“Honey, you can do anything you want to do. You can be anything you want to be. You have a very bright future ahead of you.”

I’ve heard these words often in my life, always spoken by the same man. Stuart Weinstein is a pediatric orthopedic surgeon and spinal deformity specialist. He has been my doctor since I was four days old.

I am a 23-year-old woman. I was born with a developmental disability called myelodysplasia that affects the muscles in my legs. During the first four months of my life, I had 14 pairs of casts for progressive leg straightening, which allowed me to walk with the aid of crutches and orthopedic leg braces.

Growing up with a physical challenge hasn’t always been easy, but with the encouragement of people like Weinstein I have learned to appreciate life.

Since 1976, Weinstein has been working with thousands of people who are dealing with physical challenges. During the 26 years he has worked as a surgeon at the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics, Weinstein has performed thousands of surgeries, including nearly 2,000 spinal operations.

But being a surgeon wasn’t always his dream.

“I have always been interested in lots of things,” he said. “I like educating myself about different subjects.”

Weinstein began college as an engineering major at the University of Illinois in Champagne. After his first year in engineering, he changed his major and graduated with a bachelor’s degree in political science and history.

“All of my electives were pre-med classes,” Weinstein said. He graduated from the U of I medical school in 1972 and hasn’t looked back since.

“It just seemed to be a way to have a productive, useful life by helping others,” he said. “Every day is rewarding. Seeing someone whose quality of life has improved because maybe you had something to do with it . seeing the different levels of accomplishments of patients, which for some may be simply being able to sit up, that is an accomplishment that is rewarding to me. There’s not a day that goes by that I don’t see [patients] and feel happy for them.”

“Patients, for me, are part of my extended family,” Weinstein said.

Weinstein is reminded of his role in patient’s lives with every person he treats. He said some of his young patients occasionally ask whether they are going to die, a reminder of how scary surgery can be for children.

“That tells me how frightened they must be about the procedure,” he said. “[Being a doctor] really is an awesome responsibility. Parents trust their children’s lives to doctors. It’s a sacred trust [between the parents and the doctor] that you have, or at least hope you have.”

Most of Weinstein’s research centers around hip and spinal conditions, although he is involved in numerous other activities in medicine that also require time and research. He is a member of the American Board of Orthopedic Surgery, the American Academy of Orthopedic Surgery, the Journal of Bone and Joint Surgery and several other medical research committees and organizations.

“As a doctor, I am expected to be the educator,” he said. “I have to make sure I am at the forefront of my specialty. I need to educate myself so I can educate others too,” he said.

During a recent visit with Weinstein on April 17, I saw him work with a 15-year-old girl, one of the 40 patients he was seeing at McFarland Clinic that day. This patient had scoliosis, an abnormal curvature of the spine.

Dusti Bitz, an Algona resident, was diagnosed with scoliosis nearly two years ago and now wears a back brace in the evenings and throughout the night. The brace helps correct the curvature of her spine.

“I hate going to doctors,” Bitz said. “But I don’t mind coming to [Weinstein] because I’m not worried about getting any shots or those tongue things.”

Bitz’s parents, Dave Bitz and Lynn Marlow, joked with her and Weinstein about the boys in Dusti’s life.

“There will be many more to come,” Weinstein said, smiling at Dusti.

After he finished examining Dusti Bitz, Weinstein stepped out of the room, giving the Bitz family an opportunity to speak freely about him.

“It’s hard to find a doctor who’s as personable as Dr. Weinstein,” Dave Bitz said.

“Yeah, he’s not like most doctors,” Dusti Bitz said. “He asks you questions about your life and he really seems like he cares a lot.”