Although sound financial planning would have permitted early retirement, I had not planned to retire from clinical practice until after 65. I loved what I did and as I am sure all general surgeons believe, I was pretty damn good at it. Then around 2012, I was diagnosed with Parkinson’s Disease.
Life it seemed had other plans for me. Surgeons are by their very nature control freaks and this was most decidedly out of my control. Unplanned retirement can be a dangerous thing. I had allowed my career to determine too much of my self-esteem and retiring without a clear path forward seemed unmoored and uncertain.
After allowing me the self-indulgent luxury of moping around for a bit, My wife Christy gave me the swift kick I needed. Our daughter Allia was planning to pursue her business career in Houston nearer to her aging grandparents. Christy and Allia pointed out that there was nothing tying us to Indiana now that I had retired.
And so Christy, our son Alex, and our daughter Allia moved to a city just north of Houston. Christy’s parents had lived in Houston for many years and her father had longed worked at Rice University (where Christy and I went to school and first met). Allia went to work in a downtown high rise as a financial analyst and Alex continued his information technology education at a local university.
Christy’s father had been a professor of physics for many years at Rice although had transitioned to the science-policy arena. He was a former head of the National Science Foundation and even spent several years as President Bill Clinton’s science advisor. Even into his late 70’s and early 80’s he continued policy work, education, and writing at the prestigious Baker Institute, a think tank at Rice.
Christy and Neal encouraged me to consider writing. Neal introduced me to other members of the Baker Institute and the Rice University community who asked me about everything from middle east politics to healthcare policy. It seemed it was possible to be useful after clinical retirement. I could write position summaries and commentary on medical and healthcare topics. I might pursue genealogical and family history research as begun by my younger brother to compile a family legacy project or write essays with my brothers Razi and Sami covering my past for the sake of our children who were always clamoring for more about our family.
We settled into our new home and began regular weekly trips to Houston. Our lives were filled with explorations and discussions about science, medicine, and politics. My mind once again awakened and embraced possibilities. My brother Sami invited me to co-author a book with him called Navigating Modern Medicine patient advocacy manual of sorts.
And there were books, so many books. At last, I had time to read. I felt a bit like the Twilight Zone character played by Burgess Meredith in Time Enough At Last.
