Hi, my name is Yvette and my husband is a PGY-1 for General Surgery. You never prepare yourself for a life changing experience such as residency. I thought I was experienced since I not only have known my husband for years before medical school, but I too work in the medical field and in fact, work in surgery. I have listened to stories being told by older surgeons, younger surgeons, residents and other medical students but it still doesn't prepare you for the life itself. We moved about a thousand miles away from our family in Florida the day after graduation to unknown territory....Philadelphia, PA.We had the same friends, the same things in common and a closeness that we just knew would never change. We finally made it to our new city with no place to live but a hotel near the airport. We dined on take out and laughed about how our life will be so different come 5 years from now. We took in the sights of our new city along with searching for a home to hopefully live in for the next 5 years. Not knowing the area, at all, we came across neighborhoods we were not so sure we belonged in. Finally, we found a home, quickly furnished it with our belongings from Florida and the next day my husband started his residency. Over the course of 5 weeks now, I have noticed that my husband is no longer in the body of the man I married 5 years ago. A zombie has taken over this mold of my husband and to be honest, I'm not really sure what happened to the man I once knew. I believe he has more conversations with his other interns than he does me, so I am anxious to meet them and find out how my husband is doing since lately the only chance I get to see him is when he is asleep rather than awake. As you can tell, I miss my husband. I am truly petrified as to how the next 4 years and 11 months will be. I work in the operating room myself and I ask these residents, how on earth did they impregnate their wives? Not that I want specifics, but I wonder, were they asleep too when it happened?
So far this first month has been extremely crazy for the both of us. We are, of course, in debt to our nostrils, I believe boxes have yet to be unpacked and I just mowed the lawn for the first time since we moved in. The hardest part about being a DW is meeting other people like you. I read a post earlier on here about people who seem very interested in the fact that you are married to a "doctor". I've had more friends come out of the woodwork, and I mean people I haven't talked to in years, asking for money and assistance in some fashion. My husband and I discussed how I could make some friends in our new home....people who understand "the job", people who are alone pretty much most of the time and sleeping with a zombie. Unfortunately, my husband is one of two male general surgery interns this year, the rest of them are female....so no wives like me in this batch.
I try to stay positive and I am attempting to learn how to being alone in this new city. I've started working just last week, joined a gym and since we have a little Pug, I have joined a group of other Pug owners. Next weekend will be our first meeting! Well, hubby is off to do another 24 hour call tomorrow so it will be my "cleaning night", or my bottle of wine and book on the back porch night, whichever sounds more appealing......I'll let you guess. Until next time.......I look forward to meeting others like myself and getting used to our new life!
