Any Emergency Medicine Spouses Out There?

Hi all, this is my first posting on this board. First off, let me say that this seems like a great community and boy, do I wish I had this message board when my DH was a resident 16 years ago!

I'm 41 and married to an Emergency attending with 2 busy kids, ages 9 and 12. DH has been out of residency and in practice since 1994. I've often wanted to talk to other emergency spouses about issues that are unique to this specialty and the lifestyle that goes along with it. It's hard to talk to other women in DH's group (I only know one wife anyway!) because I don't want to seem like a complainer. Does anyone know of a message board that is specific to Emergency spouses? I haven't been able to find one. Thanks!

[rainbabies]

hi and welcome! glad you found us! i think "EDWife" is the only EM attending's wife.....but we have (i think) 4 EM resident wives.

[planet]

Resident spouse here.

Welcome! My husband is in his 3rd year post training. I'm 28 and he's 30. While we're a little younger, I'm sure we share many of the same issues.

Post away or you can also pm me. Glad to have you here!

Thank you all so much for the warm welcome!

I guess the reason I was looking for a place to talk to other ED attending's wives is because there are some issues with our lifestyle that I think may be unique to the specialty. But then again, I could be wrong.

I remember thinking when my DH was in residency........"everything will be so great when he gets finished." More time, more $$$ etc. Well, there is more of both but there are other issues especially raising kids and keeping up with their activity schedules when your DH is working evenings and weekends and sleeping at odd hours during the days. I hesitate to vent too much on this board because it seems to consist of mostly resident spouses (forgive me if I'm wrong) and I don't want to bum anyone out!

Thanks for the nice welcome and I hope to post more in the future.

oh hey - there are a bunch of attending spouses too. Just not so many EM attendings yet.

but - we're a reality based group w/a little (lot of) whining thrown in ... so post away!

I think everyone here who has school-age kids are going through the same thing when it comes to coordinating schedules.....so feel free to vent away! Where are you located? We are with a private practice in NC.

[Meenah]

Welcome, I am sooooo glad to have someone else in their 40s!!!!!!!!!!!! My DH is a critical care attending and I am a nurse, I work in the ER and the Endsocopy unit. Welcome and glad you found us. We were also out of training when I found this site.

I'm another EM resident spouse. Welcome!

Spouse to be. SO has been working on an emergency Medicine progamme here in Ireland for the past 3 years and has transferred to to America and is starting at the bottom as a PGY1. until last month I worked in the ER for the last 4 years and I'm starting a new job on moday purely to get out of the odd hours and trying to raise our son so its 95 for me (woo-hoo!) feel free to vent, I quite gladly moan about working in Emergency all the time and I'm sure some of us will want to call upon your experience from time to time too.

My hubby just finished an EM residency. He's doing a toxicology fellowship now.

I am so grateful to be (temporarily) done with overnight shifts!

We're on our way! Hope you get some help on advice, we all could use it