From examining cases to delicate surgeries in the operating room, it’s hard to picture pediatric urologist Dr. Nicol Bush as a Dallas Cowboys Cheerleader.
From examining cases to delicate surgeries in the operating room, it's hard to picture pediatric urologist Dr. Nicol Bush as a Dallas Cowboys Cheerleader.
"With that really big screen TV at the new stadium, I'm really glad that I'm not wearing that uniform anymore!" Bush joked.
She cheered for the Dallas Cowboys during their dynasty years of the 1990s, including the Superbowl XXX win.
As a member of the squad, she toured around the world and appeared in magazines and photo-shoots.
"I loved being on the cheerleading squad. I thought it was amazing get to be able to go out and bring excitement to our troops that were overseas, to see some of the girls and just know that you were their idol for those few moments in time," she said.
The Nimitz High School graduate, however, had higher aspirations.
She joined the squad at age 18 while she studied as a biochemistry major.
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After two years with the team, she decided to pursue her medical goals full-time.
She completed years of medical school and residency and is now one of the few female pediatric urologists in the nation, and she believes skills she learned as a Dallas Cowboys Cheerleader have helped her as a surgeon.
"When you think about any sort of performance at the level of a Dallas Cowboy Cheerleader, we practice for something over and over and over until it was perfect. So when I go into operating room, it's the exact same thing," she said.
As a surgeon, Bush most often treats children born with a penile birth defect called hypospadias.
She has traveled around the world to operate on children in need and has just launched a charity called Operation Happenis to raise awareness about the birth defect, which affects one in 200 boys throughout the world.
She said at one point, she contemplated revealing her former job as a cheerleader to prospective employers.
"That thought went through my head, 'Should I hide my past?' But at the end of the day, I thought, 'No, it's a huge part of who I am, a big part of my background, it shaped where I am today,'" she said.
Bush is also busy as a mother of four, including three daughters and one son.
"One of my twins wants to be a cheerleader, a doctor and rock star! I can help her with the cheeleadering and the doctoring, but the rock star? She is totally on her own," joked Bush.
