Some of these are borrowed from my facebook statuses over the past 3.5 years.

1) Husband is in Anatomy: You are vacuuming the floor and have to move a real human skull out of the way!

2) Husband is in Peds: He comes home humming the theme from Blues Clues. Also, he sings the words from The Amazing Swedish Diet but changes the words to refer to the seizure-reducing and butter-heavy Ketogenic Diet

3) Dinner table conversations with any other med student, or medical person for that matter, quickly disintegrate into discussions about obscure diseases that you have probably never heard of and don’t want to hear about

4) You learn all kinds of great terminology, e.g. medical students get “pimped” (or asked tricky questions) on “rounds” which are when the team visits the patients. Those who work really hard are “gunners” or overachievers. Then there are the Steps (the two tests students have to take), First Aid (books most often used to study for the tests), the Match (see previous post about rank listing), etc etc.

5) You tell your spouse, “I have X symptom” and s/he quickly works up a differential including several diagnoses that could kill, cripple, or maim you. (If in third or fourth year, will add a disclaimer that your symptoms probably reflect Y unconcerning ailment).

I am so thankful to be married to this particular med student, however, and I can cheerfully overlook all the minor inconveniences. I hear residency will be considerably more difficult… Kudos to you, medical spouses everywhere!