San Antonio Magazine Jan/Feb 2021

SAN ANTONIO MAGAZINE

TOP DOCTORS

276 of the best in SA page 38

JANUARY/ FE B RUARY 202 1 COVID CAREG IVERS / TO P D O CTO RS

FRONTLINE

H E ROES

9 healthcare workers on what battling the COVID-19 pandemic is really like page 26

Vol. 16 No. 4

Roberto Garcia, Respiratory Care Practitioner, Methodist Hospital Northeast

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January + February FEATURES

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PAN D E M I C WA R R I ORS

Meet nine medical workers who are battling the COVID-19 pandemic in San Antonio.

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TO P D OCTORS

Find a new primary care physician or a specialist from this list of 276 of the area’s best, as nominated by their peers.

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CU L I N ARY A RC HI VE

UTSA boasts one of the largest collections of Mexican cookbooks in the country, with more than 2,000 titles, including rare editions from Diana Kennedy’s collection. Learn about the culinary history that still influences Mexico and South Texas cooking today.

PHOTO BY KLARE PEREZ

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January + February D EPART M EN TS

Blacksmith J. Alex Ruiz is crafting pieces to last for generations.

20 IN FLUEN CER

IN THE LOOP 1 4 CITY NEWS Demand for San Antonio– based Xenex’s bacteriazapping robots is up 600 percent.

16 PERSON OF INTEREST The president and CEO of The Center for Health Care Services says the pandemic has made the need for mental health care more acute while expanding opportunities for telehealth.

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The founder of Nicó fashion design found new perspective while designing in the isolation of 2020.

2 2 T RAVEL Get away without having to board a plane or mingle at these Hill Country retreats and secluded cottages at area resorts.

24 CASA The founder of Artz Development wants to infuse local creativity into each Denver Heights project he tackles.

EAT + DRINK

new restaurant Best Quality Daughter with original art.

57 L I BAT I O N S Enjoy a healthy-ish happy hour thanks to the women behind Health Nut SATX.

5 8 E AT H E RE N OW Full Belly Cafe opened shortly before COVID-19 hit and remained closed for months as it charted a new course. It’s back and was well worth the wait.

60 DISH Swap that traditional pizza crust for cauliflower at SoHill Cafe and three other local pizza spots.

61 MAKER Artist Jennifer Ling Datchuk adds to the cultural story at

6 2 S P OT L I G H T The owners of Chocollazo make a sweet expansion with Black + White Modern Creamery.

63 D I N I N G O U T Add a fresh juice, smoothie or acai bowl to your routine from these 14 cafes.

BACK PAGE 64 FINAL THOUGHT Jen Frost Smith writes about the symptoms and emotions of being diagnosed with COVID-19 after acting as carefully as she could to avoid the virus.

ON THE COVER Klare Perez photographed nine medical professionals working with COVID-19 patients (read their stories on page 26), including Roberto Garcia, a respiratory therapist with Methodist Hospital | Northeast.

TOWNHOME: COURTESY ARTZ DEVELOPMENT; DISH: MARTY MORRIS

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UP FRONT / EDITOR' S NOTEBOOK

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Kathleen Petty Editor in Chief

BEHIND THE ISSUE TOP DOCS There has perhaps never been a year in our lifetimes that has made it more apparent why physicians matter. To that end, we present our annual Top Doctors list (page 38). In years past, we’ve partnered with a healthcare company to compile the list. This year, we took the process in-house, asking physicians in Bexar, Atascosa, Bandera, Comal, Guadalupe, Kendall, Medina and Wilson counties to nominate up to three doctors per practice area who they would trust to care for themselves or their family. Whether you’re looking for a primary care doctor or find yourself in need of a specialist, this directory is a great place to begin your search.

IN THE KITCHEN Our resident food writer, Edmund Tijerina, spent weeks in the fall digging into UTSA’s Mexican Cookbook Collection.

He presents a favorite recipe plus history about the books (some of which date back to 1789) on page 44. Want another excuse to get back in the kitchen this winter?

Head to sanantoniomag.com/ modernbunuelorecipe to see how Tijerina took a one-paragraph recipe from 1881 with no clear instructions and updated it into a recipe that contemporary cooks can actually follow at home.

COMING UP NEXT MONTH It’s time for the 2021 Best of the City!

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JOSH HUSKIN

s someone who feels woozy just thinking about hospitals or needles, I have long admired healthcare workers. This past year only intensified that respect as I heard from my sisters-in-law and several friends about what they were facing during their 12-hour shifts that were suddenly filled with new PPE, uncertainty and, often, heartache.

For this month’s cover feature, I had the honor of interviewing nine local medical workers (page 26), many of whom have been responding to COVID-19 since early 2020 and were continuing to treat patients as cases rose when we sent this issue to press in November. Several of the nurses told me about being drawn to the profession because they were interested in medicine but also because they had a desire to serve and care for people. They take pride in being able to offer comfort and hope at the bedside, or at least to explain to a patient what to expect. The daily uncertainties of COVID-19 has made that difficult. They said they don’t want to provide false hope after they’ve seen so many succumb to the virus. When it comes to treatment, their toolbox is always evolving. And while these stories brought tears to my eyes as I listened to them via Zoom, each of the people I interviewed also left me feeling encouraged.

Certainly, 2020 was a difficult year for many in San Antonio and around the world. Between illness, loss, economic hardship and political unrest, there were plenty of reasons to feel discouraged.

But these caregivers reminded me that there are also plenty of reasons to hope.

When I asked what drove them to continue showing up every day—especially during weeks when they were taking extra shifts that lasted hours longer than normal—without hesitation, every one of them told me in some way that it was their calling. They don’t see themselves as heroes or as doing anything special. They insisted they’re simply filling the role they were meant to have. I know these nine are just a fraction of the thousands across the city who serve each week, whether as medical caregivers or as essential workers at H-E-B, in schools, in law enforcement or elsewhere. Each act of care they provide is a poignant reminder that selflessness and compassion can still prevail.

Personally, 2020 also brought me a few adventures to look forward to as I head into the new year. My husband and I are welcoming our first child—our rainbow baby we’ve long prayed for—this winter. At SAM, my longtime editor and friend, Rebecca Fontenot Cord, relocated to West Texas (and thankfully is sticking around to offer her wisdom as editorial director for the magazine’s parent company). As I step into the role of editor-in-chief, I’m excited to continue telling the stories of San Antonio and looking for the hidden gems, critical issues and people who make this city the place I’m grateful to call home. We consider you, the reader, just as much a part of this team as those of us who produce the magazine and its digital content, so if you have a story to share or a topic you want to read about, I’d love to hear from you at kpetty@sanantoniomag.com.

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JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2021 / VOLUME 16 / ISSUE 4 WHAT’S ONE THING YOU’RE LOOKING FORWARD TO IN 2021?

EDITOR IAL EDITOR IN CHIEF

Kathleen Petty CONTRIBUTING WRITERS

Jade Esteban Estrada, Becca Hensley, Bonny Osterhage, Jen Frost Smith, Katherine Stinson, Edmund Tijerina

OPE N SKY ME DIA CEO

Todd P. Paul

“Hugging people and traveling.”

PRESIDENT

Stewart Ramser VP OF SALES

Julie A. Kunkle FACT CHECKER

Katherine Stinson

EDITORIAL DIRECTOR

Rebecca Fontenot Cord COPY EDITOR

Patsy Pelton

DIRECTOR OF OPERATIONS

Hollis Boice EDITORIAL INTERN

Clarissa R. Abrego

AUDIENCE DEVELOPMENT DIRECTOR

Kerri Nolan A RT

“Seeing live music in person.”

ART DIRECTOR

David G. Loyola

ACCO UN T IN G ACCOUNTS MANAGER

Sabina Jukovic

“Welcoming my first baby into the world.”

PHOTO ASSISTANT

Brenda Piña

DIG ITA L DIGITAL MANAGER

CONTRIBUTING ILLUSTRATORS

Abigail Stewart

Vicente Martí, Jen Frost Smith DIGITAL MEDIA COORDINATOR CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHERS

JoMando Cruz, Noah Fortson, Vincent Gonzalez, Josh Huskin, Marty Morris, Klare Perez ADV ERTIS ING

Rosie Ninesling CONTACT US

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Kathie Anderson

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“Opportunity. Opportunities for everyone to grow from the lessons, experiences and hardships that 2020 has given us and go forward to make something better of ourselves and our community.”

STORY IDEAS, LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

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© Copyright: San Antonio Magazine is published by Open Sky Media, Inc. The entire document of San Antonio Magazine is © 2021 by Open Sky Media, Inc. No portion may be reproduced in whole or in part by any means, including electronic retrieval systems, without the express written permission of the publisher. Opinions expressed in this magazine are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of ownership or management. Editorial or advertising does not constitute advice but is considered informative. San Antonio Magazine is locally operated.

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In the Loop I NSI D E / M E NTA L HE A LT H IN A PAN D EMIC p. 16 / COTTAGE GETAWAYS p. 22 / D EVELOP IN G COMMU N I TY p . 2 4

PLAY

What’s Brewing, 138 W. Rhapsody Drive sacoffeeroasters.com/ pinball

Pinball Master rowing up in the 1970s, Mike McKenna gravitated to pinball machines whenever his parents dragged him along while they shared a drink at the bar. Soon he was seeking them out at convenience stores and arcades, working to master the games with various themes. By the time he was stationed in San Antonio with the Air Force in the mid-1990s, he’d married and started a family. Pinball seemed like a long-forgotten hobby. Then in 2017, he stumbled across a machine on Craigslist in need of repair and a side business quickly began.

“Most people who buy one machine buy a second and then a third and in my case a 32nd and 33rd,” McKenna says. Now a civilian maintenance manager for the Air Force, McKenna is in his pinball shop by 5 a.m. each morning repairing machines for customers as

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well as his own machines, which rotate through What’s Brewing?

San Antonio Coffee Roasters’ arcade. Some date back to the 1950s while others are more modern. McKenna recently delivered a repaired machine to a 96-year-old man who’d had it sitting in his attic inoperable for 40 years. “That’s pretty rewarding,” he says.

When What’s Brewing? had to temporarily close its arcade and cafe due to COVID-19, McKenna began offering regular players the chance to rent out machines so they could play at home. The arcade, which in 2019 drew players from Dallas, Corpus Christi and elsewhere to compete in tournaments, opened back up this fall with limited hours, but McKenna says rentals are still going strong.

“It’s a niche hobby,” he says. “It’s not just trying to keep the ball alive—you have goals just like with any sport or game.”—KATHLEEN PETTY

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IN THE LOOP / CITY NEWS

Rescue Alert / The city’s Animal Care Services (ACS) division ended its fiscal year with its highest-ever live release rate of pets at 92 percent. During the year, ACS placed 6,000 animals into new homes, partnered with shelters and nonprofits to save nearly 11,000 pets and reunited 7,300 pets with their families. Over 1,000 foster families also helped to allow for the higher release rate.

Zapping the Virus Robot by SA-based Xenex Disinfection Services is helping eradicate SARSCoV-2 from surfaces around the world

BY KATHLEEN PETTY SHORTLY AFTER SARS-COV-2, THE VIRUS THAT CAUSES

COVID-19, landed in the U.S., leaders at Xenex were on the phone with Texas Biomedical Research Institute.

They thought their LightStrike Robot could be effective in killing the virus on surfaces but wanted to put it to the test before connecting with hospitals working to treat COVID-19.

Texas Biomed scientists obtained a sample and grew the virus in their lab so tests could be conducted.

By early May, they had demonstrated that the robot deactivates 99.99 percent of SARS-CoV-2 virus in 2 minutes using its broad-spectrum UV light technology.

Founded in 2009 and based in San Antonio, Xenex robots initially were marketed to get rid of viruses and bacteria on high-touch surfaces in hospitals as those lead to infections that kill around 300 people each day in the U.S., says CEO Morris Miller. Along with

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internal data, studies at Mayo Clinic, MD Anderson and elsewhere proved its effectiveness.

Over the last decade-plus, the company has distributed and implemented procedures for the robots to disinfect patient rooms at private and government hospitals. When they alerted medical providers in 2020 that the robot also could eradicate SARS-CoV-2, orders began pouring in. By November, the business had grown by 600 percent and Xenex awarded a $20 million contract to Astronics Corp. so it would have another manufacturing facility working to meet demand.

Along with hospitals throughout the world, including in Italy and Japan, LightStrike robots have been purchased for hotels like the Waldorf Astoria Beverly Hills, airports (including San Antonio’s), convention centers and even professional sports facilities like the Carolina Panthers stadium, Morris says. The robot also is making a cameo in ABC’s Grey’s Anatomy.

Locally, the company also launched a StrikeForce program where staff will bring a robot to a business— places like restaurants and nursing homes—that don’t need it multiple times a day but want to disinfect after someone has been diagnosed with COVID-19.

Even after the pandemic subsides, Miller says they anticipate continuing to see demand from healthcare facilities now that the knowledge of what the LightStrike can do is more widespread. “It sounds unbelievable until you implement the technology and see that it really works,” he says.

Spurs Fiesta / The bright teal, pink and orange Fiesta design first made popular when it appeared on the Spurs’ 1989-90 warmups has returned this season as the centerpiece of a new Nike City Edition jersey. The retro look and colors are something Spurs faithful have long clamored for and the news of their debut set Twitter abuzz. Anyone else ready for a honking parade?

Luxury on the River Walk / Thompson San Antonio has begun taking reservations for March and beyond. The 162-room, 20-story hotel is situated near the Tobin Center and also boasts luxury condos known as The Arts Residences.

Four restaurants and bars will open as part of the hotel, where rooms start at $349 per night.

ROBOT: COURTESY XENEX; SPURS: COURTESY SPURS SPORTS & ENTERTAINMENT

Streaming Stars / Two San Antonio kids made appearances on the Apple TV+ series Becoming You, which premiered this fall.

The series features over 100 children from across the globe and explores how kids learn to speak, move and think before their fifth birthday. Xever, a 4-year-old local, is seen in the first episode attending a Missions game while Jesse, still an infant on screen, makes his debut during a family gathering filmed for the third episode.

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A F R E S H S TA R T City’s COVID-19 job training program offers hope for those with incomes impacted by the pandemic

BY JADE ESTEBAN ESTRADA

JADE ESTEBAN ESTRADA

AFTER STRUGGLING TO COVER HIS FAMILY’S BILLS THROUGH MUCH OF

2020, Juan Hernandez started a better paying position as an entry-level IT specialist in the fall.

The change was possible thanks to the City of San Antonio’s COVID19 Workforce Recovery Program, which aims by September to serve up to 10,000 residents whose incomes have been impacted by the pandemic. Funded through Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act and city general fund dollars, the program works to connect people with in-demand occupations by providing them a stipend while they complete their GED or other training. Voters in November also passed a separate SA Ready to Work program that will build on the effort by funding job training through 2025.

“It freed up the time for me. I was working a dead-end, part-time job,” says Hernandez, who was the Workforce Recovery Program’s first GED graduate. He says that prior to the program, providing for his wife and two young daughters was a priority over his education and there was simply no time to study while working 12 to 16 hours a day for a towing company after having hours cut early in the pandemic.

Before earning his GED, Hernandez had applied for the IT job, but learned a key requirement was having a high school diploma or GED. The company told him they were interested if he completed the education requirement by their deadline. Though he had hit this brick wall before, this time, he was able to get the support he needed.

“Getting my GED really feels like I actually accomplished something,” says Hernandez, 32. “It feels like new doors are opening.”

Restore Education, who worked with Hernandez, is one of the city’s partners. For Hernandez, they provided GED preparation classes that he earned a stipend for completing, allowing him to put food on the table while reaching his goal. Case management is also offered to participants.

Not only was the stipend a deal maker, the program also paid for the GED processing fee, a $145 barrier for many San Antonians. “One thing about our program is that it’s very flexible and very individualized,” says Kelli Rhodes, executive director of Restore Education.

Now that he has a job with benefits, Hernandez says he feels more secure about supporting his family, even if the economic crisis worsens.

“Growing up and being poor, it sounds kind of bad to say, but that’s where I came from,” he says. “But now I’m able to take my family out of that situation.”

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IN THE LOOP / PERSON OF INTEREST

they’re all rooted in public service so that transition has been very easy,” she says. “At the end of the day, all organizations’ largest stakeholders are their employees and people are people, so developing talent and motivating is the same across the board.” What hasn’t been similar, she adds, were the challenges of 2020 that brought widespread telehealth to their organization plus an increased need for services as the stress of the pandemic hit San Antonians. “I would ask the community to be patient and to continue to be compassionate with one another,” she says. “We think it’s going to be at least late 2021 before we can experience any semblance of normalcy.”

Mental Health Care Matters Jelynne LeBlanc Burley, president and CEO of The Center for Health Care Services, on providing care as depression and anxiety rise during COVID-19 INTERVIEW BY KATHLEEN PETTY elynne LeBlanc Burley was happily retired when a friend reached out in 2017 to gauge her interest in leading The Center for Health Care Services, which is Bexar County’s mental health authority. After a year without the structure she’d been used to when working as a consultant and previously as a leader with CPS Energy and the City of San Antonio, Burley—with a little nudging from her adult daughters—realized she was ready for a new challenge. She applied and has since served as president and CEO of the governmental entity that provides mental health care and substance abuse treatment to adults and children.

“The City of San Antonio, CPS Energy, The Center for Health Care Services,

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FACT FILE: LEADER: Burley leads an organization that has over 1,000 employees and 31 locations in Bexar County Resume: Executive VP for CPS Energy, deputy city manager for Planning and Development at City of San Antonio Education: Bachelor’s, Southern University A&M; master’s in urban studies and affairs, Trinity University

What impacts have you seen COVID-19 have on the community’s need for mental health care and substance abuse services?

Our first response when the community shut down in March was to our current patients and how to respond to their needs because many of them rely on coming into the center on a daily and weekly basis, so I knew this was going to be traumatic for them since they were already vulnerable. But then I began to anticipate that the pandemic was going to hit a broader number of individuals who probably wouldn’t understand it because they wouldn’t have experienced depression and anxiety before.

The state funded a crisis counseling program, and we have two people who respond to a hotline there. The number of individuals we’re serving ebbs and flows as the community reopens or COVID numbers spike but has been between 300 and 500. We usually get more calls 30 to 60 days after a change in the pandemic occurs, primarily from those with anxiety and depression.

They’ll complain about not being able to sleep or insomnia, which are typical results of stress, anxiety or not being able to see loved ones. Many of our patients are isolated from their families.

The economy has impacted our clients and some of them have lost jobs, which causes stress.

No one knew how long we were going to do this and the more it drags on, the more people get fatigued. We haven’t had consistent direction globally, so we’ve really tried to be the constant or consistent piece in our clients’ lives and to check in on how they’re doing and encourage them, even if just about eating well and exercising.

Was substance abuse also impacted?

With substance abuse, we watch it obviously. All of us have coping mechanisms and they don’t all work the same. Chemical use can be seen as a coping mechanism when all of your other coping mechanisms are not working and that’s where individuals get into trouble.

We have a residential program that we operate at Haven for Hope for substance abuse and

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mental health and we did have to suspend intake there for a while.

Intake reopened in the fall so we expected our census would increase.

In our crisis area, we saw an uptick in the number of individuals coming in for detox services.

We run the largest methadone clinic in the state—we have over 800 individuals who visit us on a daily basis to receive their appropriate dosing. That requires face-to-face interaction so we had to really pivot to make sure that we could adjust our facilities and to serve those patients.

Is there still a stigma associated with seeking treatment for substance abuse or mental health care?

Substance abuse is a disease as well as mental health disorders. Just like someone who’s been diagnosed with diabetes or heart disease, their conditions can be successfully managed with treatment. We’re still working to eliminate the stigma and open our doors and make people aware help is here.

I think it’s improving. There’s a major initiative being stood up now called Bridges to Care that is working with the faith community and many area congregations. I’m very excited about it. We’re working with congregations that are designating individuals who are being trained in mental health first aid and they will be “wellness champions” at their churches. We know some individuals feel more comfortable going to their spiritual advisors than they do to a clinic so we want to be involved to the degree we can with those congregations.

Any system that helps an individual to navigate care is needed. If you’ve ever had to get a referral from a primary care physician to a specialist—not only is the system unfamiliar but it can also be difficult to navigate and the terminology unfamiliar. Mental health is no different, so to the degree that we can put people in place and provide peer services and navigation is helpful, not only to individuals but to families.

Are there other places this kind of program would help?

The police have been sort of the dumping ground for everything that’s not a fire, and that’s unfair to law enforcement. This community trains police in crisis intervention, but they’re not trained for mental health.

We’ve been working with law enforcement to be there as a resource for them, but in the long-run, I hope you’re going to see more and more communities expanding their 9-1-1 capabilities to go beyond police and fire to include mental health care and other services.

What are your priorities for the center as the new legislative session opens in January?

During the pandemic, the reduction in funding at the state level did not apply to mental health care but as we start this new legislative session in 2021, we likely will be included with everyone else as they consider budget cuts. We work with an organization called Texas Council of Community Centers and we started communicating with them and developing a legislative plan very early in the summer to address funding.

The state gave us permission back in April to expand our use of telehealth, so we began using telephone and video technology to continue seeing patients. If there’s one positive thing about COVID it’s that it gave us the platform to use those technologies and now we have the data to show that it’s been very successful. Over 75 percent of our services can now be delivered through telehealth. That is something we are going to ask that we continue to be able to use.

Patients who require more intensive management of their treatment plans still come in and we also have stations at our clinic so that a patient can use our video equipment to engage with a clinician.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

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IN THE LOOP / MAKER

Crafting Heirlooms J. Alex Ruiz turns love of history into blacksmithing side hustle

BY KATHLEEN PETTY hether a missing hinge on an antique door, a knife for the home chef or an heirloom piece made in memory of a relative, J. Alex Ruiz relishes knowing that each item he crafts has the ability to outlive him.

“It’s really cool to think that even though a piece might be simple, it will last generations,” says Ruiz, the blacksmith behind Volundr Forge. “Whether it’s as fancy as a knife or as plain as a bottle opener, it will last for centuries.”

The San Antonio native who’s been featured multiple times on the History Channel and was the winner of the Forged in Fire episode on which he appeared, says his love of history first led him to blacksmithing. He was spending time on YouTube one day about five years ago when he stumbled across a video from Olson Iron Works. He was immediately intrigued and decided to give blacksmithing a try. “Of course, it was a lot harder than I thought,” Ruiz says.

But he was committed to learning and with hours spent watching tutorials and many sessions soaking in knowledge from other blacksmiths, he began perfecting his new craft.

“Blacksmithing in the modern age can teach us a lot about

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how things would have been done in older times,” Ruiz says.

“Blacksmithing is pretty much living history.”

He started with decorative items, using an antique anvil and other tools to create missing hinges for antique doors or furniture, crafting Victorian wall brackets and other specially requested items. Knives also are in high demand. Ruiz makes some that are custom ordered from home chefs who have exact specifications on the type and length of blade and handle they desire while others are created as heirloom pieces for individuals who want materials from a family property or relative to be memorialized in an object. Still other knives and swords are created for reenactments, Renaissance fairs and living history demonstrations. “It really helps us reconstruct the past in a very tangible way,” Ruiz says.

Knowing how valuable it’s been for him to learn from others, Ruiz also teaches blacksmithing, both in private classes and through courses at Southwest School of Art. A full-time program coordinator for Wesley Foundation of San Antonio, a United Methodist college ministry, Ruiz spends his free time working on pieces at home as well as at a Southeast San Antonio workshop he shares with fellow blacksmith Tobin Nieto.

Ruiz says that he and Nieto have seen an increased interest in private classes during COVID-19 as people look for something to do at home other than watch Netflix. In an era of mass-produced goods, he says people seem to find satisfaction in a centuries-old trade. “It’s things you won’t find in a box store,” he says. “Some things just need to be homemade.” volundrforge.com

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7 Best Bets for January and February JAN. 8-10

Pizza. Life. Fondo.

Join Tomboys & Mimosas for a three-day riding event. Each cyclist’s 20 to 30 miles can be completed virtually (on their own time over the weekend), and participants are then invited to celebrate together, at a social distance, over pizza. facebook.com/ pedalsatx JAN. 14-24

DreamWeek San Antonio The annual summit founded by Shokare Nakpodia may look a little different this year but expect plenty of ways to engage with fellow residents about the major issues facing San Antonio and the world. dreamweek.org JAN. 18

MLK Virtual March & Legacy Celebration Families, churches and community groups are encouraged to submit video and other material ahead of this virtual march, including photos from previous events. Filmmaker Ya’Ke Smith also is participating and the celebration will air on News 4 and FOX SA. sanantonio.gov/mlk FEB. 12-MAY 9

No Ocean Between Us The San Antonio Museum of Art opens No Ocean Between Us: Art of Asian Diasporas in Latin America & The Caribbean, 1945-Present, featuring around 75 paintings, works on paper, sculptures and other mediums by artists from Panama, Argentina, Trinidad, Cuba, Brazil and elsewhere. samuseum.org FEB. 20

San Antonio African American Book Festival The Friends of the Carver Library are moving their second annual African American Book Fest online this year but will still feature speakers, panels and author chats. facebook.com/carverfriends FEB. 26

Dining with the Masters Be among the first to see the McNay Art Museum’s latest exhibition, Limitless! Five Women Reshape Contemporary Art, during this virtual fundraiser that will also include a Zoom conversation with a local artist. mcnayart.org THROUGH MARCH 28

Beautiful Minds Kids can learn about the left and right sides of the brain during this visiting exhibition, which uses oversized illustrations, technology and interactive games to teach children about dyslexia. Artist Sarah Sudhoff’s Reading Brain installation is on display alongside the exhibit. thedoseum.org

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IN THE LOOP / INFLUENCER

Redefined Design The founder of Nicó finds fresh direction while designing during the pandemic

BY CLARISSA R. ABREGO rowing up in Corpus Christi, Nick Perez delighted in drawing dresses in the empty corners of notebook paper—even getting in trouble in class for doing so.

The self-taught designer and makeup artist behind the fashion brand Nicó, gave up sketching by middle school, bowing to what Perez describes as societal standards for what a boy is. But by high school, Perez, who uses pronouns they/them, became more comfortable embracing themself and enrolled in a sewing class that set the course Perez is on today. “I kind of just fell in love with teaching myself how to drape, teaching myself how to actually understand how to make dresses and, yeah, the rest is history,” they say.

Now 22, Perez launched Nicó in 2018 in their hometown and in 2019 relocated to San Antonio to be more centrally located to clients throughout the state. That same year they were honored with Fashion Group International San Antonio’s “Designer Rising Star” award.

“It’s an awesome place to be creatively,” Perez says.

When it comes to formal gowns and other designs at Nicó, Perez says inspiration is everywhere, from a drive-thru order at McDonald’s to scenes in a horror film. Nature is also a chief influencer and greenery is often featured in Nicó pieces. What it all comes down to is being in touch with the senses and drawing on emotions when they begin to work. “It’s very comforting to me to find peace within all the chaos,” Perez says.

COVID-19 put a stop to the events where Perez was used to connecting with customers, but they say the isolation of the pandemic, while tough, also allowed them to rediscover that childhood passion that first made them fall in love with fashion. The newest Nicó collection will debut in February. “I’m going back to my roots… and also understanding that fashion means nothing if people can’t wear it,” Perez says.

Prior to his collection work, Perez says making practical pieces in 2020 meant venturing into couture face masks and Nicó brand merch like T-shirts and hoodies.

Perez believes the pandemic will teach people to treasure fashion pieces even more—much like they did in the roaring ’20s following war and famine.

“I firmly believe the direction of fashion is changing.

I think it’s a more accepting one, I think it’s also a more wearable one,” Perez says. “I feel like it’s becoming more for the people than for the mannequin.” nicocollective.com, instagram.com/nicocollective

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I N T H E L O O P / T R AV E L

Secluded Retreats Start the year by getting away without going far at these four private cottages and villas that provide the safety of separate entrances and secluded spaces with all the luxury you expect from a vacation

BY BECCA HENSLEY

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Do: Add a poolside yoga class to your reservation to maximize the relaxing vibes.

Eat: Book their private chef for one meal or place an order for a morning breakfast taco delivery or cocktail kit from nearby Treaty Oak Distilling.

Book: cactusmoontx.com La Cantera Resort & Spa More comfortable close to home? Embrace the essence of a staycation at the ritzy La Cantera Resort & Spa—a destination in itself, even if it’s just up the road in Northwest San Antonio. Book a private space at The Villas, a coterie of rooms that boast their own shared pool, hot tub and terrace all nestled a golf cart’s ride away from the main resort. Take pampering to the next level at the resort’s Loma de Vida Spa & Wellness—a 25,000-square-foot oasis that features private “Sky Loft” treatment cabanas with stunning views plus massage tables and a secluded outdoor shower.

Do: Consider a Himalayan salt stone mineral massage—couple’s versions are also available.

Eat: Put an order in at Signature, the resort’s lauded on-site restaurant by Andrew Weissman, and pick it up to enjoy in the privacy of your villa.

Book: lacanteraresort.com

The Cotton Gin Village From bluebonnet photos and peach picking in the spring to wine tasting and German wurst gobbling, Fredericksburg delivers when you need to escape without boarding a plane. Lean into the town’s historic feel at Cotton Gin Village, set on the outskirts of town just minutes from the historic district. Its seven restored 19th century log cabins and seven quaintly appointed but newly built cottages channel last century’s pioneer days while still offering all of the amenities you desire in modern day. Expect log-framed beds, jacuzzi tubs, tin ceilings, modern and wood-burning fireplaces to enjoy coffee by in the winter and fire pits outside. Cabernet Grill, located next door, delivers gourmet eats for breakfast in bed each morning.

Do: Traverse the trails at nearby Wildseed Farms and make time for a drink in the Brewbonnet Beirgarten or tasting room next to the farm’s grape vineyard.

Eat: The menu varies by day, but past breakfast baskets from Cabernet Grill have featured chocolate croissants, pecan cheddar ham and egg biscuits and bacon pepper jack quiche.

Book: cottonginvillage.com

COURTESY THE PROPERTIES

Cactus Moon Lodge Not your typical Texas ranch house, this stylish, sibling-owned enclave in Dripping Springs edges the Hill Country, with heart-stopping vistas and 26 acres of seasonally wildflower-flecked terrain. With six casitas and a main lodge, the hideaway is anchored by an infinity-edged pool, a sunken courtyard surrounded by cacti and a fire pit. The property can host 16 if your quarantine crew is that large and is equipped for intimate, COVID-19-friendly events. An immense central kitchen begs for casually competitive cooking competitions—or hire the lodge’s stellar chefs for gourmet-made meals.

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Manor Haus B & B From one of Texas’ most storied wine families, this romantic bed and breakfast immerses guests amid the vines. Located at Messina Hof’s Hill Country location near Fredericksburg, it incorporates four small cottages that are spread out amid verdant terrain and feature a distinctive theme, including an homage to U.S. presidents and a celebration of the glamour of Paris. Private entrances allay social distancing concerns, kitchenettes allow for cooking meals and a cozy living room ensures plenty of space for relaxing.

Do: Reserve time in the vineyard’s tasting room for weekly pairing specials and wine on tap.

Eat: A basket of breakfast items plus a bottle of the vineyard’s sparkling wine are gifted at check-in. In the tasting room, try the Texas honey warmed brie along with a charcuterie board.

Book: messinahof.com/manorhaus

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IN THE LOOP / CASA

Artz Development seeks to bring murals and modern design to Denver Heights while still honoring the neighborhood’s history

BY KATHLEEN PETTY

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erardo Ituarte knows developers often have a reputation of being disconnected.

They swoop into a neighborhood, buy up properties to remodel or build on, sell them and exit the scene before ever learning about the history of the communities their construction will impact.

In Denver Heights, where Ituarte has finished two townhome complexes while also remodeling two historic homes into boutique-hotel-style rentals, Ituarte insists he’s as interested in the future of the neighborhood as he is in turning a profit.

“My dad was a developer and he taught us to think about community regardless of whether we would be living there,” says Ituarte, a Mexico native who moved to San Antonio after working in development throughout South America and in Europe. “This area is gorgeous and there’s a lot of history behind it. To me the most important thing is to promote community.”

For Ituarte, the vision started when he got lost while driving near downtown and stumbled across a 1900s-era Victorian-style home at Montana and Pine Streets. “I fell in love with the area,” says Ituarte, managing partner of Artz Development.

He eventually purchased the home from longtime East Side resident Charles Williams, and while he upgraded the interior to hold modern suites available for rental on Airbnb, Ituarte restored the outside to its original glory. His research into Denver Heights revealed that parts of it were once an arts and entertainment zone, so Ituarte invited local artists Rudy Herrera and Victor Zarazua to cover the fence around the home with a colorful mural.

A resident across the street loved the vibrant art so much that she partnered with Ituarte to have the same artists create a piece on the front of her home welcoming locals to the East Side.

Just a few blocks down Pine Street, Ituarte in early 2020 opened his next project: four townhomes that boast rooftop patios with views of the Tower of the Americas and a mural out front by Mia Santiago, a young artist who lives nearby. “You don’t have this view anywhere but on the East Side,” Ituarte says, adding that he hopes the downtown area can be a hub for

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HOMES: COURTESY ARTZ DEVELOPMENT; PARSLEY: ZERBOR/SHUTTERSTOCK.COM

East Side Vision

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WINTER SPROUTS

arts like he has seen in other cities, including Miami.

Unlike the home he restored, the exterior of each unit here is modern and sleek. Inside, residents are greeted with a floating staircase that takes them to the second floor’s open living room-kitchen. An island with a waterfall edge counter punctuates the space and is surrounded with cabinets imported from Europe that open when touched.

Three bedrooms, including the primary bedroom with an attached bathroom, fill the third floor. A second full bath includes a bright tile wall and Bluetooth speakers in the ceiling that allow residents to blast music while showering.

In recent months, Ituarte opened a second modern townhome development at Montana and Monumental Streets, this one with five units plus a sculpture and exterior mural by Amada Miller.

Instead of a rooftop patio, these homes are equipped with solar panels on the roof and balconies on the second and third floors that offer views of downtown plus the nearby Fort Sam Houston National Cemetery.

Primary suites are built into the first and third floors, giving flexibility for an office or a space for guests.

Every townhome is outfitted with different finishes to ensure residents don’t feel like they’re living in a cookie cutter of their neighbor’s property.

For Ituarte, the developments are just the start. At Hackberry and Montana Streets, he’s already renovated a 1930s home into a boutique hotel with four spacious suites. Next door, he purchased the former St. Joseph’s AME church along with Charles Williams, who is turning the inside of the building into a museum honoring the city’s African American history and the East Side.

“Gerardo is doing great things for the East Side,” says Williams, a longtime East Side barber and entrepreneur.

True to his word about investing in the community, Ituarate and his wife plan to move into one of his newly completed townhomes in early 2021. “Home is where you spend your time. I’m a San Antonian,” he says. “I love it here.”

Start the year with fresh vegetables and plants thanks to these tips from David Rodriguez, a Texas A&M Agrilife Extension horticulturist and Bexar County Master Gardener—KATHERINE STINSON Farm to Table / Rodriguez says that root crops like carrots, beets, turnips and radishes grow particularly well in San Antonio when planted in January and February. Not a root fan? Try greens like kale, collards, spinach, broccoli or cabbage. Herbs, such as parsley, sage, marjoram and garlic chives, also thrive in mild South Texas winters.

Sweet Crops / Fruit may seem like a summer and fall treat but in South Texas, cooler temps are perfect for some fruits, including pears, plums, berries and grapes. For a non-edible yet sweetly fragrant addition to the garden, try sweet peas, pansies or viola flowers.

Promoting Growth / The majority of outdoor plants need plenty of space to grow and ample sunlight, Rodriguez says. To promote steady growth, he recommends adding a finished compost to the soil before planting as well as using mulch. Without nutritious soil, plants can’t thrive. Water regularly but don’t over water. The soil should be moist but never flooded. If weeds sprout up, be sure to clear them from plant beds.

Freeze Protection / San Antonio doesn’t experience a freeze every winter but if one occurs, be prepared to cover newly planted crops or any that have just begun to grow. N-Sulate is a plant protection fabric that works wonders, says Rodriguez, but sheets or towels can work, too. “The challenge is we could wake up in the morning freezing and then have the A/C on by 2 in the afternoon that same day,” Rodriguez says. Visit bexarmg.org for more tips.

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BEHIND THE Doctors, nurses and other healthcare workers were applauded for their bravery in treating COVID-19 through last year, with local restaurants and organizations donating coffee and meals as tokens of their appreciation and residents putting up signs to thank their local heroes. Those sentiments persist into the New Year but as the pandemic drags on, it has become easier to take for granted the difficult work many San Antonians continue to face each day as they treat patients battling the coronavirus even amid hopeful news of vaccine distribution.

Here, meet nine nurses, respiratory therapists and other medical caregivers who are working to provide healing and comfort to others for as long as the virus persists.

By Kathleen Petty Photography By Klare Perez

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EVELIEN BUNNIK

JOHN TINDALL

Assistant professor in the department of microbiology, immunology and molecular genetics, UT Health San Antonio

ICU registered nurse, Christus Santa Rosa Hospital – Medical Center

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ike many researchers, Evelien Bunnik was not surprised by COVID-19.

“It was a matter of when, not a question of if this was going to happen,” says Bunnik, who holds a doctorate in immunology and virology. “It’s probably going to happen again. I hope that next time people will take it more seriously earlier on and that we will be better prepared.”

Prior to COVID-19, Bunnik divided her time at UT Health San Antonio between lecturing on topics like immunology and researching the development and maintenance of protective immunity in people who have experienced malaria.

It wasn’t long after UT Health began having staff and students work from home last spring that Bunnik started thinking about ways to shift her lab’s focus to help in the fight against COVID-19. “What we do for our malaria research is essentially the same as what we’re trying to do for COVID,” she says.

“We’re using the same tools and the same approaches that we already have in the lab.”

After talking with leaders on campus who also were interested in supporting research efforts into COVID-19, Bunnik shifted her focus in April, working with an infectious disease physician to collect blood samples from over 100 recovered COVID-19 patients.

With those samples, Bunnik and her team wanted to know how long the patient’s blood would keep the antibodies that protect them from the virus and also how many B cells, which make the antibodies, remain in the body over time. “Your B cells will become memory cells and will respond quickly the next time you see that same pathogen,” she says. “It’s your second layer of defense and 28

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we want to see how many cells are present and whether they remain stable over time.”

She and her team, which includes a master’s- and three Ph.D.-level students, analyzed the first collection and in the fall began calling people back in for a second sample.

“Being able to benchmark immune responses against what we’ve seen will be very helpful in predicting how long immunity will last,” she says, adding that there have been a few reports of reinfection of COVID-19 but not enough data to know if that’s an exception or the rule.

A native of the Netherlands, Bunnik says she became interested in infectious diseases largely because of the major impact they can have on developing countries. Malaria, for example, is easy to overlook in the U.S. but in many African countries it still has devastating impacts on communities, particularly in young children.

While professionals who study and treat infectious diseases knew a virus transmitted through respiratory droplets like COVID-19 could wreak havoc on the world, Bunnik says she has been encouraged by how quickly the scientific and medical communities have banded together to tackle the issue, which gives her hope for its eventual end and the next pandemic that will emerge.

“What really amazes me is how much research has already been done on this virus, how many labs have pivoted and changed their focus and just the amount of knowledge that we’ve gathered,” Bunnik says. “Just more than a year ago, no one had heard of this virus. It really shows how much you can accomplish as a research community when you focus on one thing and share data as soon as it becomes available.”

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oments before John Tindall’s first COVID-19-positive patient was put on a respirator, he stood nearby, cloaked in personal protective equipment, shouting the Hail Mary through his mask in an attempt to provide some comfort.

“I finished and we started to intubate,” says Tindall, a 16-year veteran ICU nurse at Christus Santa Rosa Hospital – Medical Center who had just been talking with the patient about his faith. “Unfortunately, the patient did not recover so I was the last person on earth to speak to this individual.

That’s something I’m going to carry forever.”

Part of what drew Tindall to the ICU was the opportunity to care for critical patients while developing relationships that aren’t possible in the ER, which patients rotate through more quickly. Visitor restrictions during COVID-19 only intensified the need for him and other nurses to provide that personal care, whether through comforting words or being the one to connect family via Zoom calls.

Tindall initially earned a degree in history and worked for several years as a department manager at H-E-B in the 1990s but returned to school in his mid-30s to become a registered nurse after his parents passed away within a year of one another. “I reexamined and decided to do something that would help out my fellow man,” he says.

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“It’s disheartening when people argue that it’s a hoax. I understand that you don’t want to believe something this bad is out there, but I have seen it firsthand.

It’s not a hoax, it’s not the flu, it’s not something to be taken lightly.”

After that first COVID-19 patient in March, Tindall and his colleagues have continued to care for patients in the ICU, tending to San Antonio’s surge over the summer and in the fall caring for locals as well as patients transferred from Lubbock and El Paso.

“We don’t have many tools in our arsenal to help people get better. It’s really about supportive care and giving patients every chance they have to recover,” he says. “It’s not like pneumonia where there’s a (prescribed) treatment you can give them.”

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do not, and Tindall admits his 12-hour night shifts are tough. He’s inspired by his coworkers—from fellow nurses to doctors, janitors and respiratory therapists—who also continue to show up each week and are there for one another on particularly difficult days.

“We keep coming back because we know there’s a need,” he says. “They buoy your spirit. I’m very proud and honored to work with people who have that much courage.”

Tindall says he’s also encouraged by promising news about vaccines but that he continues to emphasize to all who will listen that until a vaccine is widely distributed,

COVID-19 needs to be taken seriously. Even if a case is mild, the long-term impacts of the virus still are not known.

“It’s disheartening when people argue that it’s a hoax. I understand that you don’t want to believe something this bad is out there, but I have seen it firsthand. It’s not a hoax, it’s not the flu, it’s not something to be taken lightly. All we can do is wait and hope … and wash our hands and wear our masks and social distance when we can,” he says.

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PAT R I C I A SCOGIN Registered intensive care nurse, Mission Trail Baptist Hospital

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ertainly not everyone in the Intensive Care Unit recovers during a “typical” month, but prior to the coronavirus pandemic, Patricia Scogin says there was always an expectation that most patients would get better.

“There was some predictability,” says Scogin, an RN who will finish her second year as an intensive care nurse at Mission Trail Baptist Hospital in February. “With the exception of traumas, there were years and years of studies into the disease processes and we knew what interventions to do.”

With COVID-19, predictability is gone.

Scogin and her colleagues officially began treating COVID-19 patients in March, seeing a steady increase through the city’s peak in late July and continuing to provide care for patients through the fall. “It has really solidified that I need to have faith,” says Scogin. “Sometimes in the medical profession, we rely so heavily on science that we forget there’s another element.

I believe that we’re subject to a higher power so what I have to do is just put it in his hands.”

It was a desire to “be the hands and feet of God” in the community that Scogin says first drove her to nursing. She initially earned a business degree but after becoming a mom of three and moving frequently due to her husband’s military career, she knew she wanted to try something new when her family landed back in her hometown of San Antonio. She enrolled in school the same day her youngest started kindergarten and graduated from UT Health with a nursing degree in 2018.

In the ICU, Scogin says she takes pride in having methodical routines and paying close attention to detail. It’s an intense place where there’s no such thing as “faking it till you make it,” she says. “It’s challenging. It allows me to tap into a really intellectual part of myself while still being passionate and caring.”

The pandemic brought challenges that no routine could have prepared them for.

Scogin says she and her fellow nurses have had to rely on each other in a whole new way and also on other staff, including chaplains who help them speak with patients, arrange Zoom calls with and provide comfort to families who can’t visit, and pray with nurses after tough days. “There were days where we saw more bad than good,” she says. “We just had to keep each other emotionally strong.”

As a military wife whose husband is a Bronze Star Army veteran with 15 months of service in Iraq, Scogin says she was often the one thanked for being the support person so her husband—their family’s hero— could serve. This year, she says, her husband has been the support she needs to serve as a nurse during a pandemic. And while she and her kids still look up to him as the “war hero,” she says she’s been humbled and surprised to hear her 9-, 11- and 14-year-olds also calling her a hero. “I don’t see myself as doing anything but what God had in my path,” she says.

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RANDA BROWN Mobile Integrated Healthcare paramedic, San Antonio Fire Department

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t was early February when one of Randa Brown’s San Antonio Fire Department superiors walked by with a phone pressed to his ear, paperwork in his hand and his eyes already on another task in front of him.

“He gets off the phone and says, ‘I’m busy, you want to help me out?’” Brown remembers. “He said there was a new program that needed feet on the ground and that they didn’t know a lot, but it might not be super safe.”

Brown replied that she was comfortable with the risk.

“It’s been a whirlwind ever since,” she says.

The 20-year SAFD veteran began that week by accompanying an epidemiologist from Metro Health to the homes of individuals being asked to quarantine after returning from Wuhan, China.

By March, she’d moved to Freeman Coliseum where she and the Mobile Integrated Healthcare unit were launching and running the state’s first drive-through COVID-19 testing site (They later trained National Guard troops on their protocols so drive-through sites could open in more rural parts of the state).

Starting in May, Brown also was part of a team that visited nursing homes and other group living facilities, including the Bexar County Jail, to administer tests and catch any outbreaks of the virus.

“I just wasn’t taking days off,” says Brown, who was still working her regular 24-hour EMS shifts at Fire Station No. 2 until early July. “People say, ‘You never complain,’ but how could I when there are all of these people who’ve lost jobs? It’s been a challenging time for everyone, so I think about what other people have gone through and lost. I’m not doing anything more extraordinary than anyone else.”

Having spent the last 11 years with SAFD as an EMS paramedic, Brown says she’s always had that drive to serve, even if it requires a calculated risk. Her husband is also a firefighter and her parents, and several aunts and uncles served with the department, so Brown says it’s a value she grew up with and one her own kids, 16 and 15, inherently understand.

In July, Brown was assigned to a group that focused its testing efforts on the San Antonio Fire and Police Departments as well as city staff. They tested those who’d been exposed or suspected infection and also checked up on any employees who didn’t report to work and didn’t answer calls from their supervisors. One city employee they visited had critically low oxygen saturation levels and had to be hospitalized for over a month after Brown and her colleague convinced him to go in for treatment.

“I treat my patients like they’re my loved ones and, in that moment, they are, whether they’re a child or an elderly person or a homeless person,” says Brown, who joined the Mobile Integrated Healthcare program in 2017 (the program normally runs clinics at places like Haven for Hope and also conducts opioid addiction outreach). “I tell them what’s going on and I will hold their hands and touch them on the head and try to comfort them. It was very challenging to try to provide that comfort and emotion when you have a great big gown and respirator on and they’re terrified.” But, Brown adds, they do their best to communicate empathy through their masks and PPE. 31

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ERIC ELIZONDO San Antonio Fire Department engineer and paramedic

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eeks before the first instance of community spread occurred locally, San Antonio Fire Department engineer and paramedic Eric Elizondo was already assessing patients for COVID-19.

Part of a small group at the department that received infectious disease training in 2015 during the Ebola Virus, Elizondo began using some of his days off from the station in February to respond to Lackland Air Force Base, where individuals who’d returned from China’s Hubei province or the Diamond Princess cruise ship in Japan were being quarantined.

“It started getting us and the hospitals ready to provide care,” he says. “I don’t think we really understood it until a few weeks later, but once we saw what was going on in New York, we knew we could get quite busy.”

While that initial team responded to Lackland, the department trained additional EMS teams on infectious disease protocols so that when local COVID-19 calls began occurring in March, they were ready.

Elizondo, who became a paramedic in 2011 after spending seven years as a firefighter, typically spends his 24-hour shifts responding to patients suffering from complications with diabetes, hypertension, COPD or heart problems. “There are a lot of people who call us on their worst days and it’s nice when you’re able to help them and bring some relief and they’re grateful,” he says.

By late March, he says calls for EMS assistance had actually slowed down. People were staying home so there were fewer accidents and many who needed medical care were more hesitant to call for help.

In June and in July, activity increased.

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Elizondo says it wasn’t even that there were more EMS calls than in a typical month but that each COVID-19 call took two to three times longer. Once a COVID-19 patient was assessed and transported or treated at home, Elizondo and his partner returned to their downtown station, decontaminated the ambulance and showered before alerting dispatch they were ready for service again.

Especially when hospitals are inundated, it’s up to EMS to help assess whether a patient’s oxygen saturation is low enough to require hospital care or if, for the time being, they can manage symptoms at home before seeing a primary care physician. Many of the patients who were in need of hospital care had comorbidities, like diabetes, but Elizondo says there were also anomalies, including a healthy 30-year-old man who eventually died of the virus.

Having deployed with the military following 9/11, Elizondo says he was accustomed to managing risks and responding quickly.

Plus, he adds, the infectious disease training worked in protecting him, even if they were dealing with an unknown virus. “You’re not taking a wild guess,” says Elizondo, who continues to serve in the Army Reserve. “You’re going through a well thought out process and doing what you’re trained to do.”

He and his wife welcomed a baby girl during the pandemic and while he admits that has only added to the reasons he may miss out on sleep, he feels safe returning home each day because of the training and trust he’s built with his colleagues at the department. “There’s a lot of camaraderie.

It’s like the military—you do a lot of training together and spend a lot of time together so it’s like an extended family,” he says.

“There are a lot of people who call us on their worst days and it’s nice when you’re able to help them and bring some relief and they’re grateful.”

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ADAM CARPENTER ICU registered nurse, Methodist Hospital | Stone Oak

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efore Adam Carpenter heads home from his shift at Methodist Hospital | Stone Oak, he changes into clean scrubs to wear on the drive. Once in his garage, he strips everything off and heads straight to the shower, making sure not to let any of his four children, ages 16, 9, 6 and 4, near him.

As an ICU nurse who treats patients with COVID-19, particularly during the height of the city’s summer surge, Carpenter wants to ensure he doesn’t put his family at risk. “I know a lot of healthcare workers completely isolated themselves. I’m thankful we were able to make this work,” he says. “It’s very important for our family’s mental and emotional health.”

Carpenter began volunteering with a fire department EMS unit while still in high school and says he’s long wanted to serve those most in need of critical care. “I don’t know why, but I felt led to do that,” he says, adding that before COVID-19 he often treated patients recovering from open heart surgery, trauma to the body or neurological or other issues.

He and his family relocated to San Antonio from Alaska a year ago and by early spring, the doctors, known as intensivists, in his unit at the hospital were preparing the staff for COVID-19.

“I very vividly remember treating my first COVID positive patient because it was just so new,” Carpenter says.

By June, the hospital was seeing COVID patients regularly and through July and August, its COVID-19 units were often full. “Our whole career is to care for the sickest of the sick and to do it safely, so we were well prepared,” he says. When treatment protocols changed as medical experts learned more, they adapted.

The virus, he says, is more challenging than other conditions they face partly because it was and continues to carry so many unknowns but also because patients tend to require such a highlevel of care that the stress to perform is constantly present.

Carpenter says connecting with patients and their families is part of what he’s always loved about the ICU but knowing he was a patient’s only intermediary to their loved ones, since COVID-19 patients were not permitted visitors for much of 2020, made that part of his role all the more vital. He and the other staff would provide at least once-daily updates to family, facilitate video calls and spend time with patients who needed comfort. “It’s humbling to be with a patient when they’re going through a very difficult time and know that you’re their link to their family,” he says.

Decompressing when he and other nurses leave their unit so they can recharge for the next shift has also become all the more important, he says. For him, hugs from his kids, encouraging texts from family members and even signs and cups of coffee sent to the hospital by community members and businesses have been a reminder that no 12-hour shift goes unnoticed. “Those little things really mean a lot to us,” he says.

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“It’s humbling to be with a patient when they’re going through a very difficult time and know that you’re their link to their family.”

BEHIND THE

11/24/20 3:57 PM

ROBERTO GARCIA Respiratory care practitioner, Methodist Hospital | Northeast

MASKS

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I

t wasn’t until Roberto Garcia’s 14-year-old nephew was put on a ventilator at Methodist Children’s Hospital that he ever considered entering the medical field.

His nephew had muscular dystrophy and Garcia, then 17, remembers being both comforted and fascinated as he watched the respiratory therapist manage the ventilator that was essentially acting as the teenager’s lungs. Garcia’s nephew eventually passed away from complications of his disorder, but Garcia says that only cemented his resolve to become the first in his family to attend college so he could care for other patients. “In the midst of that tough time I was able to find a positive and a career path,” he says.

After graduating from St. Philip’s College in 2016, Garcia secured a position at Methodist Hospital | Northeast and when patients began to fill the hospital’s dedicated COVID-19 wings last summer, Garcia was among a select group of respiratory care practitioners assigned to treat them.

Garcia says they prepared for a surge early in the spring, but it wasn’t until after Memorial Day that things ramped up at their hospital. By July, both of their COVID-19 units were regularly full, and Garcia was often picking up an extra 12-hour shift to help meet the needs.

“It was very fast, and you had to think on your toes,” he says. “We had two units with seven beds. In one, they were all on ventilators. In the other, they either required oxygen or ventilation.”

It isn’t unusual for a COVID-19 patient’s oxygenation levels to drop so low that they enter a critical state, leaving few options other than a ventilator, Garcia says, which increases a patient’s mortality rate. “It puts a scare in patients,” he says. “You have to comfort them and let them know they’re in good hands.”

Along with monitoring oxygen levels, ventilators and oxygen machines for 10 to 12 patients each shift, Garcia and the care teams would regularly flip patients onto their stomachs to help promote oxygenation—a task he says fostered even more of a team atmosphere than is usual at the hospital as it could take six or seven staff members to safely pronate someone while on a ventilator. “It was a much more stressful environment than average, but we were able to cope and find positivity when we would see progress in a patient,” he says.

Since COVID-19 patients aren’t able to have visitors, Garcia also developed relationships with many of his patients and their families, acting as a respiratory therapist but also as someone who could provide comfort, updates or simply be there to hold an iPad so families could video chat.

“It’s a big responsibility but it’s something I love. Seeing their progress, that is the thing I love the most. Seeing a patient we didn’t think would make it come off a ventilator and eventually walk out of the hospital is so rewarding,” he says. “(COVID-19) isn’t something you read about in a textbook.

We know how to treat the flu, but this is a unique virus and like nothing we’ve encountered before.”

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11/25/20 11:41 AM

JUAN CASTRO Licensed vocational nurse, Medical/ Surgical Services Unit, Baptist Medical Center Downtown

J

uan Castro has worked as a licensed vocational nurse for a decade, but the San Antonio native says this period in time may just be the reason he was drawn to the field.

“I’m really into history and just about every generation of nurses have their trial, whether polio or HIV,” he says. “I believe this is my calling as a nurse.”

With a long family tradition of military service, Castro enlisted in the Navy as a young adult and was medically discharged after four years due to an injury. The care he received during rehab sparked his interest in health care. After earning his degree, Castro spent more than six years working in a correctional facility before joining an acute care hospital and most recently the Medical/Surgical Services Unit at Baptist Medical Center Downtown. “I couldn’t have picked a better field. I love it,” he says.

The hospital began readying its staff for COVID-19 as soon as evacuees from China arrived at Lackland Air Force Base in early 2020 but like at other hospitals, it wasn’t until summer that Castro and his coworkers saw an onslaught of patients suffering the impacts of the coronavirus.

Knowing the importance of family in San Antonio, Castro says he worked not only to explain to patients what treatments they would receive but also to connect with them and make their relatives available via video calls when possible.

Castro and his coworkers also dealt with a feeling of isolation first-hand.

During the height of San Antonio’s case surge in July, Castro, along with several other fellow nurses, moved out of his home and into a hotel to protect his family, including his father who lives with him and is on dialysis after dealing with cancer. “It was hard on both sides,” he says.

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On days when Castro was too busy to stop and process the extreme illness and loss of life that he was witnessing, he would reach out to nurses after their shifts or in the following days to talk. He even organized game sessions for others who were staying away from home to help take their mind off of work. “We became a community and that really helped,” he says.

In the hospital, Castro worked to research and learn about any treatments they were using so he could tell patients what was occurring. Having worked in a long-term acute care hospital, where patients often required oxygen, Castro was also more familiar with respiratory therapy than many of his peers—a skill his supervisor said proved vital to the team.

Castro would kneel down so he was on the same level as patients and explain what was happening to help keep their anxiety down while also encouraging them to do what they could to breathe and keep their oxygen levels as stable as possible.

Still a history buff, Castro says he’s hopeful that, like with past pandemics, COVID-19 will help the world to evolve in its approach to viruses. “This is a stepping stone of civilization,” he says. “We’re now global so we have to learn to manage this at a global level. There are things we did well and things we can improve on but there are already adaptations—mask wearing as part of PPE, not going to work if you feel sick, distancing—that I think will be more the norm going forward.”

BEHIND THE

11/24/20 3:57 PM

BETHANY LOY Registered respiratory therapist, Christus Santa Rosa Hospital – Medical Center

B

etween cold and flu patients and those with COPD and other complications exacerbated by colder weather, respiratory therapist Bethany Loy expects to be busy during each of her 12-hour shifts in the winter.

And while she and her coworkers at Christus Santa Rosa’s Medical Center Hospital prepared for that pace to continue into the spring this year due to COVID-19, by early June they still hadn’t been overwhelmed by the pandemic. So, when her annual summer vacation came up, she took off, spending the time moving into a new home with her husband.

“Halfway through my vacation, they called and asked me to come back. I gladly went back,” she says. “I’ve never in my life been that busy.”

It was late June and her hospital, along with others in the city, were beginning to fill as COVID-19 cases surged locally. After July 4, Loy’s hospital, which typically has two ICU floors, was adding ICU capacity to meet demand. Since it’s a smaller hospital, Loy says she’s part of a tight-knit team of respiratory therapists who typically work three, 12-hour shifts each week. By early July, they were each working five days consecutively, taking one day off and then returning to begin another five-day stint.

“We were mentally prepared for it,” she says, adding that the hospital also had stocked up on ventilators and PPE. “But until you live it … People keep telling me to write it down because we are working and living through history.”

Throughout each day, Loy helped manage MASKS

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care for patients on ventilators in the ICU as well as working with patients on oxygen who were not yet severe enough for intensive care. With those patients, she took extra time to encourage them to try proning, or lying on their stomachs, to help distribute oxygen more evenly throughout the lungs. It’s a tactic they’d found helpful in the ICU, where Loy and a team were flipping patients daily, and one they hoped would prevent some patients from needing a ventilator. “The patients were scared and a lot of them were in pain. We tried to encourage them,” she says. “You don’t want to tell them everything is going to be OK because you don’t know that, but you try to keep their spirits up.”

Even on her day off between shifts, Loy found herself at home worrying that someone she’d cared for would be put on a ventilator overnight or worse, that they wouldn’t be there when she returned. It wasn’t until contract therapists from outside the hospital

came in to help provide care later in July that Loy and her colleagues took a breath and the magnitude of the surge they’d been through hit them. “It definitely takes a mental toll because you get so attached to the patients,” she says. “It makes you grateful (for your own health).”

A Jourdanton native, Loy earned a bachelor’s in respiratory therapy at Texas State University after watching how important respiratory therapists were when her grandmother battled lung cancer. She moved to San Antonio after graduating eight years ago and has worked on the same team at Christus Santa Rosa since.

Loy says each time there’s risk of another surge—whether the reopening of schools or the holiday season—she and her colleagues hold their breath a bit, hoping they don’t experience another July. Until a vaccine is widely distributed, she says, she won’t be able to fully exhale.

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11/25/20 11:41 AM

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TOP DOCTORS 2021 SAN ANTONIO'S

DAVID G. LOYOLA

FOR WHATEVER AILS YOU, FIND A SPECIALIST AMONG THESE 276 PEER-NOMINATED PHYSICIANS WITH STELLAR REPUTATIONS

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11/24/20 4:02 PM

ALLERGY & IMMUNOLOGY Roberto Rodriguez Southwest Allergy and Asthma Center, PA 3903 Wiseman Blvd., Ste. 202 210-616-0690

Elaine Maldonado

Elizabeth Roeder

Emily Fridlington

Maria S. Rayas

UT Health San Antonio 1901 Babcock Road, Ste. 301 210-341-7722

The Children’s Hospital of San Antonio – David Christopher Goldsbury Center for Children and Families 333 N. Santa Rosa St., Floor 2 210-704-4708

Alamo Heights Dermatology 131 W. Sunset Road, Ste. 101 210-255-8447

UT Health San Antonio 701 S. Zarzamora St. 210-358-7551

Robert Gilson

Michelle D. Welch

UT Health San Antonio 7979 Wurzbach Road, Floor 3 210-450-9840

Diabetes and Metabolism Specialists 4118 Pond Hill Road, Ste. 300 210-494-3739

Anand Prasad

Anthony Infante

UT Health San Antonio 8300 Floyd Curl Drive, Floor 3 210-450-4888

UT Health San Antonio 4502 Medical Drive, Floor10 210-743-2300

CARDIOTHORACIC SURGERY John Calhoon

ANESTHESIOLOGY Michael Little

UT Health San Antonio 8300 Floyd Curl Drive, Floor 3 210-450-0999

UT Health San Antonio 4502 Medical Drive 210-358-4000

Francis Rosinia UT Health San Antonio 4502 Medical Drive 210-358-4000

Steven G. Venticinque UT Health San Antonio 4502 Medical Drive 210-358-4000

CARDIAC ELECTROPHYSIOLOGY Lawrence Widman Cardiac Electrophysiology Consultants of South Texas, P.A. 7950 Floyd Curl Drive, Ste. 803 210-615-9500

Andrea Carpenter UT Health San Antonio 8300 Floyd Curl Drive, Floor 3 210-450-0999

Daniel De Armond UT Health San Antonio 8300 Floyd Curl Drive, Floor 3 210-450-0999

Scott Johnson UT Health San Antonio 8300 Floyd Curl Drive, Floor 3 210-450-0999

Edward Sako UT Health San Antonio 8300 Floyd Curl Drive, Floor 3 210-450-0999

COLON & RECTAL SURGERY Haisar Dao Campi

Limmer Dermatology 4630 N. Loop 1604 W., Ste. 316 210-496-9929

Richard Blair Jackson

Karla Munoz

Texas Oncology 7950 Floyd Curl Drive, Ste. 101 210-614-0880

Vista Dermatology 27511 I-10 W., Bldg. 2 210-698-0500

Alicia Logue

Ryan P. O’Quinn

UT Health San Antonio 8300 Floyd Curl Drive, Floor 4 210-450-9200

South Texas Skin Cancer Center 9238 Floyd Curl Drive, Ste. 101 210-558-6234

James Prieto

Sandra Osswald

South Texas Colorectal Center 311 Camden St., Ste. 501 210-212-6202

UT Health San Antonio 7979 Wurzbach Road, Floor 3 210-450-9840

John H. Winston III

Ana Treviño Sauceda

Colorectal Surgery Services, PLLC 19288 Stone Oak Pkwy., Ste. A 210-490-2828

Ana Treviño Sauceda, MD, PLLC 2829 Babcock Road, Ste. 636 210-615-8460

CARDIOLOGY Ildiko Agoston

CARDIOVASCULAR DISEASE Mark Colligan

UT Health San Antonio 8300 Floyd Curl Drive, Floor 3 210-644-8201

Heart Clinic of San Antonio 502 Madison Oak Drive, Ste. 310 210-483-8883

Allen Anderson

Fernando Lopez

DERMATOLOGY Emily Becker

UT Health San Antonio 8300 Floyd Curl Drive, Floor 3 210-450-4888

UT Health San Antonio 903 W. Martin St. 210-358-3441

UT Health San Antonio 7979 Wurzbach Road, Floor 3 210-450-9840

Steven Bailey

David N. Pederson

John Browning

UT Health San Antonio 8300 Floyd Curl Drive, Floor 3 210-450-4888

Methodist Physician Practices 4411 Medical Drive, Ste. 300 210-614-5400

Texas Dermatology 3320 Oakwell Court 210-829-5180

Marc Feldman

CLINICAL GENETICS Scott McLean

Thushan DeSilva

UT Health San Antonio 8300 Floyd Curl Drive, Floor 3 210-450-4888

Jorge C. Magallon RiverCity Cardiovascular 311 Camden St., Ste. 102 210-281-9800

The Children’s Hospital of San Antonio – David Christopher Goldsbury Center for Children and Families 333 N. Santa Rosa St., Floor 2 210-704-4708

Byron Limmer

UT Health San Antonio 8300 Floyd Curl Drive, Floor 4 210-450-9200

CRITICAL CARE MEDICINE Daniel J. Gebhard UT Health San Antonio 4502 Medical Drive 210-743-2100

DeSilva Dermatology 120 Old San Antonio Road 830-331-4150

Alan Kenneth Silverman Dermatology Associates of San Antonio 18540 Sigma Road 210-490-4661

UT Health San Antonio 7979 Wurzbach Road, Floor 3 210-450-9840

EMERGENCY MEDICINE Andrew Muck

Ramon Cancino UT Health San Antonio 25723 Old Fredericksburg Road 210-450-6800

Christopher Caulfield HealthTexas Medical Group 8906 Perrin Beitel Road 210-572-3306

Michael Dominguez HealthTexas Medical Group 590 N. General McMullen Drive 210-249-0212

Andrine Grant HealthTexas Medical Group 530 San Pedro Ave. 210-225-4511

April Hain Trevino HealthTexas Medical Group 1248 Austin Hwy., Ste. 214 210-828-2531

Aaron King HealthTexas Medical Group 20821 Hwy. 281 N., Ste. 122 210-546-1600

Ramin Poursani

UT Health San Antonio 4502 Medical Drive 210-358-2078

UT Health San Antonio 903 W. Martin St. 210-358-3985

ENDOCRINOLOGY, DIABETES & METABOLISM Jan Bruder

Manuel M. Quinones Jr.

UT Health San Antonio 8300 Floyd Curl Drive, Floor 4 210-358-7500

Jane Lynch UT Health San Antonio 701 S. Zarzamora St. 210-358-5437

JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2021

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HealthTexas Medical Group 810 S.E. Military Drive 210-921-4200

Holly Volz

Malini Fowler Westlake Dermatology 5500 Broadway, Ste. R100 210-802-0085

FAMILY MEDICINE Claudia A. Aguero

HealthTexas Medical Group 11820 Bandera Road, Ste. 102 210-477-7180

Joshua Urteaga HealthTexas Medical Group 1910 S. New Braunfels Ave. 210-532-0891

SANANTONIOMAG.COM

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11/24/20 4:02 PM

GASTROENTEROLOGY Juan F. Echavarria

Gary Hall

Edward Kost

Aaron Sugalski

Cynthia Castillo

UT Health San Antonio 903 W. Martin St. 210-358-6700

Alamo City Surgeons 12709 Toepperwein Road, Ste. 302, Live Oak 210-653-9307

UT Health San Antonio 8300 Floyd Curl Drive, Floor 5 210-450-9500

UT Health San Antonio 4502 Medical Drive 210-358-5437

UT Health San Antonio 8300 Floyd Curl Drive, Floor 1 210-450-9020

Georgia McCann Jason W. Kempenich

HOSPICE & PALLIATIVE Jennifer Lacoss

Swapna Ghattamaneni

Glenn Gross UT Health San Antonio 8300 Floyd Curl Drive 210-450-9880

UT Health San Antonio 8300 Floyd Curl Drive 210-358-8900

Ernesto Guerra Jr.

Damon A. Mimari

San Antonio Gastroenterology Associates & Endoscopy Centers 520 E. Euclid Ave. 210-775-2265

START Center for Cancer Care 4383 Medical Drive 210-593-5700

UT Health San Antonio 8300 Floyd Curl Drive, Floor 5 210-450-9500

UT Health San Antonio 8300 Floyd Curl Drive 210-450-9000

Antonio Santillan-Gomez

J. Brian Szender Ian Mitchell

Hopethe Hubbard UT Health San Antonio 903 W. Martin St. 210-358-6700

San Antonio Pediatric Surgery Associates 4499 Medical Drive, Ste. 347 210-615-8757

James F. Jackson

John Pilcher

Gastroenterology Consultants of San Antonio 855 Proton Road 210-614-1234

Sage Bariatric Institute 9618 Huebner Road, Ste. 202 210-651-0303

Frank M. Robertson Navneet Mittal Oncology San Antonio 202 Baltimore Ave. 210-299-8000

San Antonio Pediatric Surgery Associates 4499 Medical Drive, Ste. 347 210-615-8757

Laura Rosenkranz

Ronald Stewart

UT Health San Antonio 8300 Floyd Curl Drive, Floor 4 210-450-9880

UT Health San Antonio 4502 Medical Drive 210-358-0265

Jay N. Shah

Daniel D. Tamez

UT Health San Antonio 903 W. Martin St. 210-358-5437

Peripheral Vascular Associates 610 N. Main Ave. 210-225-6508

GENERAL SURGERY Gregory Abrahamian UT Health San Antonio 7979 Wurzbach Road, Urschel Bldg., Ste. 219 210-567-5777

Barry R. Cofer San Antonio Pediatric Surgery Associates 4499 Medical Drive, Ste. 347 210-615-8757

John J. Doski San Antonio Pediatric Surgery Associates 4499 Medical Drive, Ste. 347 210-615-8757

Kent Van Sickle UT Health San Antonio 8300 Floyd Curl Drive 210-358-8900

GERIATRIC MEDICINE Neela Patel Geriatrics and Supportive Care 2833 Babcock Road, Ste. 302 210-450-9890

GYNECOLOGIC ONCOLOGY Joseph De La Garza Texas Oncology 5206 Research Drive 210-595-5300

Kevin Hall UT Health San Antonio 8300 Floyd Curl Drive, Floor 5 210-450-9500

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Texas Oncology 5206 Research Drive 210-595-5300

START Center for Cancer Care 4383 Medical Drive 210- 593-5700

James L. Wilder South Texas Gynecologic Oncology 540 Madison Oak Drive, Ste. 570 210-402-3700

HEMATOLOGY & ONCOLOGY Chatchawin Assanasen

HealthTexas Medical Group 530 San Pedro Ave. 210-225-4511

Michael E. Lozano Jason D. Morrow UT Health San Antonio 4502 Medical Drive 210-358-4000

INFECTIOUS DISEASE Ruth Berggren UT Health San Antonio 8300 Floyd Curl Drive, Floor 4 210-450-9800

Jason Bowling UT Health San Antonio 8300 Floyd Curl Drive, Floor 4 210-450-9800

Joseph Cantey

UT Health San Antonio 4502 Medical Drive, Floor 10 210-358-4000

UT Health San Antonio 4502 Medical Drive 210-358-1593

Elizabeth A. Bowhay-Carnes

Anthony W. Hartzler

UT Health San Antonio 7979 Wurzbach Road 210-450-1000

UT Health San Antonio 8300 Floyd Curl Drive, Floor 3 210-450-9800

Thomas D. Fisher

Jan Patterson

Texas Oncology 3327 Research Place, Ste. 102 210-337-4494

UT Health San Antonio 8300 Floyd Curl Drive, Floor 4 210-450-9800

Melissa Frei-Jones

Thomas F. Patterson

UT Health San Antonio 4502 Medical Drive, Floor 10 210-743-2300

UT Health San Antonio 8300 Floyd Curl Drive 210-358-3710

Anand Karnad

Barbara S. Taylor

UT Health San Antonio 7979 Wurzbach Road, Urschel Bldg., Floor 4 210-450-1000

UT Health San Antonio 4502 Medical Drive 210-358-3710

Amy Lang

INTERNAL MEDICINE Jesus J. Aguilar

START Center for Cancer Care 4383 Medical Drive 210-593-5700

HealthTexas Medical Group 1910 S. New Braunfels Ave. 210-532-0891

Amita Patnaik

Gregory Bowling

START Center for Cancer Care 4383 Medical Drive 210-593-5700

UT Health San Antonio 4502 Medical Drive 210-358-3400

Impact Physicians of Texas 6800 I-10 W., Ste. 200 210-690-0230

Nagalakshmi Nallapaneni HealthTexas Medical Group 530 San Pedro Ave. 210-225-4511

Steven Ramos HealthTexas Medical Group 530 San Pedro Ave. 210-225-4511

Rowland Reyna HealthTexas Medical Group 530 San Pedro Ave. 210-225-4511

Claudia Santos HealthTexas Medical Group 530 San Pedro Ave. 210-225-4511

Kelly Thurmon HealthTexas Medical Group 530 San Pedro Ave. 210-225-4511

Chandana Tripathy UT Health San Antonio 8300 Floyd Curl Drive, Floor 1 210-450-9020

Stella Yu HealthTexas Medical Group 8542 Wurzbach Road 210-616-7300

MATERNAL & FETAL MEDICINE Michael Berkus UT Health San Antonio 8300 Floyd Curl Drive, Floor 5 210-450-9500

Angela Boyd UT Health San Antonio 8300 Floyd Curl Drive, Floor 5 210-450-9500

Deborah Conway UT Health San Antonio

JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2021

11/24/20 4:02 PM

8300 Floyd Curl Drive, Floor 5 210-450-9500

333 N. Santa Rosa St. 210-541-8281

Kayla Ireland

NEPHROLOGY Mazen Arar

UT Health San Antonio 8300 Floyd Curl Drive, Floor 5 210-450-9500

Emma Rodriguez Center for Maternal and Fetal Care 315 N. San Saba St. 210-704-3200

Erin Mankus UT Health San Antonio 8300 Floyd Curl Drive, Floor 5 210-450-9500

Matthew Schaefer

Jean-Louis Caron

Victor Casiano

Georgia McCann

San Antonio Kidney 731 Carnoustie Drive, Ste. 102 210-495-8280

UT Health San Antonio 8300 Floyd Curl Drive 210-358-8555

Women’s Health Texas 18707 Hardy Oak Blvd., Ste. 230 210-494-2000

UT Health San Antonio 8300 Floyd Curl Drive, Floor 5 210-450-9500

NEUROCRITICAL Shaheryar Hafeez

John Floyd

Katherine Cornforth

Gabriel Medrano Valle

UT Health San Antonio 8300 Floyd Curl Drive, Floor 7 210-450-9060

Women’s Health Texas 4458 Medical Center Drive, Ste. 705 210-614-1000

UT Health San Antonio 8300 Floyd Curl Drive, Floor 5 210-450-9500

UT Health San Antonio 8300 Floyd Curl Drive, Floor 5 210-450-9500

NEUROLOGY Sidney Atkinson

MEDICAL ONCOLOGY Amanda D. Bucheit

UT Health San Antonio 8300 Floyd Curl Drive 210-644-9300

UT Health San Antonio 7979 Wurzbach Road, Floor 4 210-450-1724

Kate Lathrop UT Health San Antonio 7979 Wurzbach Road, Floor 4 210-450-1724

Kyriakos Papadopoulos START Center for Cancer Care 4383 Medical Drive 210-593-5700

Lon S. Smith START Center for Cancer Care 4383 Medical Drive 210-593-5700

NEONATAL-PERINATAL MEDICINE Cynthia Blanco

Donald Hilton Neurosurgical Associates of San Antonio, PA 4410 Medical Drive, Ste. 610 210-614-2453

Maria Molina Boero Susan A. Crockett Virtuosa GYN 12602 Toepperwein Road, Ste. 208 210-878-0090

Justin Mascitelli Kelly A. Averill UT Health San Antonio 8300 Floyd Curl Drive 210-358-5437

UT Health San Antonio 8300 Floyd Curl Drive 210-358-8555

Rochelle David UT Health San Antonio 8300 Floyd Curl Drive, Floor 5 210-450-9500

Alexander Papanastassiou Robin Brey UT Health San Antonio 8300 Floyd Curl Drive, Floor 8 210-450-9700

UT Health San Antonio 8300 Floyd Curl Drive 210-358-8555

John Franka UT Health San Antonio 8300 Floyd Curl Drive, Floor 5 210-450-9500

Izabela Tarasiewicz Carlayne Jackson UT Health San Antonio 8300 Floyd Curl Drive, Floor 8 210-450-9700

Linda Leary UT Health San Antonio 8300 Floyd Curl Drive 210-358-5437

UT Health San Antonio 4502 Medical Drive 210-358-8555

OBSTETRICS & GYNECOLOGY Bruce D. Akright

Shannon Gallagher Seven Oaks Women’s Center 7711 Louis Pasteur Drive, Ste. 200 210-692-9500

Joseph Garza

Northeast OB/GYN Associates 250 E. Basse St., Ste. 205 210-653-5501

Women’s Health Texas 18707 Hardy Oak Blvd., Ste. 500 210-616-0680

Alexandriah Alas

David E. Garza

UT Health San Antonio 8300 Floyd Curl Drive, Floor 5 210-450-9500

David E. Garza, M.D., P.A. 525 Oak Centre Drive, Ste. 270 210-616-0792

Yadira Anca

Jessica Guerrero

CommuniCare Health Centers 10002 Westover Blvd.

210-521-9500

Women’s Health Texas 222 W. Cypress St. 210-226-9705

Anna B. Beceiro

Michelle Harden

L​ one Star OB/GYN 7950 Floyd Curl Drive, Stes. 300 & 400 210-615-6505

Stone Oak Womens Center OBGYN 540 Oak Centre Drive, Ste. 280 210-614-2229

Octavian V. Lie UT Health San Antonio 8300 Floyd Curl Drive, Floor 4 210-450-9700

Rebecca Romero

UT Health San Antonio 4502 Medical Drive 210-358-4000

UT Health San Antonio 8300 Floyd Curl Drive, Floor 8 210-450-9700

Maria Pierce

Charles A. Szabo

Pediatrix Medical Group of Texas 333 N. Santa Rosa St. 210-541-8281

UT Health San Antonio 8300 Floyd Curl Drive, Floor 8 210-450-9700

Mary Wearden

NEURORADIOLOGY Pavel Rodriguez

Pediatrix Medical Group of Texas

UT Health San Antonio 8300 Floyd Curl Drive, Floor 5 210-450-9500

Women’s Health Texas 222 W. Cypress St. 210-226-9705

Elly Xenakis

Virginia Kaklamani

Ilanna Loeffel

Bluebonnet OB/GYN 4499 Medical Drive, Ste. 140 210-686-6170

Elisa F. Carroll

UT Health San Antonio 4502 Medical Drive 210-358-8555

START Center for Cancer Care 4383 Medical Drive 210-593-5700

NEUROSURGERY Lee Birnbaum

Patricia K. Brougher

UT Health San Antonio 8300 Floyd Curl Drive, Floor 7 210-450-9060

UT Health San Antonio 903 W. Martin St. 210-358-8309

Patrick Ramsey UT Health San Antonio 8300 Floyd Curl Drive, Floor 5 210-450-9500

UT Health San Antonio 8300 Floyd Curl Drive, Floor 7 210-450-9060

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CentroMed Walzem Clinic 5542 Walzem Road 210-922-7000

Erin Nelson UT Health San Antonio 8300 Floyd Curl Drive, Floor 5 210-450-9500

Luke Newton UT Health San Antonio 8300 Floyd Curl Drive, Floor 5 210-450-9500

Susan P. Novak Women Partners in OB/GYN 502 Madison Oak Drive, Ste. 440 210-946-1300

Sarah Page-Ramsey UT Health San Antonio 8300 Floyd Curl Drive, Floor 5 210-450-9500

Steven G. Pilkington Dignity Women’s Center 4499 Medical Dr., Ste. 151 210-593-4392

Kristen Plastino UT Health San Antonio 8300 Floyd Curl Drive, Floor 5 210-450-9500

Patrick Ramsey UT Health San Antonio 8300 Floyd Curl Drive, Floor 5 210-450-9500

Marcy Rosen Northeast OB/GYN Associates 250 E. Basse Road, Ste. 205 210-653-5501

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11/25/20 11:45 AM

Jose Ruiz III

Carlos Rosende

Randal Otto

Women’s Health Texas 4458 Medical Center Drive, Ste. 705 210-614-1000

UT Health San Antonio 8300 Floyd Curl Drive 210-644-9300

UT Health San Antonio 8300 Floyd Curl Drive, Floor 6 210-450-9950

ORTHOPEDICS Animesh Agarwal

Anand G. Shah

Tiffany Satterfield Seven Oaks Women’s Center 7711 Louis Pasteur Drive, Ste. 200 210-692-9500

UT Health San Antonio 4502 Medical Drive 210-358-0265

Lone Star OB/GYN 7950 Floyd Curl Drive, Stes. 300 & 400 210-615-6505

Kristin Brozena Shah Women Partners in OB/GYN 502 Madison Oak Drive, Ste. 440 210-946-1300

Kendra Thorn CommuniCare Health Centers 3066 E. Commerce St. 210-233-7000

Women Partners in OB/GYN 502 Madison Oak Drive, Ste. 440 210-946-1300

UT Health San Antonio 8300 Floyd Curl Drive, Floor 5 210-450-9500

OPTHALMOLOGY Kent Anderson UT Health San Antonio 8300 Floyd Curl Drive, Floor 6 210-450-9400

Jane Lindell Hughes San Antonio Ophthalmology & Ophthalmic Surgery 10007 Huebner Road, Bldg. 3, Ste. 302 210-614-5566

Daniel Johnson UT Health San Antonio 8300 Floyd Curl Drive, Floor 6 210-450-9400

Vasudha A. Panday San Antonio Eye Center 14807 San Pedro Ave. 210-226-6169

UT Health San Antonio 4502 Medical Drive 210-358-0770

PAIN MANAGEMENT Maxim Eckmann

Daniel Dumitru

Ravi Karia UT Health San Antonio 8300 Floyd Curl Drive 210-644-9300

UT Health San Antonio 5282 Medical Drive, Ste. 614 210-450-9850

Elizabeth Magnabosco

Stephanie Jones

PLASTIC SURGERY Rodney Chan

The Children’s Hospital of San Antonio 333 N. Santa Rosa St. 210-704-4199

Consultants in Pain Medicine, PA 332 W. Sunset Road, Ste. 3 210-546-1430

STARS Plastic Surgery 8042 Wurzbach Road, Ste. 130 210-201-2806

Ameet Nagpal

Woodward Coleman

UT Health San Antonio 5282 Medical Drive, Ste. 614 210-450-9850

San Antonio Plastic Surgery Associates 8715 Village Drive, Ste. 504 210-251-4362

UT Health San Antonio 8300 Floyd Curl Drive 210-450-9300

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UT Health San Antonio 4502 Medical Drive, Floor 3 210-358-0770

William Alec Tisdall The Center for Special Surgery 21 Spurs Lane, Ste. 300 210-699-8326

Spine & Joint Pain Specialists 1919 Rogers Road, Ste. 104 210-541-0700

Scott Farber UT Health San Antonio 8300 Floyd Curl Drive, Floor 4 210-450-9220

Markian Kunasz

Peter Ledoux PRMA Plastic Surgery 9635 Huebner Road 210-692-1181

Richard A. Levine Richard A. Levine, MD, DDS, FACS 4499 Medical Drive, Ste. 316 210-614-2747

Manuel A. Lopez Advanced Aesthetics Lopez Plastic Surgery 18322 Sonterra Place, Ste. 107 210-495-5771

Amita Shah UT Health San Antonio 7979 Wurzbach Road, Floor 6 210-450-9220

Howard Wang UT Health San Antonio 8300 Floyd Curl Drive, Floor 4 210-450-9220

PSYCHIATRY Steven Pliszka

Scott L. Sledge

PEDIATRICS Tina H. Boylston

Regina M. Fearmonti

UT Health San Antonio 7703 Floyd Curl Drive, Floor 7 210-450-6450

Dr. Scott L. Sledge, MD 19016 Stone Oak Pkwy., Ste. 100 210-494-9600

Southwest Children’s Center, P.A. 5282 Medical Drive, Ste. 310 210-614-8687

Alon Aesthetics 11503 N.W. Military Hwy., Ste. 114 210-343-1089

PULMONOLOGY Jay Peters

OTOLARYNGOLOGY/ EAR NOSE THROAT Philip Chen

L. Patrick Finklea Jr.

Earl E. Ferguson III

Southwest Children’s Center, P.A. 5282 Medical Drive, Ste. 310 210-614-8687

Dermatology Associates of San Antonio 15900 La Cantera Pkwy., Ste. 20270 210-877-5005

UT Health San Antonio 8300 Floyd Curl Drive, Floor 6 210-450-9950

Marisa Earley UT Health San Antonio 8300 Floyd Curl Drive 210-450-9950

Rebecca Huston The Children’s Hospital of San Antonio 333 N. Santa Rosa St. 210-704-4966

UT Health San Antonio 8300 Floyd Curl Drive 210-450-9950

Through The Years Pediatrics 15316 Huebner Road, Ste. 102 210-479-9292

Shelly M. McNair Frank Miller

Southwest Children’s Center, P.A. 5282 Medical Drive, Ste. 310 210-614-8687

UT Health San Antonio 8300 Floyd Curl Drive 210-358-3555

Tamara Simpson UT Health San Antonio 4502 Medical Drive 210-358-4000

Jaime R. Garza Texas Plastic Surgery 21 Spurs Lane, Ste. 120 210-981-4490

Brandy L. McCray Timothy P. McEvoy

UT Health San Antonio 8300 Floyd Curl Drive, Floor 6 210-450-9950

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STARS Plastic Surgery 8042 Wurzbach Road, Ste. 130 210-201-2806

Stallworth Facial Plastic Surgery 21 Spurs Lane, Ste. 120A 210-997-3223

South Texas Spinal Clinic, PA 9150 Huebner Road, Ste. 290 210-614-6432

David R. Schmidt Elly Xenakis

San Antonio Pediatric Developmental Services 5430 Fredericksburg Road 210-614-5539

Christian L. Stallworth

Rajiv Rajani Debra J. Williams

210-499-5900

PHYSICAL MEDICINE & REHABILITATION Derrick Allred

Gerald Q. Greenfield Jr. Ora Schwope

Anand G. Shah, MD 9150 Huebner Road, Ste. 280 210-255-5666

PEDIATRIC DEVELOPMENTAL & BEHAVIORAL Mario Fierro

Elizabeth Harris Center for Cosmetic Surgery 540 N. Madison Oak Drive, Ste. 400 210-545-4848

Suresh Koneru Advanced Concepts in Plastic Surgery, PA 423 Treeline Park, Ste. 300

Kelly Smith Texas Pediatric Specialties and Family Sleep Center 4114 Pond Hill Road, Ste. 102 210-249-5020

Donna Willey-Courand UT Health San Antonio 903 W. Martin St. 210-358-5437

RADIATION ONCOLOGY Richard Crownover UT Health San Antonio

JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2021

11/25/20 12:14 PM

7979 Wurzbach Road, Floor 2 210-450-1000

8300 Floyd Curl Drive, Floor 5 210-450-9500

Mohamad Fakhreddine

RHEUMATOLOGY Agustin Escalante

UT Health San Antonio 7979 Wurzbach Road, Floor 2 210-450-1000

UT Health San Antonio 8300 Floyd Curl Drive, Floor 4 210-450-9800

Timothy Wagner UT Health San Antonio 7979 Wurzbach Road, Floor 2 210-450-1000

RADIOLOGY Angel Gomez UT Health San Antonio 8300 Floyd Curl Drive 210-358-4000

Jorge Lopera UT Health San Antonio 8300 Floyd Curl Drive 210-644-9300

Pamela Otto UT Health San Antonio 8300 Floyd Curl Drive 210-358-4000

Rajeev Suri Dr. Rajeev Suri, MD 7703 Floyd Curl Drive 210-567-5564

REPRODUCTIVE ENDOCRINOLOGY/ INFERTILITY Susan Hudson Texas Fertility Center 18707 Hardy Oak Blvd., Ste. 505 210-370-3800

UROLOGY Christopher Cantrill

Arthritis Associates 4511 Horizon Hill Blvd., Ste. 150 210-477-2626

SPINE SURGERY Viktor Bartanusz UT Health San Antonio 8300 Floyd Curl Drive 210-358-8555

Ajeya Joshi South Texas Spinal Clinic, PA 18626 Hardy Oak Blvd., Ste. 300 210-664-5047

Michael James McGinity UT Health San Antonio 8300 Floyd Curl Drive, Floor 7 210-450-9060

Derrick Sun UT Health San Antonio 8300 Floyd Curl Drive, Floor 7 210-450-9060

Erika Munch

Mio Kitano

Texas Fertility Center 18707 Hardy Oak Blvd., Ste. 505 210-370-3800

UT Health San Antonio 7979 Wurzbach Road 210-450-5990

Gregory S. Neal

UROGYNECOLOGY/FEMALE PELVIC MEDICINE Alexandriah Alas

UT Health San Antonio

UT Health San Antonio 8300 Floyd Curl Drive, Floor 5 210-450-9500

Pendleton Wickersham

UT Health San Antonio 7979 Wurzbach Road 210-450-5990

Robert Schenken

Elizabeth Evans

Stephen Kraus

UT Health San Antonio 8300 Floyd Curl Drive, Floor 5 210-450-9500

UT Health San Antonio 8300 Floyd Curl Drive, Floor 5 210-450-9500

Urology San Antonio 7909 Fredericksburg Road, Ste. 135 210-614-4544

Rheumatology Associates of South Texas 19272 Stone Oak Pkwy., Ste. 101 210-265-8851

SURGICAL ONCOLOGY Maryam Elmi

Randal Robinson

Kurt G. Meissner

Urogynecology of San Antonio 335 E. Sonterra Blvd., Ste. 170 210-614-7744

Kevin J. Kempf

Jennifer Knudtson

Fertility Center of San Antonio 4499 Medical Drive, Ste. 200 210-692-0577

Ash Dabbous

UT Health San Antonio 8300 Floyd Curl Drive, Floor 4 210-450-9600

Urology San Antonio 7909 Fredericksburg Road, Ste. 120 210-614-4544

William Harmon Urology San Antonio 7909 Fredericksburg Road, Ste. 135 210-614-4544

Ronald Rodriguez UT Health San Antonio 8300 Floyd Curl Drive, Floor 4 210-450-9600

Robert Svatek UT Health San Antonio 8300 Floyd Curl Drive, Floor 4 210-450-9600

Sylvia Botros-Brey UT Health San Antonio 8300 Floyd Curl Drive, Floor 4 210-450-9600

VASCULAR SURGERY Grady D. Alsabrook Peripheral Vascular Associates 610 N. Main Ave. 210-225-6508

Mark G. Davies Javier Hernandez UT Health San Antonio 8300 Floyd Curl Drive, Floor 4 210-450-9600

UT Health San Antonio 8300 Floyd Curl Drive 210-644-3278

Lois A. Fiala Timothy Hlavinka The Urology Place 9618 Huebner Road, Ste. 120 210-617-3670

Peripheral Vascular Associates 610 N. Main Ave. 210-225-6508

William O. Kirk Clayton Hudnall Urology San Antonio 7909 Fredericksburg Road, Ste. 125 210-614-4544

Dharam Kaushik UT Health San Antonio 8300 Floyd Curl Drive, Floor 4 210-450-9600

Peripheral Vascular Associates 8811 Village Drive, Ste. 150 210-656-5098

Lyssa Ochoa The San Antonio Vascular and Endovascular Clinic 4025 E. Southcross Blvd., Ste. 15 210-610-7283

Lori Pounds Naveen Kella The Urology Place 9618 Huebner Road, Ste. 120 210-617-3670

UT Health San Antonio 8300 Floyd Curl Drive 210-644-3278

Matthew Sideman Stephen Kraus

UT Health San Antonio 8300 Floyd Curl Drive, Floor 5 210-450-9500

UT Health San Antonio 8300 Floyd Curl Drive, Floor 4 210-450-9600

Sylvia Botros-Brey

Andrew J. Marks

UT Health San Antonio 8300 Floyd Curl Drive, Floor 4 210-450-9600

Pediatric Urology of San Antonio, PLLC 4499 Medical Drive, Ste. 360 210-615-1600

UT Health San Antonio 4502 Medical Drive 210-567-5715

Using an online survey, San Antonio Magazine solicited peer nominations from physicians in Bexar, Atascosa, Bandera, Comal, Guadalupe, Kendall, Medina and Wilson counties, asking them to nominate up to three doctors per practice area who they would trust with the medical care of themselves or their family. To ensure the nomination process is peerbased, full contact information was requested before nominating and doctors were asked to limit their nominations to physicians whose work they’ve personally witnessed.

San Antonio Magazine then tallied the results, selecting the top 10 to 15 percent of vote recipients in each practice area before submitting the final list to our fact-checking process, which includes a review of good standing among medical boards.

Doctors do not and cannot pay to be a part of the list. We recognize that many good doctors are not included on the list; this is only a sampling of a huge array of talented professionals within the region.

We encourage all consumers to do their own research before selecting a doctor.

San Antonio Magazine uses best practices and exercises great care in assembling content for this list. It does not warrant that the data contained within the list are complete or accurate.

San Antonio Magazine does not assume, and hereby disclaims, any liability to any person for any loss or damage caused by errors or omissions herein whether such errors or omissions result from negligence, accident, or any other cause. All rights reserved. No commercial use of the information in this list may be made without written permission from San Antonio Magazine. If you see an error in the information listed, please contact editor@sanantoniomag.com.

Doctors: Congratulations!

If you’d like to display this accomplishment with a plaque, please visit our official store at sanantoniomag.com/plaques.

Boulos Toursarkissian Peripheral Vascular Associates, PA 9153 Huebner Road 210-614-7414

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HOW THE LIST IS MADE

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Cul i n a ry G i f t s UTSA’s collection of Mexican cookbooks— one of the largest in the country—preserves historic recipes while bringing them back to life through home and restaurant chefs alike

By Edmund Tijerina

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MEXICAN COOK BOOK BY JOSEFINA VELAZQUEZ DE LEON: COURTESY UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS AT SAN ANTONIO MEXICAN COOKBOOK COLLECTION

Culinary Gifts From the Past

I thought about my own ancestors in those days, with one branch in a small town in the mountains of Chihuahua and another outside the city of San Luis Potosí. What kind of treats did they savor? For a delicious instant, it felt as if I had transcended eras, cultures and borders.

It’s a moment made possible because of one of this city’s underappreciated gems, the Mexican Cookbook Collection at the University of Texas at San Antonio. Many of its recipes are gaining new life in digitized form and a cookbook series that the university launched in 2020.

Even though news outlets around the country and internationally have explored this treasure of more than 2,000 cookbooks that date back to 1789, it is often still an overlooked treasure by locals.

“When local folks find out, the first thing they say is ‘I had no idea,’” says Amy Rushing, assistant dean for Special Collections at UTSA. “They’re really proud we have it in San Antonio.”

The collection began in 2001 when librarian Laurie Gruenbeck donated around 550 Mexican cookbooks that she had gathered in 30 some years of travels. Since then, other patrons have donated books and the university’s library staff have acquired even more materials. In 2019, UTSA made international news when 96-year-old British author, chef and ethnologist Diana Kennedy, who made Mexico her adopted homeland, donated her collection of 19th century Mexican cookbooks and her personal papers that include her culinary and botanical research notes from visiting each state in Mexico. Those are a glimpse into the traditions and lives of Mexico from generations past and enhance the collection as an invaluable resource for both scholars and chefs.

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ARTE NUEVO DE COCINA Y REPOSTERÍA ACOMODADO AL USO MEXICANO AND 20TH CENTURY MEXICAN COOKING MANUSCRIPT: COURTESY UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS AT SAN ANTONIO MEXICAN COOKBOOK COLLECTION

One bite into the crunchy, warm buñuelo drizzled with honey that I’d just created with a centuryold recipe and I wondered about the families who originally enjoyed it. The recipe came from a cookbook published in 1881, when Porfirio Díaz ruled over Mexico and the United States saw the departure of Rutherford B. Hayes, the assassination of James A. Garfield, and presidency of Chester A. Arthur.

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2 MIXTLI DISHES INSPIRED

BY THE COLLECTION Taco of Smoked Carrots Escabeche de chile ancho, jocoque, mint.

COURTESY RICO TORRES/MIXTLI

Memela de Nopales Maiz azul, frijoles blancos, hueveo, verdolagas

One local chef who regularly visits the collection, Rico Torres, chef and partner at Mixtli, says he finds inspiration from the books to create modernist interpretations of historic dishes.

“There’s always a fresh idea in there,” he says. “Having that knowledge gives the extra bit of confidence to push the envelope a little further. You have a point of reference to work off of.”

For more than 10 years, the library staff has sought to share this collection more widely. They started a blog, La Cocina Historica, in 2010 to describe some of the materials and share tests of recipes from the historical cookbooks. It ran until 2018, but can still be viewed at lacocinahistorica.wordpress.com.

Even though no longer being updated, that blog proved invaluable when the pandemic hit. During the shutdown, library staffers received emails from food lovers who were cooking more while stuck at home. They wanted additional historic recipes to try.

There was only one problem—staffers couldn’t go onto campus to retrieve more cookbooks when buildings were closed last spring.

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Culinary Gifts From the Past

Using recipes that had already been tested in the blog and tapping their in-house digital production skills, the Special Collections staff began creating an online cookbook series, Recetas: Cooking in the Time of Coronavirus: Recipes from the Mexican Cookbook Collection. Its first volume that focused on sweets came out last spring. The second volume, posted in October, looked at both nonalcoholic and boozy drinks—things like the well-known paloma and mezcal margarita as well as horchata and spiced coffee. A third volume, on main courses, is coming early this year.

The online cookbooks (published with the recipes in both English and Spanish), honor the original recipes, meaning they’re occasionally scant on the type of details home cooks may be used to seeing today.

Cookbooks in the 19th century were written with

the assumption that the reader was an experienced cook. “We encourage you to view these instructions as opportunities to acquire an intuitive feel for your food,” UTSA staff write. “With a little experimentation, you’ll have your very own secret specialty.”

About half of the library’s historic cookbooks are digitized, Rushing says. That number will increase, as the special collections staff continues acquiring more works and making more of them available online.

Torres adds that while the books help provide a glimpse into the past, they’re also a reminder that some things remain. “The information is the most valuable aspect of it. It paints a picture of our history, shows that fabric that ties us together,” Torres says. “It’s fun to see how much lives haven’t changed.

There’s still this need to have these family gatherings and cook well.”

Learn More View some of the collection at digital.utsa. edu/digital/custom/ mexicancookbooks Find a recipe to try at lib.utsa.edu/about/giving/ recetas-cooking-in-thetime-of-coronavirus

M ake i t at Ho me : Milk B u ñu elo s Ingredients

Preparation

3 1/3 cups flour (or 1 lb)

To the pound of flour, add a cup of milk, eight eggs, two egg whites, a cup of melted butter, ground anise and a pinch of salt. Make the dough and fry the buñuelos.

1 cup milk 8 eggs 2 egg whites 1 cup melted butter Ground anise Salt

Note from the writer: The exact steps I followed to achieve my finished product (at right) were fairly involved. Head to sanantoniomag.com/modernbunuelorecipe for the full recap. To start, I cut the recipe in half, since this recipe will make at least a few dozen buñuelos. The traditional treat is created with a pinwheel-like design that can be achieved with a 4-inch Mexican rosette. Once fried on both sides, use a paper towel to dry them a bit and then sprinkle with powdered sugar or cinnamon sugar and drizzle with honey if desired.

Recipe courtesy Cooking in the Time of Coronavirus: Recipes from the Mexican Cookbook Collection Recetas V1: Postres, page 24, taken from La Cocinera Poblana: y El Libro de las Familias. Puebla: Tip. de N. Bassols, dirigida por J. Romero, 1881. 2a ed., corregida y aumentada, UTSA Mexican Cookbook Collection

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Photo by JoMando Cruz

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Ophthalmology Associates of San Antonio has been serving the medical and surgical eye care needs of the community since the early 1970s with Dr. Thomas F. Hogan, Dr. Joe R. McFarlane Jr. and Dr. David M Hunter. Drs. Ario C. Terry, Robert P. Green Jr., John A. Campagna, Mark J. Trevino, and Cooper M. Clark joined the practice over subsequent years. Offices were opened in outlying communities for the convenience of our patients.

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Dr. John C. Browning is Board Certified in Pediatrics and Adult and Pediatric Dermatology. As chief of dermatology at Children’s Hospital of San Antonio, Dr. Browning has extensive experience in diagnosing and treating skin conditions for patients of all ages.

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Dr. Woodward Coleman has practiced plastic and reconstructive surgery in San Antonio for over 30 years. After graduating from medical school, he received advanced training in plastic and hand surgery at the University of South Carolina, Emory University, Duke University, the Kleinert Memorial Hand Fellowship at the University of Louisville, and the University of California. This elite training sets him apart from other plastic surgeons.

Dr. Coleman specializes in cosmetic breast and abdominal surgery, including mommy makeovers. He was the first to introduce DIEP microsurgical breast reconstruction in San Antonio. His meticulous microsurgical approach leads to minimal scarring and his patients say their results look as if they never had plastic surgery. Dr. Coleman is also known for his approachability and comforting demeanor. He strongly believes in an educated patient, discusses all options and works with patients to make the choices that are best suited for their needs.

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Eat + Drink I NSI D E / F UL L B E L LY’S SECON D FIRST ACT p. 58 / VEGGIE C RUST p. 60 / SA-IN SPIRED TREAT p . 6 2

IMBIBE

Order at healthnutsatx.com, Pick up at Local Sprout Food Hub or on weekends at Broadway News; delivery available on Fridays

A Cleaner Cocktail ormer assistant GM at Cured Melanie Barrows and Coquetel Spirits Co. owner Chiyo Takemoto shared mutual friends and worked in similar industries while living in the same Chicago neighborhood, but it wasn’t until they moved to San Antonio that their paths first crossed. Now the two—who describe themselves as “bad-ass bi**hes”—have combined their expertise to shake up the health and cocktail industry with Health Nut SATX, which they opened over the summer. Using whole food ingredients, including fruits, vegetables, botanicals, herbs and spices, the women offer a menu of fresh juices, tonics and plant-based milks that are delicious on their own or as the base for their “healthy-ish” cocktail kits. “Our

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PHOTO BY VINCENT GONZALEZ

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kits combine our healthy beverages with natural spirits from small, independently owned craft distilleries,” Takemoto says.

The women partnered with Alamo City Liquor to source the spirits featured in their DIY kits, which contain everything you need to create a snapshot-ready drink at home, from the juice or plant-based milk to the spirit and the coconut sugar, salt or fruit that rims the glass. Spirit-free drink kits also are available.

Look for them on social media and on weekends at Broadway News. For Barrows and Takemoto, offering healthier happy hour options is just the start. “For us, it is important to show that health and wellness doesn’t look just one way,” Takemoto says. “People of all shapes, sizes and ethnicities are in this space.”—BONNY OSTERHAGE

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E AT + D R I N K / E AT H E R E N O W

FULL BELLY CAFE + BAR

427 N. Loop 1604 W., Ste. 202 210-236-5374 fullbellysa.com Brunch & lunch daily, dinner Wed-Sat

Second Start The pandemic forced Full Belly Cafe + Bar to close but it retooled and reopened even stronger

BY EDMUND TIJERINA

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fter Blade Haddock and James Moore spent a full year planning, menu testing, arranging financing and hiring staff, it took only 32 days to undo all of it.

Barely a month after opening Full Belly Cafe + Bar last February, the duo had to shut down their newest project because of the pandemic. Unlike other restaurants, this brand-new business didn’t yet have regulars or much of a following, so moving to takeout-only wasn’t much of an option. “We decided to do what was safest for our employees, parents and our guests,” Haddock says. “And it was better to not open and close.”

Owner Haddock and chef/owner Moore, who previously worked together at Max’s Wine Dive and Boiler House, decided in late May to postpone their reopening due to surging COVID-19 cases and finally reopened in early October.

By that time, they had to find some new staff members, because several had already moved on to jobs either at other restaurants or in new fields entirely.

They were able to rebuild with some returning staff and new ones—and they

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ORDER THIS

Seared beets

12-hour brisket

OFF MENU

Chocolate cake with Pop Rocks frosting

News from the restaurant scene

Sweet onion tart

Any pastry

spent a lot of time training to build teamwork and efficiency to cope with opening in a world of social distancing and reduced restaurant capacity.

Gone were the multiple menus for breakfast, brunch, lunch and dinner. Instead, Moore and Haddock combined them into two: day and night. Day offers more sandwiches and brunch items (meaning folks can still eat buckwheat souffle pancakes or eggs benny with pork belly at 2 p.m.), while the night menu allows Moore to shine with appetizers and entrees. I have experienced Moore’s menus at Max’s Wine Dive and Boiler House, and this may be his best yet. With items such as beguiling curry pickled eggs, a warm beet salad with arugula and crumbled blue cheese, and a Balsamic braised lamb shank with warm chickpea puree, Moore’s menu offers comfort food with a delightful twist that cries out for repeat visits.

Their space on the North Side, formerly the home of an upscale Mexican spot, shows off clean design with exposed brick and polished concrete floors for a modern and welcoming feel. Servers are happy to help guide guests through the menu but also give space for diners to explore on their own. Well-made cocktails and reasonable and thoughtfully chosen wines complete the experience.

Whatever time of day you visit, get some of the terrific baked goodies. They come from pastry chef Deanna Lansing, who creates magic in a small workspace to bake the milk bread toast, the challah-like buns for burgers, the fermented sourdough that incorporates wild yeasts for focaccia, and white chocolate cranberry scones that you’ll want for breakfast or dessert. Make sure to snag some Belly Puffs, her creation similar to the Kouign-Amann of the Brittany region of France. Think of it as a cross between a croissant and muffin. But Lansing’s version also includes a dollop of pastry cream.

After its first few months back open, the spot was drawing solid crowds most nights and filling up quickly on weekends. Even though pandemic closures always lurk overhead, the fortunes of this spot finally are looking bright.

“I have never been prouder of a staff and concept than I have been. We have actually gotten better after the pandemic than we were before,” Haddock says. “We’re going to find a silver lining out of this.”

Shortly after relocating its headquarters to San Antonio, Pabst announced that it is developing a warehouse at Avenue B and Sixth Street into an arts complex that could include a gallery, an indoor skate park, concert venue and more. / Hearthstone BakeryCafe closed its McCullough Avenue location in Olmos Park. / Weathered Souls’ co-founder Marcus Baskerville was named to the Brewer’s Association board of directors. Baskerville, who made news nationally last year for his Black is Beautiful beer initiative, will begin his term in February. / Papa’s Burgers closed its original location on Old Highway 90 after its lease was not renewed, but it continues operations at its second location at San Pedro Avenue and Oblate Drive, which opened in spring 2020. / Brooster's Backyard Icehouse opened in November on the city's South Side. / Architecture firm Clayton Korte announced it’s working to transform the former Potchernick’s Sporting Goods, which closed on the River Walk in the 1990s and has been vacant, into a brewery and restaurant, Potchernick’s Cervecería. / Coreanos, a Houston-based food truck that’s been featured on Food Network, opened its first truck outside of the Bayou City near UTSA. / Lisa Wong is redeveloping the former El Mirador on South St. Mary’s Street into the permanent home for Rosario’s Southtown location. / The Shops at Rivercenter welcomed Jimmy Buffett’s LandShark Bar & Grill in November. / Leon Valley Cafe closed in December.

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E AT + D R I N K / D I S H

SOHILL CAFE

1719 Blanco Road 210-455-2177 sohillcafe.com Dinner Tues-Sat

CAULIFLOWER CRAZE Swap carbs for veggies thanks to these gluten-free pizza crusts WHEN IT COMES TO THE CAULIFLOWER CRUST AT SOHILL CAFE, ONE OF THE

most crucial ingredients is also one of the least health-conscious: cheese.

It’s the mozzarella cheese that typically goes atop a pizza—plus egg white and rice flour—that allows the cruciferous veggie to stick together, says owner Jean-Francois Poujol. The Beacon Hill restaurant’s initial version of the alternative crust omitted the rice flour and while it was fresh and tasty, Poujol says it wasn’t quite the formidable base they desired for pies like their wild mushroom, which features pesto, mozzarella, pine nuts, mushrooms and truffle oil.

The trend of subbing cauliflower, whether for flour in pizza crust or gnocchi or as rice, isn’t new but Nielsen reports its popularity continues to grow. Sales of cauliflower products since 2016 have increased nearly 40 percent. Poujol says it’s an easy swap for flour that allows customers who are omitting gluten or following a keto diet to still splurge on pizza night. Plus, while the extra mozz isn’t nutrient-packed, cauliflower is. The veggie is full of vitamin C plus antioxidants and folate. It’s also low in carbs, making it attractive to diners focusing on health in the new year.

“People like the healthy component,” Poujol says.—KATHLEEN PETTY

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+3 MORE CAULIFLOWER CRUSTS TO TRY

Deco Pizzeria

Guillermo’s

The Last Slice

Personal pizzas in any variety can be ordered on a cauliflower crust at Deco’s two locations.

Get adventurous with a N’awlins pizza, complete with spicy Cajun cream sauce and crawfish or shrimp, or keep it healthy-ish with a Chef Ruben, which features spinach, asparagus and artichoke. Customers also can select their own favorite toppings. 1815 Fredericksburg Road, 210-732-3326; 2026 Babcock Road, Ste. 107, 210-996-3326 decopizza.com

The 10-inch cauliflower crust is popular with guests and staff, according to the product manager at Guillermo’s, and is a great vegetarian and gluten-free alternative for those who have eating restrictions but still want to try signature pies. Consider the Mediterranean, which includes olive oil, black and green olives, pepperoncini, basil, onion, tomato and feta.

618 McCullough Ave., 210-223-5587, guillermos downtown.com

The build-yourown option means you can select everything from the sauce (basil pesto, barbecue, classic, spicy red or white roasted garlic) to a variety of cheeses, 10 meats (including chorizo) and a slew of vegetables. Cauliflower crusts can be ordered as part of 10-inch pizzas and also are available with signature pies, like the famous spicy house pizza with jalapeños and pepperoni. 3021 MacArthur View, 210-994-5661, thelastslicepizza.com

PHOTO BY JOMANDO CRUZ

11/24/20 4:10 PM

M A K E R / E AT + D R I N K

ENHANCING THE CULINARY EXPERIENCE Jennifer Ling Datchuk uses art to help tell the story at new Best Quality Daughter eatery

COURTESY WOMEN & THEIR WORK OF G.O.A.T GIRLS, SLIP CAST LAGUNA PORCELAIN FOR DOLLS, 2019

WHEN DINERS STEP IN THE DOOR AT BEST QUALITY

Daughter, artist Jennifer Ling Datchuk hopes they’re welcomed not just by the aroma of chef Jennifer Hwa Dobbertin’s menu but also by the art in front of them.

On the walls, Datchuk curated a collection solely by Asian American women and on the host stand, one of her own pieces greets guests with a message of acceptance. “I hope everyone who walks in there sees themselves in the piece—that there’s a place for them,” she says.

The artist and chef became friends years ago, but they began hearing about one another—and sometimes being confused for each other— long before that. As biracial Chinese American women and daughters of immigrants, the Jennifers connected over never quite fitting in with either of their cultures as well as their shared passion for art, Datchuk in visual and ceramic art and Dobbertin in culinary art. “We were always meant to be friends on some cosmic level,” says Datchuk, an East Coast native who’s been in San Antonio about 12 years.

When Dobbertin, one of the chefs behind Tenko Ramen, started testing recipes for Best Quality Daughter, it was Datchuk who was there to taste them, and learn alongside her. “Jenn is cooking the comfort food I grew up with but with a layer or a twist of where we’ve lived. It’s so rooted in San Antonio,” Datchuk says. “We

grew up eating this food, but our mothers and grandmothers never taught us the recipes.”

The restaurant first came to life through pop-ups, which Datchuk helped set the scene for using her background as an artist. As the concept expanded into a brick-and-mortar location at Pearl in November, Dobbertin and Lake | Flato invited Datchuk to contribute to the atmosphere through art.

Throughout Datchuk’s career—which has included residencies with places like Blue Star Contemporary and solo exhibitions in San Antonio, Houston and elsewhere—she has explored her identity, carefully selecting materials that carry meaning. “I was a third culture kid,” Datchuk says. “I was too white for my Chinese family and too Chinese for my white family.”

In her piece on the Best Quality Daughter host stand, Datchuk uses mirrored pink plexiglass, a frequent material in her work, to engage the viewer with their own image.

She also crafted porcelain ribbons (pictured above) that resemble those one might receive at a horse show—a nod to the animals that often win awards for their beauty and that young girls are drawn to for their “magical” quality. The porcelain’s various tints are meant to represent skin colors, including those of Chinese Americans that Datchuk says she never saw in dolls growing up. “When it’s been up in the past, there are often little boys or girls holding their hand out trying to find themselves in it,” she says. “It makes my heart explode.”

Datchuk says restaurants are increasingly considering not just the beauty of the food on the plate but that of the setting around the diner and she loves being able to contribute— especially when it’s a project by a friend.—KP

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E AT + D R I N K / S P OT LI G H T

BLACK & WHITE CREAMERY

+ 3 OTHER SAN ANTONIO ICE CREAMS TO TRY

Boozy’s Creamery + Craft The Southtown ice cream shop offers liqueur-infused ice creams, family-friendly flavors and dairy-free options served in cones, cups and inventive shakes.

711 S. St. Mary’s St., facebook.com/boozys creamery

Rolling Rey’s

Ice Cream Anytime The owners of Black + White Modern Creamery learned South Texans are up for cool treats at all times of year after delaying their opening due to the COVID-19 pandemic

BY KATHERINE STINSON ary Collazo specializes in handmade sweet treats but when it came to ice cream at Chocollazo dessert shops, which she owns along with her husband Frank, they were serving Häagen-Dazs.

“It never quite felt right—not only were flavors extremely limited, but it was the only thing in the shop we didn’t make by hand,” she says. “And who doesn’t love ice cream?”

She and Frank, who started their business out of a food truck in 2013, conceived of a creamery that would operate near Chocollazo’s Broadway storefront and signed a lease in March with plans to open by summer.

“That was about two weeks before the shutdown,” Collazo says. “There

M

Select a flavor and watch it rolled out in front of you. The flavor of the month includes a myriad of toppings that never disappoint. 2026 Babcock Road, Ste. 103, rollingreysice cream.com

Freshest This shop’s natural ice creams and gelatos are made with alkaline water, lactose-free or coconut milk plus fresh fruits and flavors that can be enjoyed by the scoop, in fruit cups or as part of a shake.

8053 Callaghan Road, freshesticecreams.com

was no way to move forward opening a new business when our existing businesses were suffering. We made the decision to move forward at a much slower pace (but) to get open, no matter how long it took.”

They missed summer but were welcoming dessert fans by October, and Collazo says the reception has been just as warm as they hoped it would be with triple digit temperatures outside.

“The concept was to create a San Antonio-born-and-bred ice cream shop that features really unique flavors, far outside of vanilla, chocolate and strawberry,” Collazo says. “There was really nothing like this that existed, and considering we are already in the sweets game, it seemed like a logical next step.”

Flavors rotate monthly but favorites have included cereal milk, Big Red, horchata and a honey cornbread, featuring cornbread baked in-house and drizzles of honey. At least five dairy-free and/or vegan options are always available; past flavors have included cookies and cream, cilantro lime and Texas sweet tea. “There’s something for everyone to enjoy,” Collazo says. “There are so many people that struggle with dairy, and people that eat a vegan diet, that we couldn’t leave them out.”

The shop itself has a modern, urban aesthetic that Collazo says is complemented by black cones and black vanilla ice cream— novelties that have been frequent stars on patrons’ Instagram stories.

Come Valentine’s Day, Collazo says to expect some special date-night options, such as a rosé flavor or red cones for the holiday. Can’t choose what to get? Consider a flight with five varieties. “They make a perfect post-dinner date treat,” Collazo says.

What are some simple changes or ordering swaps you make when you’re trying to eat a little healthier?

When I’m eating healthy or recovering from eating too much unhealthy food, I work on watching my portion sizes and geek out over tracking my macronutrients with a fitness app. If I’m eating out, I’ll get a Dieter’s Plate (a portion of meat on a Greek salad and tzatziki) at Demo’s Greek Food with grilled beef or chicken, the zucchini tagliatelle at Piatti, or sashimi at Niki’s Tokyo Inn or Sushihana.

Some of my favorite vegan dishes are jackfruit carnitas tacos at Señor Veggie, the vegan nachos at Viva Vegeria, and the cauliflower wings at Vegan Avenue—but those aren’t all that healthy! At home, one simple thing I do is to just drink a lot of sparkling water (Topo Chico or plain H-E-B sparkling) while cutting back on wine. Have a question for our resident foodie? Email asked@sanantoniomag.com.

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ICE CREAM: COURTESY BLACK + WHITE CREAMERY; ED: DAVID G. LOYOLA

4011 Broadway blackwhitecreamery.com Open Tues-Sat

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D I N I N G O U T / E AT + D R I N K

14 Cafes for Healthy Smoothies, Acai Bowls and Juices

from Nutrishalish Donut Shop, which offers sweet,

SQUEEZERS (Southtown, Pearl) Originally a

protein-filled pastries, also are available on cer-

Southtown gem, Keith Simpson expanded in 2020

tain days. 11825 West Ave., Ste. 110, 210-507-7753,

to a location near Pearl where he continues to pro-

facebook.com/theoaknutritionsa

vide fresh juices, juice cleanses, bowls and handcrafted lemonades. Try a rookie one-day cleanse

MY JUICE LIFE (Southtown) Formerly Pure Juice,

of cold pressed juices or start with a F*ck the

this shop rebranded to put the focus on juice as

Flu wellness shot or an immunity boosting juice

CASTLE HILLS NUTRITION (Castle Hills) Healthy

part of a daily lifestyle. Dive in with a beginner,

made with beets, carrots, turmeric and oranges.

shake/smoothie specials will fill that desire for

intermediate or expert detox, or stop in for a single

732 S. Alamo St., 914 E. Elmira St., 210-943-0054,

dessert without all of the guilt while energy

juice, smoothie or acai bowl. Staff can advise you

facebook.com/squeezersco

boosting teas are just the refresher you’ll need to

which juice to select, whether you are working to

get through the afternoon. 2211 N.W. Military Hwy.,

improve your blood pressure or energy level. 812 S.

SUNRAYZ JUICE + CAFÉ (Medical Center) Order

facebook.com/castlehillsnutrition210

Presa St., 210-591-0094, myjuicelife.com

a juice cleanse or meal prep subscription to enjoy

FARM TO JUICE (Stone Oak) This family-owned

PRIMAL JUICE & SMOOTHIES (Northwest, West)

with chicken avocado tacos or a protein bowl.

cafe offers three- to 10-day juice cleanses, acai

Everything here is made with organic and raw

Smoothies, nitro cold brew, golden milk lattes with

bowls (including a create-your-own option),

fruits and veggies, sourced locally when possible.

bee pollen and Buddha’s Brew kombucha also are

smoothies and cold pressed juices. CBD shots can

The Green Kango smoothie includes over half a

available. 9390 Huebner Road, Ste. 106, 210-701-

be added to juice, coffee, smoothies or bowls and

pound of kale plus banana and mango while the

8806, sunrayzjuice.com

customers also can shop from a variety of farmers

BlueNana Tribe tastes like PB&J in a drink and is

market products, including Organic Chix cleaning

an ideal post-workout snack. Natural juices like the

goods and Youngblood honey. 1321 N. Loop 1604

High Five feature fruits, vegetables and anti-inflam-

E., Ste. 103, 210-332-5853, farmtojuice.net

matory ingredients, such as turmeric. CBD can also

at home during the week or take a lunch break

be added. 9703 Bandera Road, Ste. 106, 210-803JUGO (Alon, Helotes) Make your own bowl by

0710; 8802 Potranco Road, Ste. 107, 210-970-9226,

picking a frozen base, three fruits, two superfoods

primaljuiceandsmoothies.com

and a sweet topping like honey or agave, or select a fresh-pressed juice or smoothie from the menu.

REVOLUCION COFFEE + JUICE (Alamo Heights,

The Mount St. Melon juice features watermelon,

Downtown) Its original Broadway cafe has since

pineapple, lemon, ginger and mint while the

expanded into a downtown shop plus a satellite

Unbeetable is filled with beets, apple, kale and

location in Houston and a third local restaurant

citrus. 10003 N.W. Military Hwy., Ste. 2114; 9708

is planned at The Rim. Full meals are available for

Business Pkwy., Ste. 102, Helotes, 833-438-5846,

breakfast and lunch, but smoothies and smoothie

jugousa.com

bowls are their signature items. Try the Rev Acai with acai, blueberry, banana, housemade cashew

JUICEBOSS HQ (Hill Country Village) Cold

milk and plenty of toppings. One-, three- and

pressed juices and cleanses are available at this

five-day juice detox programs also are available to

wellness center, which also offers massage and chi-

complete at home. 7959 Broadway, Ste. 500; 300

ropractic care. Fan favorites include the post-work-

E. Houston St., 210-607-1818, revolucionsa.com

out Crossfit Extreme made with Swiss chard, kale and pineapple as well as the Green Boss with apple,

RISE UP (Alamo Heights, Stone Oak) This acai and

cucumber spinach and ginger. Small-batch kom-

coffee shop has grown from an Airstream to two

bucha is also made in-house. 15701 San Pedro Ave.,

brick-and-mortar locations that serve fresh acai

210-495-2677, juicebosshq.com

bowls filled with fruits, hemp hearts, almond milk,

URTH JUICE BAR MCCULLOUGH (Olmos

kale and more. Fruit, protein and coffee smoothies

Park) Try the Beety Bom Bom smoothie with

JUICESSENTIAL (La Cantera) The anti-inflam-

are available along with lattes, espressos, cappuc-

beets, ginger, pineapple and oranges, or opt for

matory Red Mamba, named for Matt Bonner and

cinos and more. 6401 Broadway; 18730 Stone Oak

something sweeter with the Cocoa Chimp that

made with orange, turmeric, carrot, apple and

Pkwy., Ste. 100, 210-790-0644, riseupsatx.com

features bananas, peanut butter and chocolate.

Fresh juices are available in single servings or as

strawberry, is a recent favorite, but this cafe has an extensive menu of juices, smoothies and acai bowls

SMOOTHIES EXTREME (Far North) It was a

part of a cleanse and 10 different acai bowls offer

that are meant to taste good while providing a

passion for fitness that drove the owners of this

plenty of variety when in need of a full meal. 5317

boost of nutrition. 17803 La Cantera Terrace, Ste.

North Side cafe to get into the smoothie business.

McCullough Ave., 210-272-0467, urthjuice.com

8119, 210-474-6564, juicessential.com

Each smoothie includes your choice of nutritional booster, from whey protein to an egg. Low

THE OAK SA (North Central) The pros at this

carb and high protein smoothies are available

smoothie and juice bar want to help you find a

and customers can take advantage of concen-

meal replacement that tastes great while filling you

trated oxygen thanks to the Aromatherapy 02

up. Try low-carb, nutrient-packed smoothies and

Bar. 18402 Hwy. 281 N., Ste. 105, 210-404-9996,

meal shakes, high-energy teas and more. Treats

smoothiesextreme.com

Restaurants' service and menus may be affected by COVID-19.

Please call ahead to confirm. For our full directory of San Antonio restaurants, visit sanantoniomag.com/restaurants-bars.

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FINAL THOUGHT

A COVID-19 Journey When artist Jen Frost Smith was first diagnosed with COVID-19, she felt shocked and ashamed.

Months later with lingering symptoms, she’s trying to find the light in the dark

BY JEN FROST SMITH

n July 13, my husband and I receive the call that we are positive for COVID-19.

I’m in shock. I think of the statistics, but also the daily cleaning and the manic coping mechanisms that I thought would keep my loved ones and myself safe. Now I’m a statistic.

I feel not great, but not horrible yet. That comes later. I feel ashamed and embarrassed. I failed, again.

I have to shut my Etsy shop, where I’d been selling masks along with my art. “I hardly left the house for goodness sake! I did all the things and more!” I think. Panic starts setting in. I contact family and friends, all of whom say, “No way! You?!” Everyone is worried and begin sending food, gifts and more.

Then I lose my sense of smell. I go around sniffing everything. “Nope! Can’t smell that!” This novel virus is novel. Then it isn’t. A stiff cough, aches and extreme fatigue soon follow. The kind of fatigue where you feel like you couldn’t move even if the house was on fire. On a call with my doctor’s office, the nurse’s voice sounds different, like she is nervous.

She tells me that I need to quarantine separately from my husband. Our shoebox apartment is too small. The novelty is wearing off.

I can’t taste food. I go into a deeper isolation. Aside

O

from texts from loved ones, I hide. I don’t want to even water my plants for fear I could transmit it somehow.

I soon find myself at the ER with an IV in my arm. My first. Dehydration. I ask the doctor if my cat can get it. Thankfully, he says no and I’m sent home with a Z-Pak and nausea pills. It’s a solid month of isolation and symptoms before I am finally cleared of COVID. But it isn’t over. I still feel ill. I still have fatigue and strange symptoms, like the ink of my tattoo swelling up as if puff paint on my skin. I started an anti-inflammatory diet after being diagnosed and am taking supplements. Slowly, I build up strength.

I searched Google for positive stories and didn’t find many. I learn about “long haulers” and think I might be one, as I still have random symptoms.

But I want a positive story—not to discount all the horribleness of this virus but to find some light in this dark unknown. Personally, this virus has brought people into my life that I hadn’t talked to as much. My sisters and I have a group chat and talk almost every day now. My friends sent me gifts and food and I felt a level of caring that I haven’t felt in a while. The journey isn’t over, but I will always have this light that wasn’t there before. instagram.com/yogurtlump

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