Tips for surviving Internship Year...

Share your tips We'll add them to the resident spouse page.







Kris

Take a class. . .in something or anything that interests you! Writing, drawing, painting, photography, quilting, pottery, jewelry making, webpage design, foreign language, science, and much more! If I had not been in graduate school during my husband's internship year, I fear that I would have lost it. He was NEVER home. We were actually long distance but I could tell that he was never home because we were only able to speak on the phone some nights for 15 minutes before he had to sleep from sheer exhaustion. Since I had my classes and my work to keep me busy, the year flew by!

Don't live your life thinking, "When this is over I can....do this, go there, have a life, make these plans, etc." Don't put off living until after your husband gets through residency. I think the suggestions above reflect this advice beautifully.



Jennifer

[SueC]

Make your own plans!!!

I spent the first year waiting for my husband to get home so we could go somewhere or do something. Then he'd come home so tired and go to sleep and I'd sit there bored out of my mind and irritated at him, though I did understand that he was tired and needed to rest. If I had been better about doing my own thing, I wouldn't have felt so lonely all the time!

[DCJenn]

Be yourself. Don't lose who YOU are in the process of helping your spouse become a doctor. (and don't let others make assumptions about being a medical spouse.)



Have something to do- go to school, work, stay home with children, but have something to keep you busy.



Exercise- it'll help with the stress and it'll help keep you healthy.



Learn to communicate effectively, with out blaming. You will find yourself ready to explode because, male or female, everything other than internship becomes your problem. Bills, lawns, cars, repairs, pets, children, laundry, dishes, grocery shopping, food prep, communication with relatives... It's a huge task and you will bcome resentful. You need to learn your hot buttons, and you need to learn to ask for your spouses support. For us, it's the dishes. I will do everything else of the above and more, except the dishes. I hate the dishes, have always hated the dishes. So, unless he's out of town, the dishes are his.



Jenn