From Music to Medicine . . .
The Journey of Dr. Wendy Filener

A three-year-old choking on a nickel lodged in his throat, a woman with a broken sewing needle jutting through her finger; a man who has had part of his ear bitten off . . . Just another day on the job for Dr. Wendy Filener, an emergency room physician at St. Mary's Hospital in Grand Junction.

"You can see almost anything roll through the door and, trust me, it does!" said Filener, a '91 Mesa State alumna. "It can get really crazy, but it's part of why I love this job. After all, they say 'variety is the spice of life' or something like that."

These words may seem a bit odd when one considers that they come from a woman who began her college career as music major at the University of Colorado at Boulder (CU). Her lucky break, as the Grand Junction-born and -raised Filener calls her return to her hometown, came through what initially seemed like unfortunate circumstances. It was during her freshman year at CU that the Exxon Mobile Corporation abruptly halted its massive oil shale project and threw the Grand Valley's economy for a loop. With finances suddenly very tight, Filener moved back home to attend Mesa State College.

Her second year of college brought not only a change in location, but also in degrees. Keeping music as a minor, Filener, who'd been tossing around the idea of becoming a doctor, switched her major to biology.

"I decided that since I only wanted to play music that I liked, pursuing a music major might not be my best choice," she said. "So, when I came to Mesa State, I switched to biology, which really seemed to click for me. I was able to work closely with these incredibly smart, dedicated professors who did an awesome job of preparing me for med school."

Faced with the daunting task of choosing medical schools a few years later, the new Mesa State graduate decided to return to Boulder. This kept her within driving distance of home, prime hiking and biking trails and beautiful scenery that was just waiting to be photographed. However, when it came time to do her residency, Filener, a former lifeguard and scuba instructor, decided to head towards the water. Packing her bags and scuba gear, she moved east to the Tufts-New England Medical Center in Springfield, Massachusetts to gain experience in the field of emergency medicine.

"Massachusetts and the whole East Coast lifestyle was a bit bizarre for this western girl," Filener said. "However, I had a great time exploring the very cold, but interesting coast and trying to learn to talk as fast as they do."

Yet, when her three years of residency came to an end, she was ready to come back home. In 1998, she returned to Grand Junction and took a position at St. Mary's Hospital where she sees from 25-40 patients a day.

"I'm very lucky to have ended up where I am," Filener said. "I'm surrounded by my family, have a job I love and am back in a place where I can hike, bike and take pictures."

According to her, the only thing missing is an ocean to dive in. While Filener does occasionally dive in the lakes on the Grand Mesa, this scuba-diving doctor makes it a point to visit one or two exotic dive locations a year. However, the rest of the time you can find her in Grand Junction, a place she's happy to call home.