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"There is no more lovely, friendly and charming relationship, communion or company than a good marriage."
--Martin Luther

Monday 6 May 2013

Medical Mondays: Things Doctors Do Differently

 **Hi friends! Today I'm participating in the Medical Mondays blog hop, hosted by Emma at Your Doctor's Wife, Jane at From a Doctor's Wife, Erin at Home With the Boys, and Heather at The Life Unexpected. If you're now around here, welcome! Regular readers, please take the opportunity of checking out some other interesting blogs.**

Last time I joined in for Medical Monday, I was feeling a bit down and posted some really honest musings. This time I'm lightening things up a bit. These are a few things I've noticed that doctors experience differently than “regular folks”.

Watching TV:  Television seems to bring out the “doctor” in my doctor husband. Medical shows are the worst of this, of course. It's a good thing I've never been a Grey's Anatomy fan, because Gil can't watch two minutes of it without lecturing the TV. We watched a couple of episodes of The Mob Doctor, with the same result. (Actually, I was also yelling at the TV for that one. How can she just leave the hospital and drive to the middle of nowhere all the time without anyone noticing? ...but I digress.) Medical Drama Syndrome, however, is not limited to hospital-set shows. I've seen it occur during crime fighting programs (usually brought on by autopsies), and even food programs. The other day we watched an episode of Bizarre Foods in which the host visited a Singapore restaurant specializing in using food to restore customers' “yin” and “yang” balance. I think my husband's head nearly exploded. :-)

Making plans:  Since I'm the “secretary” of our relationship, I generally liaise with others trying to get together with us. Any accepted invitation usually follows several back-and-forth negotiations (“He's on call that weekend... and that one too... and he's post-call on that day, so that's a no...”), and is annotated with, “But of course, he may be called in and not be able to come.” A few weeks ago, we had friends over for dinner and a hockey game, and Gil did not arrive home until they'd gone home. Ah, the medical life!

Attending family gatherings:  Most people's family Christmas party include discussion of Auntie Gertrude's recent trip to Ireland (accompanied by 2 full photo albums), the weather, politics, and polite chatter. When doctors attend family gatherings, they are immediately pounced upon by Uncle Philbert who wants to discuss his recent colonoscopy results, and Cousin Euphemia who has a strange rash. Then there is the random relative who just can't wait to corner any medical person with the latest theories on how cancer is a government plot, and the entire medical profession is a money-grabbing scam. And of course all of that information must be true because he found it on the Internet...

Attending conferences: In my previous life, I attended a grand total of one conference.  I flew overseas, had an extra day to get over jet lag and sightsee, then attended two days of meetings, complete with catered lunches, breaks, and a very fancy dinner (the kind with separate wines for each course).  Due to the cross-Atlantic travel, I missed a full week of work even though it was only a two-day conference.  Since this was such a cool experience, I couldn't wait to attend conferences with my husband, but it turns out that they aren't much fun, and usually involve me barely seeing him at all because of breakfast meetings and evening sessions.  This winter we attended a conference at Mont Tremblant and he literally did not leave the hotel for two days.  (I, on the other hand, went snowshoeing and had a grand old time.)  Gil insists that this is the norm because he needs to rack up his training hours.  I'm guessing he'll need to retire to finally get some real R&R.
 
Medical friends, can you think of anything to add?

15 comments:

  1. Thanks for linking up today! I think you've covered all the major ones, and very well, too. I can't wait to attend a born conference with my husband:-)

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    1. Not a "born" conference, a BORING conference!

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    2. What about a "Bourne" conference? That would not be boring! I have had fun accompanying my husband even when he works the whole time, as I've done a lot of solo traveling in the past. I still push him to attend more conferences even if I'll be exploring alone, but so far, no luck! Still hoping to find a conference in Hawaii..... ;-)

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  2. Coming over from MM -- I love the wedding picture in your header. Gorgeous.

    Since we're still in med school, my plan making is always something like, "Well, we won't know his schedule for sure until a week from Monday, so I'll be there, but I don't know about him." Ug.

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    1. Thanks for stopping by and for your compliment! We had some pretty amazing wedding photographers.

      I know what you mean. I often "represent" the two of us at family events or gatherings.

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  3. He is so lucky to have his own secretary!
    I do the same thing with TV shows. I know they can't be totally realistic but I still find myself yelling "Oh come ON!" at times.
    And what do you mean - everything you read on the internet is completely true, RIGHT?! haha!

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    1. Honestly, I do the same thing with TV, but my major was history, it's a lot more rare for me to find things to critique. That's why I have yet to watch The Tudors though; I know I'd be yelling at the TV constantly!

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  4. Visiting from MM... and I love this post... so true! Even as a third year medical student, I'm expected to diagnose Aunt Betty's random leg pains at Thanksgiving...

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    1. Oh dear... My husband is totally used to this, while I am still struggling with the fact that I now know more about my relatives' colons than I ever wanted to know.

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  5. UGH. You are so right about the conferences. I've written a few blog post from conferences and about conferences. I have a travel criteria. If the conference or destination does not meet my criteria, I don't go. :/
    BTW, {insert oozing sarcasm here} I totally love hearing about other's prostrates, don't you?
    So happy you linked up for Medical Monday! Thanks for the shout out! I appreciate it :)

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    1. You're welcome! I am loving the Medical Monday link-up!

      I hear you on the conferences. I'm a pretty good self-directed traveler, but I wouldn't go if there was nothing fun for me to do. :-)

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  6. My poor hubby is in the same boat with all family gatherings - my uncle actually brought some kind of scans to my brother's wedding to try to get J to look at them and give him an opinion --- umm no, not his job! I haven't tagged along to a conference yet, but we are hoping to turn his Orlando conference this fall into a family vacay - here's hoping our experience is better than yours was!

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    1. Wow, we haven't had anyone go so far as to bring scans to a wedding, though we do have people occasionally scan their EKGs and email them to me....

      Orlando would be fun! I actually did have fun at my conference, but I didn't see my husband much. :-)

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  7. LOL It makes me wonder if my hubs has the same back and forth with our friends.. I'm an RT that commutes 3 hours for work, and I stay in the town I work in, so I'm sure it sounds like "Nope, she's gone that weekend...nope, that one too. Well she worked the night before, so I'm not sure what she's going to want to do THAT day...." Poor guy, I never thought about it :P

    Thanks for linking up with us and for the shout out!!
    Much love
    Heather @ The Life Unexpected

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    1. Thanks for stopping by! I love this link-up. :-)

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