Following several health concerns, my wife and I were ecstatic to learn that we were pregnant with our first daughter. She was due to arrive during the middle of my second year at PNWU, and I could barely contain my joy as I worked to maintain focus on my osteopathic education.
Soon, and much to our surprise, that education and her pregnancy would come together in perfect harmony. Several times throughout the pregnancy, my wife
experienced painful symptoms that she couldn’t seem to identify or resolve: back pain, hand numbness, swelling, and leg pain, to name a few. Those symptoms, to my estimate, seemed almost too perfectly timed to be true. Each time she would tell me a new symptom, that exact patient presentation had been discussed during one of my PNWU labs or lectures.
I used the philosophy of what I was taught when caring for her; I altered my techniques to achieve maximal results. If I needed additional help, faculty would spend time after hours teaching me how to perform specific modalities.
The family atmosphere of PNWU allowed me to learn and help my own family before I’d even made it through my second year. Thanks to the Scottish Rite scholarship, which has helped to ease some of the financial burdens of balancing medical school and raising a young family, I plan to complete my medical education in order to provide that kind of compassionate care for my future patients.
With all sincerity, I thank all the scholarship donors this past year,
James Kramer
Class of 2022