Dr. Lucas Buchanan is a former resident, chief resident, and all-around funny guy. Here, he shares what he misses most about UMMC and what he’s up to now.
First, tell us about you and your time at UMMC.
Well hey! Remember me? Or maybe you’re just meeting me; either way, hi, I’m Luke. I was born and raised in Knoxville, TN. I went to the University of Tennessee for undergrad (and take full responsibility for the random Vols-fan-UMMC-resident-pipeline that, hopefully for the sake of everyone currently at UMMC, has now abated). After college, I did medical school at Lincoln Memorial University. During med school, I married my sweet wife, Dee, who was in OT school at the time. After school, I matched into internal medicine at UMMC, and we packed up and moved down to Fondren. We quickly adopted a mutt from the streets of Jackson, Teddy Puppsevelt. Ah, got a cat at some point prior to this as well. She’s fine, she’s a cat, what’s there to say. In February of 2020 (during the great flood as you may recall) we had a baby girl, Maisie. After residency, I was privileged to be a chief resident, which I miss dearly, particularly my dimly lit office where I enjoyed many a cup of coffee and schedule crafting sessions.
Where are you now and what are you doing?
Following chief year (and a bit of yada yada!), we moved to Memphis where I completed a transplant hepatology fellowship at the University of Tennessee. I then matched into Gastroenterology at the University of South Alabama in Mobile, where we currently reside. We just welcomed a baby boy, Brooks, in late November and he is doing great! Following fellowship, we’ll be moving back to Tennessee to my wife’s hometown of Nashville as I join Mid-South Gastroenterology in Columbia, TN.
What do you miss most about UMMC?
This is tough! I of course miss all of the people and special daily interactions which is what makes UMMC such a special place. Aside from this, I think what I miss most is the training. Ignorantly, I was not aware of the gift it was to be at UMMC under the guidance of such expertise from nearly every general and subspecialty attending. The level of training is beyond what is typical, I think. I don’t think there is a place I could have been that would have better fostered my growth as a physician and as a person. I also really miss Dr. Thigpen’s call-day gift of Broad Street breakfast burritos and tub of coffee (which, much to his likely continued disgust, I would make last until the next call day).
Share some memories from your time at UMMC.
I couldn’t possibly go into all the great memories I have from my 4 years in Jackson. I’ll of course never forget breaking my right hand during intern year after Yang Guo threw a rocket to me on the basketball court. I shouldn’t have even been there. I suck at basketball. Of course, the next day was call. After everyone realized I couldn’t actually move my hand, I was snuck into the ER for an X-ray which showed the break. My finger was reset and I was placed in a ulnar cast for the next several weeks. This required me to learn to type with two fingers (because dictation can’t recognize my accent), but it also got me out of having to wear a white coat on rounds for Dr. Thigpen because it wouldn’t fit over my cast (which may or may not have been 1000% truthful…). The real down side was the Crawfish Boil (another killer memory in and of itself) was during the Time Of The Cast, but don’t fear, I wrapped that sucker in paper towels and became quite effective at breaking into crawfish with a left hand and two right fingers. The smell when the cast was removed was as you might imagine. Of course, there are a ton more memories including BeerWiths, golf tournaments, call nights and ICU days and nights. The end of residency was marked by the start of COVID and my entire chief year was consumed by it more or less. While difficult to say the least, I still think back fondly on how our residency and the medicine department as a whole came together despite the lack of resources and manpower provided to us during that time. I certainly learned a lot about being a better doctor but also about leadership from the examples set above me. I also will formally state here that I do in fact regret the man bun I was forced to give myself due to my assignment to the COVID ICU and lack of open barbershops.
Progress Notes 