportive families. I have no words to describe how grateful I am for having them in my life. They still own a piece of my heart.

Outside of gymnastics, my athletes are very high-functioning professionals. The younger ones went to integrated schools, and most of the older athletes work in multiple areas. One, for example, works as an accountant for one of the largest national banks; another for an internationally recognized soda company. They venture outside the barriers of society by choosing courage over comfort every day.

Today, I can recognize and appreciate how my early life experiences have made and will make me a better hematology/oncology physician. I can see how some of the tools I learned, like patience and the power of listening, are extremely helpful in guiding patients through receiving their diagnosis, treatment, follow-up, and even their end-of-life care. It has given me a greater awareness of the mental challenges and concerns for a patient’s quality of life and their family’s experiences.

The compassion I developed while working with people with special needs taught me how to lean forward, sit down at the same level, and communicate effectively to make sure my patients and their families understand my message. Moreover, teaching is something I enjoy doing inside and outside of gymnastics and will continue to do as part of my career as a medical educator.

I strongly believe that I am the best version of myself when I’m helping others, especially those in need. Despite the long hours, multiple calls, and sleepless nights, I always remember that no matter what I want to do in life, I have to keep going, keep training, be patient, take risks, and keep doing it. With wholehearted commitment and perseverance, anything is possible. I learned that from the best—my athletes.

Valentina Baez Sosa, MD: Hematology/Oncology Fellow at MedStar Washington Hospital Center, Washington, DC

Articles

Valentina Baez Sosa, MD, shares how her early life experiences in gymnastics and coaching have helped her become a better hematology/oncology physician.

Gymnastics Makes Me a Better Oncologist

The number of patients with coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) continues to rise, with more than 117 million confirmed cases and 2.6 million deaths worldwide as of March 9, 2021.

 I never thought I would be included in that statistic; despite my abundance of caution, I was infected with COVID-19. Although most patients present with mild symptoms and convalesce at home, a minority of patients, often with significant comorbidities, will be hospitalized and have a higher incidence of critical or fatal disease.

On a Sunday afternoon, I was running my usual 5K to prepare my mind and spirit for the challenges of the week ahead. I noticed I was more tired than usual. Three days later, I was exhausted walking up the stairs. Later that night, I experienced coughing, muscle pain, and extreme fatigue. Suspecting I might have contracted COVID-19, I called my chief fellow, program director, and occupational health to get tested. When the results came back, my greatest fear became real. I had the virus. My main concern was not only my well-being but the safety of my patients and colleagues.

After missing several weeks of work, I was dealing with a mix of guilt, fear, and uncertainty. I realized that if I did not do something proactive to work on my overall health, my anxiety would grow and affect my patient care and my life. I want to share 4 strategies that helped me cope and improve my well-being during that difficult time.

, Jay Shetty recounted how, on his first day of instruction, he noticed a 10-year-old monk teaching a group of younger children how to breathe. Instead of numbers or the alphabet, he said that “breathing is the only one constant through your life. Your friends, family, the country you live in, your health—all that can change. But breathing is always with you. When you are stressed, angry, or anxious, your breathing can change. If you learn to navigate and manage your breathing, you can navigate any situation in life.”

Meditation has been an invaluable tool to achieve mindful breathing for me. But it takes practice. With a fellow’s busy schedule, sitting in silence for 30 minutes or even 5 is difficult if not impossible.

However, after learning all the benefits of meditation, I had to carve out time in my day. How much time could I devote?

Three minutes. Every morning, I park my car outside the hospital and use a meditation app. I close my eyes and focus on my breathing for 3 minutes. It is not much, but the practice has changed my days completely.

I learned from Marc Brackett, PhD, director of the Yale Center for Emotional Intelligence, that emotional literacy can affect overall wellness, with a particularly strong effect on new learning, relationships, decision-making, physical health, and performance. Feelings are meant to be felt. By using his evidence-based RULER skills, you can

Recognize emotions in yourself and others.

The most important question that we often fail to take seriously is, “How are you feeling?” You must be willing to ask yourself that question and listen to the honest answer to achieve emotional intelligence.

Even when we are surrounded by people, we can feel lonely. Different from the isolation that is based on the number of people around you, loneliness is defined as a discrepancy or a gap between the connection you need and the social connection you have.

 There is no doubt that the pandemic has enhanced social isolation and loneliness worldwide.

Nowadays, it is widely understood that one of the most critical factors in preventing and addressing toxic stress is healthy social connection.

 While a traumatic past may increase our fear of bad things happening, we are not defined by our history. It is in our relationships with one another that we can find healing and a better path forward.

 Therefore, an antidote to loneliness is seeing the power of connection and creating a network or a community of people who share your sense of purpose and interests.

A meaningful shared experience like joining online cooking classes, painting, yoga classes, or simply showing up with kindness, gratitude, and compassion for yourself and others can make a huge difference in creating meaningful connections. Sharing my experience might resonate with you, and then we are not lonely anymore. By sharing the same path, we can rescue one another.

Emotional exhaustion, depersonalization, and decreased sense of accomplishment are the 3 components of burnout.

 Exacerbated by COVID-19, the incidence of burnout is as high as 44% among 4424 physicians in a cross-sectional study.

 Higher levels of stress require more effective ways of managing that stress.

Understanding the distinction between the stressors that we cannot control (external) and the stress that we feel in our bodies (internal) was crucial for me to avoid burnout. I learned that emotions are like a tunnel with a beginning, a middle, and an end. We experience burnout and emotional exhaustion when we get stuck in that tunnel.

How do we close the stress cycle? Emily Nagoski, PhD, and Amelia Nagoski, DMA, have written extensively on managing stress and burnout. They have found that physical activity is probably the most efficient way to deal with stress.

Any activity counts: running, dancing, biking, swimming, stretching, yoga. There is increasing evidence highlighting the positive effects of exercise on mental health through different physiological and biochemical mechanisms that we all know.

If you do not believe me, try at least 15 minutes early in the morning of any aerobic or nonaerobic activity you like and see how your day goes. After a difficult day, try running for 30 minutes outside, and your body will let you know that you have completed the stress cycle. Breathe, feel, share, and run is my new mantra.

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Think Like a Monk: Train Your Mind for Peace and Purpose Every Day

Permission to Feel: Unlocking the Power of Emotions to Help Our Kids, Ourselves, and Our Society Thrive

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The COVID-19 pandemic has inspired a new mantra for wellness in the oncology community and beyond.

Valentina Baez Sosa, MD

Articles

Gymnastics Makes Me a Better Oncologist

COVID-19 Inspires a New Mantra for Wellness