Lucinda Romero, MD

Bio

I have been practicing as a general and vascular surgeon since 1993 when I completed my surgical residency at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, Texas. I am not a Texan, but Baylor was my first choice for medical school and I stayed on for my surgery training as well.

I decided in the 8th grade that I would like to be a medical doctor. Initially I had wanted to be a professional jockey. I rode every horse I ever had an opportunity to get on and I was pretty certain I would never be much over 5 feet tall or 110 lbs. However, I could never get my mother to take me to any race tracks (to be discovered). I then considered equine veterinary medicine but was sensible enough to realize that my smallness of stature would not be much of an asset treating horses on the ground.

That's when I decided my career would be as a physician and I'd have the horses at home. At the time of this writing, I have seven horses at home with more on the way.

As part of my surgery residency, I spent several months at the MD Anderson Cancer Center. It is a tremendous hospital and research center and I almost stayed on for a fellowship in surgical oncology but decided to leave Texas and take a private practice job in Boulder, CO. I loved working and living in Boulder. I left the private practice and started working for Colorado Kaiser Permanente in 1996. At that time there were two Kaiser Permanente clinics in Boulder and we did the hospital work at Boulder Community Hospital. I was very busy, as there were only two surgeons.

It was during this time that I became interested in medical acupuncture and I made the time to learn acupuncture through a UCLA accredited course for physicians. Acupuncture is a fascinating medicine and I had a great deal of success in using it as an adjunct for various surgical type problems. My favorite case was in treating a post gastrectomy patient for prolonged gastroparesis (i.e., he couldn't eat without vomiting because his stomach was not working properly, not an uncommon problem after major gastric surgery especially in an 81-year-old). After trying everything else, he agreed to acupuncture and 24 hours after treatment, he was able to eat. To do it well, acupuncture takes a great deal of time and I couldn't keep up with it and my surgery practice. I think I may go back to it when I retire.

I finally grew tired of overworking in Colorado and the opportunity to come to Santa Rosa was available to me. I started here in December, 2000, and I enjoy it immensely. Kaiser Santa Rosa has a great medical staff and I am proud to be a part of it.

My Medical Specialty

More details about my specialty:

One of the reasons I stayed at Baylor for surgery residency was that I would be able to do plenty of vascular surgery as well as general surgery. I enjoy the different challenges of vascular cases and it balances out my general surgery work. I genuinely love my work and it gives me great satisfaction to see patients go through a major surgery and have their health/life improved as a result of it. However, there are many instances (advanced cancer for example) where the disease is still going to prevail. While I have plenty of compassion and empathy for my patients in these situations, this is the hardest part of my job.

My specialty interests and affiliations within my field:

I am a Fellow in The American College of Surgeons

Interests

Hobby Photos & Links:

Eventing with Dax (Training Level at Ram Tap Horse Trials)

Beach Babes? Dax and I at Point Reyes.

Our horse operation

Family & Friends

People in my life:

While I enjoy my time at work, I have a GREAT time when I am at home with my life partner, Karen E. Young. We have a breeding farm which we run from our home in Sebastopol. We moved here from Boulder, Colorado. We love California and took advantage of the brief opportunity to be married in the San Francisco court house, Spring 2004.

My children and people I care about:

We are breeding Irish Draughts and sport horses for jumping. The foals, yearlings and young horses we have bred are a great joy to me. There is no aspect of their care, health and training which I do not enjoy.

The mares of Kleary Field include: Kleary, our imported Irish Draught, Dax, my Event horse and Lulu, a smart Thoroughbred.

Photos of my Family & Friends:

My partner Karen and I

Karen and I with our Irish mare Kleary

Doctoring Boxster of Kleary Field

Sheaman jumping on the lunge line at home

Kleary's Grace, our first filly!

JP Young, one of our colts, at about 1 week

In addition to the children (horses), we have two dogs and a cat. Ronja is a German Shepard and Keller is a mutt. Both dogs enjoy ranch life as well as backpacking and riding around in the truck. Our cat, Ripley, has been with me since residency (she IS a Texan).

Pet Photos:

Backpacking with Ronja

Backpacking trip to Marble Mountains July 2005

Shea pictured in the Colorado snow

Travel

An adventure I've had:

One of my most memorable adventures was a 50-mile endurance race on my beloved Thoroughbred mare, Shea. The course was in the Colorado high country. Neither Shea nor I had ever ridden anything like 50 miles in a day, but we placed 2nd! It was great.

Favorite place in the world:

I have only recently become a world traveler beginning in 2002 when I took an equine vacation in Ireland. I was already breeding Irish horses at the time, and I thought I should get a little better understanding of the breed and what they were capable of, so off I went to Ireland to ride. It was an outstanding experience. I even found a horse I wanted to bring home! I have returned since, and will again, to sample the amazing friendliness and horsieness of the Irish people.

One of my recent trips:

Besides world travel, I enjoy being outside. One of my best recent trips was a 50-mile backpacking trip through Yosemite National Park in 2005 (with a side trip up Half Dome). The horizons seemed to go on forever, but the trip actually went by quite quickly. I hope to take my own horses on a trip into Yosemite one of these days.

A Photo of One of My Favorite Places:

At the Dublin Horse Show in 2004

Trip Photos:

Karen and I backpacking in Yosemite

Climbing Half Dome (it just looks like I'm going to the moon)