About Bailey Lee

My name is Dr. Bailey Lee and I would like to welcome you to my first blog post and to take this opportunity to share a bit about myself. 

I am first and foremost a mother to four spectacular children: my oldest son, Dexter, is 13, I have an 11-year-old daughter named Rowan, a 6-year-old daughter named Simi, and my new baby boy is Silas. They are my joy, my love, my inspiration - sounding like an 80’s love ballad here - but they are just everything to me. They make up part of my family which also includes my lovely husband and partner in all things fun and crazy, Kyle. I should also mention my lovable and sometimes naughty dog Axel and my super-smart cat, Panther. I have a large extended family and I am the second oldest to 9 siblings. Family gatherings are loud, chaotic, and simply wonderful.

I consider myself a retired athlete turned recreational activity enthusiast. I played volleyball for a good chunk of my life and even coached my college volleyball team for a year prior to going to medical school. I am now into moving my body in ways that feel good.  I love to walk, run (well, let's be honest it's more like a slow jog) downhill ski, and Nordic ski. I am trying to resurrect my yoga practice after being derailed from my last pregnancy. These are activities that I love doing with my amazing group of friends, who are so supportive and brilliant and cool and a huge part of what keeps me sane. My true passion besides my family and friends are books and travel. I absolutely love to read and all the better if I’m doing it while exploring a new place in the world.  I mainly stick to fiction (escapism, people!) but will throw in a really good non-fiction every once in a while.  Within fiction, I do not discriminate against genres and will read anything from the densest, intellectual novels to the latest in YA dystopian fantasy.  I have a habit of trying to turn every patient visit into a book club, so be warned if you come into my office reading.

I also happen to be a Board-Certified Dermatologist with Associated Skin Care Specialists.  This is lucky for me because I landed with a group of the smartest and most compassionate collection of doctors and it is a privilege to work with them. My scope of practice ranges from medical dermatology to surgical procedures, with a large focus in aesthetic medicine - which is a real passion of mine. Truth be told, I love it all; I love the variety. Mainly, I just feel so lucky to be able to care for, interact with and learn from diverse humans every day; not only my awesome staff, who make me look super on top of things on a daily basis even when I'm not - but also my amazing patients who I have the privilege to care for and have gotten to know over my 9 years of practice. 

I am often asked why I chose medicine, and specifically dermatology. It would be nice to describe some poignant, aha moment, or a passion that I felt from childhood, but really it was just a series of life’s circuitous decisions that landed me in med school.  My younger self was supposed to be a marine biologist, you see. You may ask how a girl from a farming community in Minnesota was qualified for this and that would be a valid question. I promptly left my northern Minnesotan town after high school to play volleyball and become a marine biologist at a college in North Carolina.  It took about 4 years to realize that marine biology wasn’t as much about swimming with dolphins and saving the whales as it was about sitting in a lab by myself running experiments.  Enter medicine.  I can use my love of science, biology, and communing with other humans at the same time.  Dermatology was one of those instant loves, like seeing it from across the room staring into each other's eyes and just immediately knowing -   cheesy, but true.  As I grow further into the profession of dermatology, I realize my obsession with Nancy Drew as a child (I mean obsessed – read ALL those books  – wanted to marry Ned Nickerson) played heavily into my choice of profession.   Dermatology can be like solving a mystery.  You have to put all the pieces together and ask the right questions, pick out the subtle patterns in an effort to diagnose the mystery rash.  I’m basically Nancy Drew, MD.

My approach to my practice has definitely evolved over the years.  I once had a preceptor tell me to “always ignore the patient and just look at the rash” the idea being that the “misinformation” from the patient would only confuse the diagnosis. At the time I thought, yeah, that makes sense... what could my patients know that would be superior to my years of intensive training?  Turns out, a lot!! Uffda, it took me a few years to reprogram and get off my high horse, but what has become clear is that really listening to my patients and using their knowledge of their own bodies is essential to diagnosing and treating their conditions.  Duh, as my 11-year-old would say! It seems obvious, especially as I’m writing it out here, but our training promotes the ingrained idea that the doctor knows best. Often the patient, if you really listen to them, is telling you what's best for them, and sometimes it’s just helping the patient to understand what is best for their skin and body as a whole.  I try to use the tool of simply listening to guide my practice as much as relying on my knowledge of science and medicine to create effective treatment plans that the patient feels comfortable with and confident that they can execute. 

Medicine, and dermatology specifically, is constantly evolving. It’s just a really cool, exciting field to be a part of.  I am grateful, especially after such a trying year for many, to have a wonderful profession that allows me to interact with interesting, thoughtful, caring, people every day. It is a profession that allows me to have meaningful moments with so many different people, each one of them unique and able to teach me as I work to help them. It's pretty cool.

I hope this little snippet gives my readers a little bit of insight into who I am in and out of the clinic. Stay tuned for some answers to common questions, education on common skin disorders, combined with a sprinkling of random topics that I just feel like discussing for that day. Thanks for reading!