From anaesthetics and aeroplanes to narrowboats and autogyros
Who am I? I am an eighty-four-year-old, self-confessed slightly crazy (actions possibly defined as such by the majority) retired consultant having a very happy and fulfilling retirement.
I’m writing this short account, in the sunshine, on the island of Saint Kitts. Don’t get me wrong. I don’t live here, but my wife and I have been having holidays in the Caribbean for over 20 years. Sadly, she passed away 3 years ago but we had connections here after all that time, and so I still come, but now alone. I retired at the age of 60 and it seems hard to believe that I might soon have been retired for longer than I was working. Looking back to those early days, and chatting with my peers, I think we would agree that we have been lucky to have a very practical early training using agents that can now only be found in textbooks. Patient monitoring was very basic. Open ether was still being used and trichloroethane lasted a little longer. Cyclopropane now long since abandoned. Anaesthesia was advancing rapidly of course. Halothane, then new intravenous agents. Who remembers Althesin? So when, many years later I was offered the chance to go to East Africa for the British Council and ended up in Uganda at 5000ft altitude, working briefly in a mission hospital’s beautifully equipped operating theatre, but with out-of-date drugs and the single oxygen cylinder turning out to be empty, I appreciated the value of that early experience and the Oxford draw-over ether inhaler came easily to mind.
I had a fairly conventional early career path including a year spent at the Dallas Children’s Hospital, but the ultimate teaching hospital appointment led to other things - a spell as Vice Dean of the Medical School and self-funded research into the use of computers in record keeping, culminating in directorship of a company set up by another colleague and myself along with a software engineer.
Around this time, I took up flying, getting a full instrument licence and eventually buying a 4-seater twin-engine aircraft. I joined an international owners group which encouraged educational travel all over Europe, members hosting weekends in their respective countries. This eventually led to trips to South Africa, landing on strips in game parks and in 1992, transatlantic to Canada and the USA for a tour. For all this experience, our family sacrificed accumulation of property, living relatively frugally in a small Victorian semi in South London. However, we all, including the children who grew up with the aeroplane and who enjoyed a life education, agreed it was the best thing ever. My daughter is now a pilot herself.
After my spell in the Deanery had ended, the department was put under some pressure from the Royal College to field a colleague to guide a regional hospital department of anaesthesia with which we had a junior rotation, and which was faced with loss of Royal College recognition, the seriousness of which to the hospital concerned soon becoming very apparent. Nearing retirement age I agreed to a secondment. Attracting new consultants, securing junior quality staff and raising standards was a slow and difficult process but leading to eventual success. As my retirement was imminent, I elected to remain there ending as Associate Medical Director.
Towards the end of my career, we were looking for acceptable holiday ideas which could include a dog. A narrowboat holiday fitted the bill. This turned out to be the key to my retirement. While I was working, the aeroplane left me with what appeared to be a permanent overdraft at the bank and the only thing that kept the bank off my back was, I think, the fact that I owned the aeroplane. So, when I retired and had to depend on a fixed future income, flying had to stop so I sold up. From the outset I had appreciated that the NHS superannuation scheme was very generous, but I had also been contributing to a private pension fund. Early in my career I had decided to retire at 60. Consequently, when an opportunity arose to purchase five additional years of contributions to the NHS scheme, I accepted. I had also been overpaying the mortgage on the house, so that was cleared. So, when retirement came, there was a sudden and dramatic change in my financial outlook, but really, no forward plan.
Having hired narrowboats and enjoyed three family holidays on the canals, and now a recipient of the pension tax free lump sum, my wife and I commissioned the build of our own narrowboat. I had done a lot of research into the history and the way of narrowboat life and was fortunate to have had some contact with experienced boaters. All this had great appeal. So now, looking back over the years, we have travelled all over England, often for over two months or longer at a time, making new friends and sharing experiences. It is a peaceful and relaxing activity for the most part but laced with periods of intense physical work for which a degree of fitness is helpful. That life continues now, and while I am still fit enough, single handed for the most part.
Early in retirement an opportunity caught my eye, and I signed up for a weekend of voluntary work, laying railway track in the mountains of Snowdonia. This was for what is now the Welsh Highland Railway, a narrow-gauge heritage line that had closed in 1937 and was being restored in sections. Funding had just been promised for the final 20km section but with a deadline for completion, so there was a need for workforce. There were two gangs, each working alternate weekends. I joined the Rest of the World Gang, members coming sporadically from USA, Scandinavia, Germany, and all over England of course. I enjoyed that weekend so much that I wanted to continue and persuaded my wife to join me. She enjoyed herself too and, in the end, became a bit of a local celebrity for being seen around with her work clothes covered in black track grease, then when, with make-up back on in the pub after work, being unrecognisable. When the line was finished, maintenance was required, and the gang is still in existence to this day putting in the heavy maintenance for around six five-day sessions a year. I also became qualified as a track inspector responsible for a 10km length. Needing a walked inspection every three weeks and being shared out, this work was not too onerous, but I had to give that up after three years. Hip discomfort was to blame, and I was worried for longer term damage.
Having moved house in the last 5 years to a location next to Rochester Airport, the sky was calling to me again, so I decided to have some lessons, this time in an autogyro. Enormous fun and just for the sake of it. No point in trying to get my licence re-validated. The views from the open cockpit are fabulous. The problem for me is unlearning hundreds of hours of fixed-wing automatic muscle memory.
Looking back, I realise that I never planned for retirement, but I did make sure as far as possible that I would be financially secure. My immediate idea was to take up a few sessions to keep my hand in and continue with occasional private practice. That only lasted a couple of weeks because I realised that this decision was seriously interfering with my new life, so I dropped the sessions entirely, stopped private work and enquired of the General Medical Council why I should continue paying annual registration fees. The answer was “that I could maintain contact with colleagues”. I was President of the Society for Computing and Technology in Anaesthesia at that time and the rules never stated that I had to be a registered practitioner, so I pulled the plug. The Medical Defence Society offered to cover me for emergencies at no cost, which I found helpful but have never needed.
Looking forward to the future, my youngest daughter has just emigrated to Australia with her family, so a visit is being planned. Now, if I could couple this with a luxury cruise to see New Zealand…
Michael Fisher
Retired Consultant Anaesthetist