Cardiologist: eat as little as possible

He had a lot of experience, trying different medical fields and even working as a doctor on merchant ships.

Cardiologist S. Norkienė has been working at Klaipda Seamen’s Hospital for 37 years. “Maybe you won’t write that year, it sounds so horrible,” said the interlocutor during the conversation. But then he admitted that it was the experience and skills he gained on the job that dispelled all fears over the years.

How did you get to medicine? Perhaps you followed the example of your parents?

My parents in Telšiai were teachers, not doctors. I had a friend who died in the tenth grade. I graduated from school with a gold medal and entered medicine in Kaunas, because I really believed that I would cure everyone, that I would find medicines that would help everyone. The competition featured 18 people in one place. They offered me to join a reinforced group, I had to do a long test. Assembled a very strong group, many still working in medicine, they have reached high positions.

Those like me, who work as a simple doctor, are almost gone. I like treating the sick, I work in a hospital all my life. I never regretted choosing medicine. I really can’t imagine what else it could be. Well, unless I’m a lawyer because I have a good language (laughs). My two sons are lawyers, neither of whom chose medicine. In the family, the doctors still have the husband’s brother and wife.

Why cardiology?

At first I wanted to be a gynecologist. From the third year I started working in the Kaunas clinics as a nurse. I worked for three years and realized that gynecology is not my field. They still offered me endocrinology, but for me it was not for my heart. During several summers in Telšiai I volunteered for a speedboat because I wanted to “try” this profession. I realized that accelerating is very hard work. I became a cardiologist. After graduating from university, I had to work according to my appointment, but I did not want to go to the villages and it was impossible to stay in Vilnius or Kaunas. I wanted to go to Telšiai, but I only needed pediatricians and ambulances. I had the idea of ​​becoming a ship doctor.

Why?

I thought I would swim, learn English, and leave whenever I wanted. Some wanted not to be released to the sea for safety. I succeeded and was a ship’s medic for two years.

But I was a man from the coast, I didn’t even know what life was like on board.

What was work like on board?

I worked in the merchant marine. I still learned dentistry before I left. I had to pull my teeth on the boat, put on a cast. Once, a woman began to complain of pain that indicates gallstones. The ship was going through the Kiel canal at that time, it’s like a highway on land. I told the captain that the woman needed help. All the boats retreated to the sides and created a “green” corridor for us. A German doctor was called in Kiel, we handed the woman over for surgery and a few days later she was returned to us. There was a call from doctors on other ships to advise on how to proceed. Fortunately, during my study years I worked in a hospital and had experience. I remember that Sigitas, the brother of Bronislavas Vyšniauskas, was sailing together, he had to pull his teeth.

In an effort to keep him from hurting, I injected him with so much medicine that his cheek was numb for two days.

I learned and understood what the epidemiological situation is on board. Came to the inspection to check, there was an iron order.

Strangely they ordered me to leave the door open if I was talking to someone or having tea. At night, for safety, they told me to lock the door, but I never did. There were different rules of the sea that I, the man from the coast, did not understand.

Have you visited many countries, maybe someone from the trip has memorized it?

We were in Cuba, we were in North Korea for a month, we visited New Guinea. In North Korea, they took us to a store where there were all kinds of infusions of all diseases. After shopping, Bocman got drunk and said, “I didn’t feel anything.” We tried oysters that I hadn’t seen or heard before. The ships had to be on duty on the ships off the coast of Africa, as the locals tried to climb onto the ships with ropes.

During our visit to Cuba, we all wanted to bring back those big shells. I had a broken hat, worn sandals, a peaked hat, the glasses weren’t new either, but somehow I swapped those items for the sinks I still have. At that time, no one controlled the removal of the shells. The Cuban people really wanted a domestic soap, a cologne.

I sailed in boats until pregnancy.

How did you find yourself in Klaipeda?

I chose to work in Klaipeda, because near Telšiai, where my parents lived, now their graves, one sister still lives, the other – in Klaipeda.

I say that I live in the golden triangle, my home in Tauralaukis, I work at Seamen’s Hospital and at Klaipeda University.

When I return home, I sit on my bike and, having lost 8 kilometers, I am by the sea. Where else are those opportunities?

He defended his dissertation later, as he had started working in a hospital. What was your job about?

I was already working at Seamen’s Hospital when I wrote a dissertation at Vilnius University with two young children externally for a year and a half. The children also helped me, I can say that I wrote more than one. I worked at the Sailors’ Center, sailors came, I studied their health. The work was on the health of seafarers, risk factors. I had to work hard, I didn’t see if it was winter or summer. I mobilized writing at night.

What are your hobbies on how to relax? Maybe you travel, do sports, read?

I am not going to the mountains. I have skis, in the winter after work at night I do slopes at home and I slide around with the dog. I like it. Neighbors once thought there was a child there. Another hat with a bob, dressed in my son’s jumpsuit … In winter I really miss the activities because I’m sick of the bike. When I was writing my thesis, I came from the hospital and all my thoughts were only about patients. I sat on a bicycle and went to Melnrage, Giruliai, Šventoji, Palanga.

Now I cycle to my daughter to visit my grandson. Sometimes we travel with my husband. I like to bike along the river to Meridian, then ride the ferry, buy smoked fish, and drive home. I am the happiest person to return.

While studying at school, I finished basketball school in Telšiai, I was even in the Telšiai national team. Now the laughter begins. Some women I know, they remember playing basketball, they say we were two small but angry (laughs). I accept as a compliment that I have not changed much.

Another hobby is photography, I made slides. I scanned them, made photo albums: photos of ships, children, relatives. I wrote a family story with photos. There was a lot of work, I put a lot of heart, I had to gather a lot of information. Now I want to make an album for my grandson Pran, but I still can’t find the time.

I still want to make an album for the two of them with my husband. November will turn 35 since we are married. The most interesting thing was that my husband and I had been neighbors since we were 5 years old, we were fighting in the yard.

The future mother-in-law would have said: “Now you are urinating, then you are grazing.” He reminded us of it during the wedding.
Fate brought him together, as he then came to the college dorm to visit his brother and went “to a neighbor.” It turned out that he walked with a goal.

He has also been the head of the Department of Public Health at Klaipeda University for several years.

I doubted a bit if I would be able to lead. Now I would say that I found my place because I like the academic community and this job. I work as a cardiologist at the hospital and here at the university. I am glad that a large group of students is gathering as more and more healthcare professionals are needed. To the conferences I bring all kinds of posters and devices, we go with the students to the hospital so that they acquire as much knowledge as possible. As a representative of the university, I am invited to work in the working groups of the Center for Assessment of Study Quality, I give lectures in the health offices, in the 3rd century universities in western Lithuania.

What is the health of our society that you are telling students about?

People, especially young people, pay more attention to their health, they are interested in a healthy lifestyle. Stop eating anything, move more. When I arrived in Klaipeda, there were not so many bikes and hiking trails, and now I don’t ride quietly on weekends, because there are already a lot of cyclists.

In the past, many people were admitted to the hospital under very high pressure, but did not receive treatment. Now people are more or less treated, as we say, trapped, people are proactively measuring pressure, monitoring diet. We are intelligent.

Diabetes was like an expletive, now people still consume too much sugar. I wish the whole world didn’t put that sugar everywhere, not even on herring. But this is a business. You need to eat as bland as possible because it is healthier. Eating healthy requires a lot of willpower. Sometimes my husband and I joke that we eat like servants.