Lotus Women’s Care gives back to its community
By Kim Harbour
CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- “If I could make my business succeed in a state where I knew no one, I should be able to make it work at home,” explained Dr. Cynthia Wesley, M.D., in the first weeks after moving her successful women’s heath care practice to Charleston from Nashville, Tenn.
Lotus Women’s Care and Medical Spa, located near Saint Francis Hospital, opened in early November. It focuses on women’s reproductive health and offers a medical spa. Its proprietor explained: “We take care of the whole woman with a range of services that also include weight-loss management, Botox injections and hair removal.”
Dr. Wesley grew up in Charleston and went to undergraduate and medical school at West Virginia University, Morgantown. She interned in Washington, D.C., and then returned to Morgantown to complete her residency.
As a young OB/GYN after medical school, she wanted to see how the rest of the world lived and be exposed to a different environment. So, Dr. Wesley, who is a fellow of the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (FACOG), decided to establish her private practice in Nashville. It thrived.
“In Nashville, my practice was very family based. Perhaps I delivered a woman, then the next thing you knew, you were seeing her sister and you had acquired her mother or grandmother as patients, too. I loved the family atmosphere that created – you were able to build these relationships…” She laughed. “And it made it easier to get up in the middle of the night to deliver a baby.”
After four years, a desire to come home to West Virginia to be with her own family began to grow.
“Although it was hard to interrupt a business that was already established and successful, I feel it will be even more rewarding to succeed in West Virginia,” she said. “Here, I’ll be giving back to my community and the people I grew up with.”
Dr. Wesley plans for her practice to play an active role in the local community. She intends to be instrumental in supporting domestic violence programs and educating young woman about their bodies and how to stay healthy. She also is aware that part of her work is to be a positive role model, adding, “Our young people need to see young professionals who are successful.”
Related to this, Dr. Wesley said she enjoys being active in her St. Albans church and its youth outreach programs. “The basis for my education began in that church. It reinforced reading and memorization skills – etiquette and manners, too. I didn’t realize how important these social skills were then, but I wouldn’t be as successful today without having learned those early lessons.”
Dr. Wesley loves Charleston as a city. She said there’s nothing like walking down Kanawha Boulevard in the fall. “You just don’t get that type of scenery in other cities,” she said.
She also describes herself as a sports fanatic. She was a WVU cheerleader for both basketball and football.
Although her immediate family is small, both her mother and her father came from large families, many members of which live in the Charleston area and form a tight-knit extended family. Dr. Wesley spends a lot of her free time going to local high school and pee-wee league games and cheerleading competitions to be there for her family.
“When you go to these events you see the children of the friends you went to school with and that’s a rewarding part about being home, too,” she said.
Dr. Wesley said she takes a lot of pride in being from West Virginia and doesn’t mind announcing it. “I don’t know how many times I had to explain that we’re a separate state, or that I wasn’t from Western Virginia. People have misperceptions about our state even though they’ve never been here before. It’s important to announce to the world that you’re proud of where you’re from – and let them get to know you and get a real taste of West Virginia.”
She added, “It’s not until you’re out there experiencing the rest of the world that you learn to appreciate West Virginia: its people, their friendliness and our environment. It’s hard to find a state as beautiful as West Virginia.”
Dr. Wesley’s friends from Tennessee are eager to visit her in West Virginia.
“I have to take them whitewater rafting, here. In Chattanooga there were man-made rapids. Now, I can show them the real thing!”