Anyways... introductions for those who are visiting for the first time! Hello, I am Elle, a stressed out tax accountant in her mid-twenties. I am dating "M", a stoic sweetie pie who will be finishing his second year of medical school TOMORROW. He will then hunker down to take Step One while I try to lose the five pounds I've gained during tax season. Womp womp. We have been dating for three and a half years now. I moved in with M at the beginning of MS2 from Maryland to Pennsylvania for Love.
When trying to think of how my life would be different if it didn't involve medicine, it's hard because I've been surrounded by the medical world my entire life. My dad was an accountant at a hospital from the time I was born - I was jokingly allowed to only marry a professional baseball player or a doctor when I grew up. Oh, irony.Here are a few things I have noticed lately that would be different.
1) For a while when I first moved in, I would leave my iPad laying around the kitchen or living room. I'd come back from work with a glass of wine ready to pull up a romance novel. And there was a wonderful picture of a some bloody organ, pus-filled wound, or another orifice that I never dreamed I would or wanted to see EVER. I mean EVER. After putting a password on it for the sole purpose that these images would not continue to haunt me, he cracked the code. And then I just stopped charging the device and now no one uses it. That'll teach him.
2) Next up... pulse taking. I am not a fan of having my pulse taken. The idea of someone's fingers pushing down on my life source and counting the pulsations freaks me out. I get sick to my stomach when faced with the reality that my body doesn't run on sunshine, magic, and cotton candy. However, M seems to enjoy taking my pulse all the time. As if it's some kind of calming tick. We'll hold hands and he'll take it. He'll be on the phone next to me and take it. Is it some game? Is it some educational tool so that he gets better at it? I don't know. I am now used to this oddity and just hold out my hand and drink my beer like a good fake patient.
3) Short, twenty minute episodes of mind numbing TV shows are a norm. When you're a medical student you usually don't have the luxury of taking a full hour break for TV. King of the Hill, American Dad, South Park, Family Guy, Parks and Recreation, Bobs Burgers, Archer, Futurama, etc etc. These are our numbing slots of time. We took a few months to get through the Battlestar Gallactica seasons (whopping hour long episodes). We (okay really me) want to get into Once Upon a Time and Downton Abbey but the episodes look a little too long. What a random difference, right?
Something that would not change regardless of his profession: when he does laundry he hangs up my bathrobe, nighties, and hoodies in my closet. The latter is forgivable, but nighties? Silly future doctor.
