It's surprising how quickly it does become faint, Wendell. The issues of closing the practice and moving were really horrific. I really started to feel compassion for people with generalized anxiety disorder. I'd have fits of trembling, and actually wondered if I were having thyroid issues. Once on the plane, it just fell away. Half way to Hawaii, I was feeling normal. By the time I got here, Alaska was starting to get filed in the memory part of my brain. It is still home, in the sense that "when you gotta go there, they gotta take you in", but now I am also comfortable calling this home.
I guess the reason I say that, is that there is always a great reluctance to make a radical change in one's life. I worked in the same place for 40 years, so I don't feel I am a vagabond at heart. There are many stories here of colleagues who seem riven by the stress and problems of their practices, and certainly national physician satisfaction polls are in the toilet. Throwing my practice and life to the wind was not an easy task, and I had absolutely no reason to leave the comfort of what I was doing. But, the pain and loss (and it was very real) vanish amazingly quickly, and the excitement of a new adventure has rewards beyond measure. We all deserve better than lives of quiet desperation.
