You know when you are married to a medical spouse when::

My DH talked in his sleep again last night, just as he was dosing off...he asked me how much money I would make at work today!?!? I woke him up to tell him what he said and he just laughed and laughed until he fell asleep again...too funny!!! hmmm, i wonder if his being post call had anything to do with it...

I know this is silly, but Sunday evening DH and I rented John Q with Denzel Washington. Anyone see it? Anyway, Denzel's character has a son who falls while he playing baseball and before the little boy hits the ground DH is talking to the TV saying something about hypertrophy something or other ... and I bust out laughing. He just looks at me with this blank stare. I pause the movie and tell him that on this board we were sharing stories of spouses being so "medical" ... and that I would just have to contribute this ... LOL. At another point in the movie the little boy is lying in bed and they have him intubated ... but then he talks to his parents ...??? The strange thing is that both DH and I started argueing with the TV ... saying, "that's not possible." I guess that just tells you that we shouldn't rent movies with medical context. LOL

Has anyone tried watching ER with the their doctor ... I actually really like ER, but DH gets all perturbed when a ER doc starts doing surgery right there in the ER and all. He is way to literal I guess.

I just wanted to say thanks for having a place to joke about such things ... it really tickles me

Aisha

[mommax3]

My husband was up all night Sunday night delivering babies. Monday is our regularly scheduled date night, but I was prepared to leave him at home sleeping while I went out by myself -- I was kind of looking forward to it, if you want to know the truth. But no, he got home "early" at 4:30 (a concession for being post-call) and told me he really wanted to go out and to wake him up at 5:30 so he could take a shower before we went. Whatever. We go to dinner, then he wants to go to Lowe's (my least favorite place in the world). We leave there and I talk him into going to Penneys so I can scope out their winter coats for the boys. After being there 10 minutes, he says "I'm fading...." so that was that for our big "date". He came home and went to bed, but we got home so early that our babysitter (a college student) had not finished her laundry, so I chatted with her for the next hour and a half. When I finally went to bed, I was greeted by the snores of a truly exhausted man and laid there with no one to talk to while I tried to go to sleep without my routine of news and the Leno monologue. This doesn't happen too often anymore, but it was definitely something that I am familiar with as a medical spouse.

Sally

You know you're a medical spouse when...

...your spouse falls asleep sitting up, with a plate of half-eaten food on his lap, the TV on with the volume up, and all the lights on.
...you hear a suspicious-sounding noise at your front door at midnight and a strange series of scratches, and you don't panic because it's just your spouse trying to find his keys and get in the front door after a particularly long and horrible shift.
...you start using medical jargon in your own everyday conversation, like LP for lumbar puncture when most people only know this procedure as a spinal tap.
...half the messages on your answering machine in a given week are from other residents, asking if your spouse can switch call nights with them.
...you find yourselves picking up JAMA or NEJM or Contemporary Pediatrics off the coffee table to read.

[PrincessFiona]

spouse

well...I ironed a ton of Thomas' things this week and so he got really ambitious and carried down an armload of summer shirts. (Like THAT's going to happen ). I told him that I would do them this weekend and it wasn't soon enough...after all, summer IS only 7 months away ....so....he started ironing them himself.....He stood and ironed a shirt for 10 minutes convinced that it was looking better, and the iron wasn't PLUGGED IN! I just watched in amazement that he didn't notice....I finally had to point out to him that that might just be why the iron wasn't hot!

kris

1) When he fails to notice that you have lost nearly thirty pounds.
2) When he goes from holding your hand to taking your pulse.
3) When you are nearly blind for thirty minutes, because he has spent forever looking at your optic disk with his new opthalmascope.
4) When he uses abbreviations commonly used in patient charts in a love note.
5) When you recieve your birthday card two months late.
6) When you are out to dinner together and realize that those sitting at the tables around you are horrified and loosing their appetites. Guess amputation is not common dinner conversation?
7) When you are actually able to follow along and understand conversations taking place between your spouse and fellow med students.

*Though we are not yet married, I just had to take part in this thread.

Rachel

[PrincessFiona]

thirty pounds

Have you lost nearly thirty pounds? AWESOME for you!!!!!!!! Congratulations!!! I'll bet he's noticed

btw...your post was hysterical!

Kris

Thanks Kris! Well, to be honest, he has taken notice now. Since I am having to buy new clothes, . They always notice when the bank account starts dwindling . Have a great day!

Rachel

Does anyone else's spouse leave a "trail" when they come home from being on call? My wife does this a lot when she is really tired... it is quite entertaining because you can see exactly what she was doing: keys left in the door, bag dropped on the ground two feet into the house, mail on the table with the one important envelope opened, shoes in the hallway, jacket on the floor in front of the bed, and a crashed spouse asleep on the bed. It is sort of a game to reconstruct the scene...

[DCJenn]

I don't know whether I did this intentionally or not.... but he was post call when we went to look at our house with the realtor and he fell asleep standing up in the doorway. Then he was post-call when we signed the contract (I think I did do that on purpose, I knew he wouldn't freak out because he would be too tired!) and when we bought the house he was not only post-call but had to drive 3 hours from Ft. Hood the night before only to have to return at 4am the next day! So, he has always maintained that he didn't know where he lived when it was time for him to come home from Ft. Hood. I had to give him directions!

Jenn

My bf asked me to remind him to bring his human skull (from his bones box) to school the next day. I can just imagine someone overhearing me say, "Honey, don't forget to bring your skull with you tomorrow."

[Amiens]

when you husband walks up to and says

"Honey can you lie down for me, so I can 'practice' an anesthetic procedure for tomorrow"

or looking intently at your throat and then proceeds to say "Hmm you would be an easy tube (intubation)."

Crystal

[Meenah]

When he looks at your neck and says "damn you would be easy to Swan"
Luanne

[Amiens]

That's hilarious!

Or you get a brochure in the mail for CRASH (Colorado Review for Anesthesia and Ski Holiday) and think "Hmm a 'vacation' that the department would pay for. I'm gonna use a week of vacation to go."

Did anyone watch Scrubs last night? I was on the floor laughing at all of the stuff the residents were 'taking' from the hospital.

You know you are a medical spouse when friends and family ask if your spouse can suture them up because they know of your state of the art first aid kit that includes needles, anesthetic, suture kits, 4x4s, etc.

Crystal

[Vishenka69]

When:

1. You realize that scrubs do make great pj's
2. You end up going solo to most of the social functions because you SO is perpetually stuck in hospital
3. Your fiance suggests to hold off the wedding until after graduation, so that the invitations would say "Dr."
4. You use phrases such as "So is this the final shelf before the boards?" and then find yourself explaining that you're not talking about furniture.
5. You read the previous posts and understand exactly what each person meant (and even know what a LP is)