Earlier this week, Dr Yumiko Kadota shared the story of why she gave up her dreams, resigning as a plastic and reconstructive surgery registrar at Sydney’s Bankstown Hospital. Since then she has been at the centre of a media firestorm, a public apology from the hospital administration and even an intervention from the state health minister.

In this new article, she reflects on her experiences after she left Bankstown.

It’s 4am, Friday 8th February. I’m wide awake so I’ve just picked up my laptop to blog. It’s been just over 8 months since I resigned. I didn’t want to name the hospital I was over-worked at so I’d referred to it as Hospital X, but since it’s come out in the media I’ll use it by name: Bankstown.

After I had put in my resignation, I knew I still had to see out the minimum four weeks. After I got home I flopped onto my bed. THANK GOODNESS. I lay there for a while looking at the ceiling. I felt an instant sense of relief, and my very first thought was, I can’t wait to get back into running and go to the gym again. I can go to bed tonight with my phone turned off… oh the bliss of that… On Saturday, I couldn’t, and didn’t, get out of bed at all. My body could not move and I had this massive headache, similar to what people experience after a hangover. This headache would continue for weeks afterwards.