Becoming an author, mother, and leader in veterinary medicine

On this week's episode of The Vet Blast Podcast presented by dvm360, Lynsey Victoria Rinelli, DVM, joins our host Adam Christman, DVM, MBA to discuss what her journey to becoming an author looked like. Christman and Rinelli discuss what inspired her to become an author, plus her experience in Alaska where she participated in the aid of canine racers.

Throughout the episode, the duo tackles what it is like to be a mother in veterinary medicine, highlighting some challenges that mothers face, and why women need to empower and uplift each other.

Below is a partial transcript, edited lightly for clarity.

Adam Christman, DVM, MBA: Okay, so let's talk about, let's take that veterinarian hat off for a moment, and let's talk about the writing cap. So what inspired you to start writing?

Lynsey Victoria Rinelli, DVM: So I think that time where I wasn't in the clinic and I had nothing to do but take care of my daughter those three months after having her, so I was like, You know what we do a certain routine every morning. We go to her window, we say good morning to everything and anything, just to teach her so, good morning grass, good morning sky, good morning birds. And just reading to her every night, I was like, You know what? This would be really fun to try as a second project.

Christman: So cut to the fact that, because there's so many areas that you can write about, and then so you're probably that's more of a, well, we'll cut to because you decided to go into the children's aspect of writing, right?

Rinelli: Yes, yeah that was my first book. I took that aspect and kind of threw it into New York City, okay? Just to say, Okay, I had her during COVID, so it was a hard time where you can't really go to certain places. What do you do with your baby, you know? What do you actually do to show them the world, other than staying at home? So I was like, this is a nice, you know, memoir, and something helpful for moms to say, like, you could still go outside, you can still do the little things and make every day count.

Christman: And, I mean, I can only imagine, to the moms out there, my hat's off to you, because, you know, dealing with, you know, postpartum, and dealing with raising the baby and then trying to figure out, like, your your next, your new normal of like, going back to work, and what that might look like as a veterinarian and as a mom. There's gotta be so many challenges with right?

Rinelli: Oh, absolutely. Going back to work was the biggest challenge, because, especially in the ER, you go from zero to 60, and then you're home, and it's just that's all you do. You're just taking care of your baby. You don't have a million different things that you have to organize through your day and then jumping back into it. Now without your baby is just it's a big change.