It is the spring of 1997, two years since I finished writing this book. I am now fifty-eight years old and yesterday a bus conductor spontaneously charged me the senior citizens fare (available to those fifty-five and over) for the first time in my life. I was surprised, to say the least, and I suppose somewhat chagrined. I must look my age. In truth, though, I feel no different than I did when I was eighteen. I fall in love just as deeply, I have as much exuberance and energy as I did then, the dew under my bare feet feels the same, and the scents of early spring evoke the same feelings of wonder and joy.
Since completing A Desperate Passion, I have moved back to live in the United States, although I continue to spend some months every year in Australia. Recently I bought two and a half acres of land in a lovely community on the coast north of Sydney in partnership with my daughter Penny and her husband, Eric. Two houses are being built on the site, one for “Gamma” and one for Penny and her family. I always said that I needed to be a cup of tea away from my grandbabies and now, to my intense delight, that is about to happen.
As exciting to me as living near my grandchildren is my decision to return to the practice of medicine after a hiatus of seventeen years. In my deepest, truest self I am a doctor, a healer, and although my political work and public speaking have been a source of great satisfaction to me, I found that I was missing being involved in hands-on clinical practice.
I considered whether I would undertake my refresher course in America or Australia and I chose the latter for several reasons. First, in my native land medicine is still taught and practiced according to the tenets of the great physician and medical educator, Sir William Osler, the emphasis being placed upon a thorough clinical history and examination. Alas, in the United States the practice of medicine is different. After a cursory look at the patient, too many physicians order a series of unnecessary tests which are expensive, time-consuming, and invasive. I was taught as a medical student that a good history and examination yields a diagnosis 99 percent of the time; only a few tests should then be used to confirm the clinical suspicions. I like the discipline and intellectual rigor of good clinical medicine, and that is why Australia was my choice and why I will soon be working as a junior registrar (or resident in American terminology) at the Prince of Wales Children’s Hospital in Sydney for three months. This may seem rather a come-down considering that I am a fellow of the Royal Australasian College of Medicine and a former faculty member at Harvard Medical School, but it’s been almost two decades since I last practiced general pediatrics. Much has changed since that time, including my memory of the subject.
I also love the practice of medicine in Australia because we have a free medical system paid for by the federal government. I know that many Americans don’t understand how this can work, but it has worked for us in some form or other for many decades. We in Australia expect these services to be an integral part of a properly functioning society, just as we expect our children to be well-educated, our national parks and wildlife to be preserved, and our cities to be relatively crime-free by American standards.
I’m a little nervous, wondering if, at the age of fifty-eight, I can physically sustain a demanding schedule and remain on my feet eight hours a day, five days a week, and work all night once a week. On the other hand, I am eagerly looking forward to helping children again, using my professional skills to make diagnoses and administer treatment.
And what of the advances in medicine over the last seventeen years? What a privilege and joy to be granted the opportunity at my age to join the newly graduated young doctors on the staff, to attend all their meetings and seminars, and to share in the euphoria of learning. For I have to say that although the environmental and anti-nuclear work that I have been involved in all these years has been very satisfying at one level, especially when I see its political and practical results, deep down it has also been somewhat boring. The information that I impart in my speeches must be repeated again and again to different audiences until at times I feel like an oratorical automaton. But the stimulation I experience when I myself am a student has always been the most intellectually rewarding pursuit of my life.
Penny is now a fully qualified doctor herself, a family practitioner who works with five other young women physicians. They are so popular with their patients they are booked solid morning to night. Eventually I may move back to Australia full time and perhaps join the practice part-time as a consulting pediatrician. It would be a great thrill indeed to work with my daughter.
Philip is now managing a hotel-restaurant in a lovely town on the coast of New South Wales, and Will, an environmental scientist, has recently married and is living in Berkeley. Like Penny, both are happy in their work and in their personal lives which is really all that a mother can ask.
As for me, my spiritual journey continues, as does my sense of joy. Life has never been sweeter or more precious to me and I look forward to its next stage.
Long Island, New York
27 June 1997
Helen Caldicott’s website address is:
www.mindspring.com/∼hcaldic