Though born in New Jersey, Kelly Barnes, a physician assistant at Lakeshore Bone & Joint Institute, spent the end of her childhood and emergent teenage life stomping around the grounds of Valparaiso. It’s where she attended high school but not college.
Pursuing grander things in West Lafayette after her high school graduation, Purdue University was the place for Barnes to be for her undergraduate degree. After that, following the path that’s led her to what she now does for a living, she attended the University of Evansville in southern Indiana for physician assistant (PA) school.
Always knowing that she wanted to do something medical, Barnes proceeded to do a lot of shadowing in college, learning the ropes and procedures in the medical world. The incredible aspect about all of the shadowing is that it allowed her to find positive role models already working in her desired field, ones who guided her initial footsteps in the vast realm of physical therapy.
As Barnes has been doing what she does for an impressive amount of years at this point, she is now assisting those with orthopedic complaints as well as those who are dealing with nagging spinal issues.
Sometimes, the job gets difficult, as Barnes has to witness people as they relay to her what it feels like to experience whatever they’re currently having to put up with and go through pain that seems to break 10-point scales of all kinds.
“There are challenging patients all the time. With them, I think that a lot of times it comes from either a complicated case or just all the pain,” she said. “You have your busy days, too, and things like that. I've had to learn over time that those are the patients whom you really need to spend the most time with, to give them the best, most effective, and safe care.”
However, even out of that darkness, Barnes has been able to persevere, to discover light, which turns out to be one of her favorite parts about her job.
“Patients will come in with so much pain that they’ll be crying, but then I see them back the next time after they've had the much-needed procedures, and they're like, ‘I can walk, I can get back to exercise, and I can lift my kid again.’ Being able to make that impact and help patients spend time with their family and do the things that are important to them is the most fulfilling part of my job,” she said. “ Being able to help my patients in any way is really important.”
Before deciding to help people every single day, and even before going to PA school, Barnes’ whole life was enamored by cheerleading. Cheering competitively and for the high school’s team in her heyday, she’s always possessed a love for the sport. This love of hers has since shown her how to get involved in the community in an extremely enjoyable way. It’s basically invited her to connect her vocation to one of her hobbies, bringing her plenty of once-in-a-lifetime opportunities throughout the process of it all.
“With my experience with health and wellness and my job as a PA, I really wanted to do something and get more involved in the community. My old coach is still the cheerleading coach at the high school, so I've been helping with the cheer team, their conditioning and strengthening, since I’m an assistant coach there. It’s been fun. This year, the football team went to state, and we got to be down on the field at Lucas Oil Stadium. It's just nice being a part of the community again, helping the girls, and I love it,” she said.
When she’s not coaching or working, Barnes’ leisure is used up by all the cooking and traveling that she does. Despite one of her goals being to visit all of the national parks, traveling is something she doesn’t get to do as much as cooking, unfortunately. Nevertheless, cooking has compelled her to start an Instagram account that’s strictly for fun.
Adoring the atmosphere of the surrounding lakes, Barnes and her family love to simply relax, especially on the beach. Even so, Barnes herself always manages to make time for working out, as it’s another of her passions. Getting out to the gym has also helped her to realize what she loves most about living in Valparaiso.
“The community itself is one of my favorite things, and you can find that anywhere, even if it be at Orangetheory Valpo, which is where I exercise. There’s such a large community here in Valpo that comes together to support itself. From a location perspective, it's close to Chicago; it's got a beautiful downtown, and with all the sidewalks, we can walk our dogs anywhere. There's just a lot of things to do, and you can’t forget the restaurants because the food can’t be beat,” she said.