It’s a fairly simple question, but if you ask Dr. Christine Thurston where she’s from, you’d better brace for a somewhat complicated answer.
“I’m a military brat, so we moved every two years of my life when I was a kid,” she said.
Consequently, she’s “from” a litany of places where her father, a two-star Coast Guard admiral, was posted: Virginia, Maryland, Massachusetts, Washington D.C. …
Throughout her nomadic youth, however, one place stuck with her.
“We actually lived in Mandeville and New Orleans for a while, so I always knew I wanted to come back here,” she said. “It was just a matter of time.”
That time, as it turns out, is now. Dr. Thurston, an internist, joined the St. Tammany Health System team Oct. 29, operating out of the St. Tammany Physicians Network office on St. Ann Drive in Mandeville.
As a mother of three young children – ages 4, 5 and 6 – the family-friendly environment on the Northshore feels like a particularly good fit for her. The fact that her mother and now-retired father, as well as her sister, live in Madisonville made it a no-brainer.
Dr. Thurston earned her undergraduate degree from American University in Washington, D.C., then got her medical degree from the Virginia College of Osteopathic Medicine in Blacksburg.
“Then, as soon as I finished my residency, we moved back to Mandeville,” she said. “I started working for the VA and worked there for five years.”
As an internist, she treats the whole body “from head to toe,” but Dr. Thurston said she has a particular interest in women’s health.
Also, given her family’s history and what she describes fondly as an adventure-filled youth – which is how her parents always presented it to her – she’s also got a special place in her heart for members of the military.