Paul Szmal: FLX Morning continues at 8.39. We've warmed up nicely here in the past half hour. We went from 51 to 58 under clear, sunny skies. And I'm joined now by Kim Alacqua from UR Medicine Finger Lakes Health. Good morning, Kim. How are you?
Kim Ilaqua, Nicole DeFayette: I'm great morning, Paul. How are you?
Paul Szmal: Doing good. Doing good.
So we've got a large flyer sitting here in front of us here for what looks to be a pickleball tournament coming up?
Kim Ilaqua, Nicole DeFayette: Yes. We're very excited. It's going to be the first time we've hosted this. It's a pickleball for health. It's going to be on Saturday, October 18th. It's for the Finger Lakes Health Foundation, as well as the Friends of Geneva General Hospital, which is the Geneva General Hospital Auxiliary. It is a fundraiser for the foundation. We're raising money for a new x-ray suite at Geneva General Hospital. It is going to be from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. on the 18th at Geneva High School at the new Pickleball Courts.
There's going to be a clinic in the morning that is hosted by Inna Pickle from Canadaigua. It's $35 per player, and that includes breakfast, lunch, as well as some drawing tickets. You can also have a family of four for $25 for the clinic. That is going to be before the tournament. Pickleballs and rackets are going to be provided to the players, and you can register online at flhealth.org. We hope everyone will come out and join us.
Paul Szmal: I like the sounds of this because pickleball has just kind of exploded here in the past couple of years.
Kim Ilaqua, Nicole DeFayette: It sure has, and it's amazing how many people are volunteering to help and want to come play. We're really excited about this.
Paul Szmal: Yeah, it sounds like it's going to be a good time, and again, that's October the 18th, and that's at the Geneva High School's brand new Pickleball Courts.
Kim Ilaqua, Nicole DeFayette: Yeah, so we're very grateful for the partnership with the high school and with Inna Pickle and everyone who's helping us with this.
Paul Szmal: Yeah, it sounds like, like I said, it sounds like fun. Have you ever tried?
Kim Ilaqua, Nicole DeFayette: No, I have not.
Paul Szmal: Me neither. I'm curious. I want to try it sometime. I'm not sure that playing in a tournament would be the right place to do it, but maybe the clinic.
Kim Ilaqua, Nicole DeFayette: Yeah, you can come out for the clinic prior.
Paul Szmal: Yeah, absolutely. That would work.
Would you like to introduce our guest, Kim?
Kim Ilaqua, Nicole DeFayette: Yes. Today we have Nicole Defiat with us. She is a nurse practitioner with UR Medicine Neurology in our Geneva office. She works with Dr. Lucas Arek, and we're very excited to have Nicole here with us today. Nicole, good morning. How are you this morning?
Kim Ilaqua, Nicole DeFayette: Hi. Good morning. Thank you for having me. I'm happy to be here.
Paul Szmal: Yeah, absolutely. Tell me a little bit about your career path. What first got you into medicine in general?
Kim Ilaqua, Nicole DeFayette: Yeah, so actually my very first nursing job out of nursing school, we'll backtrack a little bit. I actually was a recipient of a nursing scholarship through Geneva High School, which set me on my career path at college, went to Damon College, and actually came back to Geneva. My first nursing job was at Geneva General Hospital. I did a year there, thought I wanted to live in Buffalo, went back to Buffalo, decided Geneva was the place for me, and came back. I've been with the University of Rochester since that time, so it was 2013. And in 2020, I finished my graduate degree as a nurse practitioner, and I joined our neurosurgery team.
Neurosurgery's always been a passion for me, especially the intricacies of a surgical service. I spent almost four years in our neuromedicine ICU at Strong, which really gave me that backbone of neurology and that passion to be in this service. And then I've been lucky enough to slowly work my way back home to Geneva, and I'm very, very lucky, very happy to talk about neurosurgery in Geneva and how we're kind of growing this specialty here.
Paul Szmal: Yeah, this is a very complicated specialty, isn't it?
Kim Ilaqua, Nicole DeFayette: Yeah, we do a lot. You know, I think a lot of times people think of neurosurgery bringing the brain, and we love the brain, and we do a lot of workup for the brain, but a lot of our practice is actually spine, and that's what affects most of our patients day to day. So that's the bulk of our practice, and really what we've been bringing as far as a specialty to the region. Dr. Arsh is trained in complex spine, and we've brought a lot of new techniques and technology to Geneva and really expanding our focus here.
Paul Szmal: That's fascinating to me. Can you explain or give an example of a spine-related neurological problem?
Kim Ilaqua, Nicole DeFayette: Yeah. So a lot of people think of back pain initially, and a lot of spine problems start with back pain. A lot of what we treat are more those functional debilitating symptoms like radicular leg pain or neurogenic claudication, which is where there's compression of the nerves that starts to inhibit your ability to walk or your mobility. So functionally, that starts to limit you, and that's a lot of times what brings patients to see us, and then we talk about what the options are.
Paul Szmal: Wow. That's interesting. Now what about the other elements of neurosurgery? Because if you're doing that primarily, I know that still you're going to wind up treating people that have neurological issues of some kind.
Kim Ilaqua, Nicole DeFayette: Right, right. So a lot of times, either we're the first stop or our colleagues in neurology. We partner very closely with some local neurologists, and we work on kind of this comprehensive workup for patients. So yes, we do treat spine, but we also treat brain things like brain tumors, lesions in the brain and the spine, and we can do that all here in Geneva, which is really a fantastic thing for our patients.
Paul Szmal: Yeah, and this is all kind of encompassed within the neurological department at Geneva General.
Kim Ilaqua, Nicole DeFayette: Correct. So as far as a neurosurgical service, Dr. Arsh and I are kind of growing and expanding these services that once these patients in the past had to travel to other regions to get the care.
Paul Szmal: Yeah, that's great that they're able to get that level of care now right here at home versus having to travel.
Kim Ilaqua, Nicole DeFayette: Right, right, right. And Dr. Arsh, kind of his specialty and his focus is on complex spine, and he's brought a lot of techniques and training here that we also didn't have as far as spine treatment. So things like minimally invasive spine surgery, which is probably the largest kind of procedural base that we do that really enhances patient recovery. There's much less downtime. The patients, you know, instead of having that long, prolonged recovery, we can kind of cut that down and get them back to a functional state a lot faster. So that's probably, I would say, our focus on spine in the area, even to narrow it down more.
Paul Szmal: Now, that's interesting. Minimally invasive spine surgery. That's something that maybe 5, 10 years ago wasn't a thing.
Kim Ilaqua, Nicole DeFayette: Yeah, it wasn't a thing. Even five years ago, I would say it was much less practiced, especially in regional areas. You may have seen it at bigger institutions, but at some of our smaller regional hospitals, this is definitely something that's new and growing, and we're very lucky to have somebody that's specialized in that already.
Paul Szmal: So what goal do you and your co-workers have for the department to grow the department?
Kim Ilaqua, Nicole DeFayette: Yeah, so our goal is mostly education, you know, working with PCPs, working with patients and family. We're really family-centered care, so it's the patient and their loved ones and their friends and family. To get them through a really tough time and educate others that we have this service. Not everything we do is surgical either. I think there's kind of a stigma to seeing a surgical service and thinking the only option is surgery. But we have lots of, if you would, tools in our toolbox to help people get through what often is a difficult time. So just kind of spreading the word that we have these services here and we're here to help.
Paul Szmal: Can you tell me a little bit about some of those different tools? Because I had that exact thought that if you're going to see a neurosurgeon, then obviously your ultimate endgame was going to be a surgical procedure and I'm finding out that's not the case.
Kim Ilaqua, Nicole DeFayette: Right, and I do preface some of my visits with patients who look a little scared seeing us to say, you know, not all of our conversations end up surgical. And often we try conservative treatments first. So things like medication management, physical therapy, chiropractic care. We have great physical therapists and chiropractic offices in the area that we work closely with as well. And then we also offer things like injections. We have kind of a big toolbox of different types of injections for different issues. And we work closely with some providers in the region right here at Geneva Hospital. So we, again, can keep patients here at home for these treatments.
Paul Szmal: Excellent. Excellent. If people want to find out more, Kim, about the neurosurgery department for UR Medicine Finger Lake South here at Geneva General, how do they do that?
Kim Ilaqua, Nicole DeFayette: They can call 315-607-8915. And I just want to say, again, we are so lucky to have Nicole and Dr. Oreck here at Geneva General and providing this service to our community so that the patients do not have to travel outside the region. This is the first time we've had neurosurgery at Geneva. I think the practice opened last April.
Paul Szmal: Yes, last spring. So it's about a year and a half. Patients are very happy. The outcomes are wonderful and we're just so grateful to have both Nicole and Dr. Oreck with us.
Kim Ilaqua, Nicole DeFayette: Well, I appreciate you coming in and giving us a little explanation because I've certainly learned something here today. Thank you so much.
Paul Szmal: I'm happy to spread the word and knowledge of neurosurgery. It's a passion for us.
Absolutely. It is 849 on FLX Morning.
