How to Do a Liver Transplant (27 page)

I feel endless guilt that I am not there for every moment of my children's lives and I make it my business to be involved in the things that really count. This might require flying overnight to get home, icing a birthday cake at 10 pm or sewing sequins on a leotard in between operations – Andrew and I do what it takes. Like all working parents, I miss a lot of things and Andrew has been known to keep my children seated just in case they walk for the first time while I am away from home.

I am very proud of what I have achieved being both a surgeon and a mum, but it is not so extraordinary just because I happen to be a woman. I simply worked as hard
as all the other doctors in my company and I am fortunate to have a loving family and people who believed in me to help me along the way. This is what all successful surgeons need. It is true that women are pretty rare in surgery but it is not really hard to understand why. Quite simply, women give birth, and without some pretty specific arrangements, surgery is not a lifestyle conducive to being at home and looking after children. It takes sacrifice and that is not for everyone. The long hours involved in surgical training and the almost all-consuming and selfish commitment required means that it is a mountain that most women doctors are unwilling to climb.

Some women surgeons make a conscious choice not to have children because they just never stumble across the right domestic situation to make it work. Because I have managed to do it, I often get labelled a ‘superwoman'. I am far from it, believe me, and my male colleagues are no less super. They too make the same sacrifices to have a family and a life in surgery. The only difference is they don't have to give birth and, in the end, the six weeks after having a baby when you physically can't work is all we are talking about here. I figure that women have been producing babies for millions of years and whilst it is very special to the individual, it is hardly unusual. I chose to have kids because my husband and I can work as a team to make it possible. It has taken a lot of compromises on his behalf, as the spouse of every surgeon around the world has to make.

The most important thing I have learned from the last 18 years in medicine, watching life begin and end, is that it is a really short journey and you are a long time dead. Andrew and I want to pack in as much as possible.

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Acknowledgments

My life is about halfway through right now and it has settled into a routine like life does. I've packed a lot of stuff into the last 40 years. But as Hillary Clinton says, ‘It takes a village', and these are the people who belong to mine:

To Andrew, love of my life, partner in everything, thank you for helping me get this far and I love you very much.

To my babies Abigail, Madeleine, Priscilla and George, thank you for your smiling faces when I get home, I am so proud to be your mum.

To my parents Bob and Elwyn and my sister Lauren, thank you for your hard work for all these years that has allowed me to do what I want to do in life. (You can stop now!)

To Rebekah Ferris, thanks for being my friend, girl. May we spend every Friday for the next 20 years discussing pubic hair and world domination.

To Jonathan Fawcett, thank you for being my mentor, friend and sounding board over all these years. Who would have thought that after you first watched me take seven painful hours to take out a pancreas, you would one day find it in your heart to give me a job and call me a colleague. I value your wisdom, humour and friendship every day.

To Stephen Lynch, thank you for everything you have done for me over the years. You have helped me fulfil some pretty big dreams and I admire you for always being a man of your word.

To Greg Hall, the long-suffering husband of a medical wife who has heard all these stories before but still took the time to read them and tell me honestly what he thought.

To Ann Kirby, thank you for being our family when we felt all alone in a new country and for holding my leg when our little American came into the world.

To Allan Smith, who taught me much of what I know about being a good surgeon.

To Carmel Hawley, thank you for showing me that women can do anything.

To George Hopkins, thank you for being my friend through thick and thin.

To Joy Foo, Jennifer Coulthard, Jane Elms, Jody Mandic, Sandy Schultz, Rhonda Adams, Jane Biglin, Vonnie Bagwell, Tammy Lye-James, Desley and Brandi Thompson, Cindy Simpson, Penny Trevethick, Sanya
Bosnar and Aileen Sly: thanks for keeping our whole crazy show on the road and being the most organised girls in the world.

To Tina Coco, thanks for your guidance.

To Jamie Von Nida and Michael Von Papen: thanks for being my best buds for the last 25 years.

To Igal Kam, Michael Wachs and Tom Bak: thanks for teaching an Aussie girl how to transplant, even if I scared you sometimes. You are like family to me and any time you have a vacant position in Colorado, all you have to do is call ...

To Russell Strong, Daryl Wall, Brian Miller, Jon Cohen, John Hansen, Michael Borton, David Gotley, Mark Smithers, David Theile Snr, Terry Mulhearn, David Schache, Michael Muscio, Ian College, Adam Louie and Vijay Kanagarajah: thank you for instilling in me a love for surgery.

To Tom O'Rourke, Peter Hodgkinson and Tony Griffin: thanks for being great work partners and for being there any time I call for help.

To Krystal and Lynn: thank you for being a part of my life and allowing me to tell your stories so others can be inspired by your courage. I think of both of you every day.

To Larissa, Steven and Charlotte: you are a gorgeous family and that was one of the scariest days of my life. I am so glad that you have your beautiful girl back in your arms.

To Graham Bennett, Barry Hough, Ron and Judy Derrick, Peter Jesburg, Kyran Woods, Len Peel and Ross Dahlenburg – all amazing teachers who guided me through school and let me dream big.

To the nurses I work with every day, thank you for your incredible dedication in looking after our patients and for your amazing stamina to stand at the operating table with me for eight hours at a time.

To the thousands of patients I have seen over the years, thank you for allowing me to be a part of your lives and I hope that I have helped.

References

I heart gallbladders

De U, ‘Evolution of cholecystectomy: A tribute to Carl August Langenbuch',
Indian Journal of Surgery
, 66(2), 2004, pp. 97–100.

The call of the bile

Strong R, Ong TH, Pillay P, Wall D, Balderson G & Lynch S, ‘A new method of segmental orthotopic liver transplantation in children',
Surgery
, 104(1), 1988, pp. 104–7.