Physician and Veterinarian Household

[aaronrodgers]

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Does anyone have experience living/growing up in a physician + veterinarian household?

How much family time together is there?

Isn’t it good to have a partner who is in a completely different world of medicine but who can still relate to the other person’s career at a fundamental level given that both are in healthcare?

Were there any unique challenges?

Thanks 🙂

 

[KeikoTanaka]

It's so dependent on where you are, how many kids you have, and what specialty you go into. Vets, If i'm not mistaken, mostly work 9-5 M-F, similar to a PCP. Probably doesn't have call, or much less. Unless of course they work in Emergency Vet care, in which case they might work nights and weekends.

I know an Emergency Physician who is married to a Police Officer. They both work crazy whacky hours. It all depends on the set up.

 

[19pieces19]

Get ready to spend your life paying back their loans.

 

[deleted87051]

It depends. Our horse vet is in solo practice (most in our area aren’t solo) and she works 6-7 days/week, sometimes working 20-30 consecutive days and puts over 60,000 miles on her truck every year. It’s not uncommon for her to stop by the barn at 7 or 8pm. Her lifestyle makes most residencies look cush. Husband is a very busy farrier. No kids obviously.

 

[RNthenDoc]

Vets work harder than the vast majority of medical professionals, and have very rigorous an expensive schooling (thus large loans).

And the median salary is 88k.

Absolutely insane. You can finish an RN program in a quarter of the time and make the same money. I know not everything is about money, but with massive student loans this seems criminal to me. They commit suicide at 2-3x the national rate.

Plus... I’m an M2 working my butt off to learn ONE species, I can’t even imagine trying to learn multiple animals.

All the respect in the world to them.

 

[aafisahar]

Vets work harder than the vast majority of medical professionals, and have very rigorous an expensive schooling (thus large loans).

And the median salary is 88k.

Absolutely insane. You can finish an RN program in a quarter of the time and make the same money. I know not everything is about money, but with massive student loans this seems criminal to me. They commit suicide at 2-3x the national rate.

Plus... I’m an M2 working my butt off to learn ONE species, I can’t even imagine trying to learn multiple animals.

All the respect in the world to them.

yea but the liability isn't there like it is in humans. Unless you are working on expensive show animals, no one really gives a **** if you misdiagnose a cow and it dies. Pet owners put their pets down for dumb **** all the time. You can't push phenobarbital on grandma and if you **** up, grandma's family can sue your ass for everything.

 

[chocoholicsoxfan]

Vets work harder than the vast majority of medical professionals, and have very rigorous an expensive schooling (thus large loans).

And the median salary is 88k.

Absolutely insane. You can finish an RN program in a quarter of the time and make the same money. I know not everything is about money, but with massive student loans this seems criminal to me. They commit suicide at 2-3x the national rate.

Plus... I’m an M2 working my butt off to learn ONE species, I can’t even imagine trying to learn multiple animals.

All the respect in the world to them.

The breadth is much less though. We just don't know as much about animal health.

No one diagnoses autism or Tay Sachs or Wegeners or TTP in a dog, I think. Definitely not in a chicken or guinea pig.

My friend in vet school regularly got 100% on tests. That's unheard of at my med school. They also don't have shelves, so their clinical years are much easier. Their residencies are **** though. 80 hours a week for 25k/year shouldn't be legal. That's like a human rights violation and far below minimum wage.

 

[Splenda88]

Vets work harder than the vast majority of medical professionals, and have very rigorous an expensive schooling (thus large loans).

And the median salary is 88k.

Absolutely insane. You can finish an RN program in a quarter of the time and make the same money. I know not everything is about money, but with massive student loans this seems criminal to me. They commit suicide at 2-3x the national rate.

Plus... I’m an M2 working my butt off to learn ONE species, I can’t even imagine trying to learn multiple animals.

All the respect in the world to them.

As dave Ramsey would say: "That is financial suicide."

 

[Splenda88]

The breadth is much less though. We just don't know as much about animal health.

No one diagnoses autism or Tay Sachs or Wegeners or TTP in a dog, I think. Definitely not in a chicken or guinea pig.

My friend in vet school regularly got 100% on tests. That's unheard of at my med school. They also don't have shelves, so their clinical years are much easier. Their residencies are **** though. 80 hours a week for 25k/year shouldn't be legal. That's like a human rights violation and far below minimum wage.

Lol...

 

[altadama]

yea but the liability isn't there like it is in humans. Unless you are working on expensive show animals, no one really gives a **** if you misdiagnose a cow and it dies. Pet owners put their pets down for dumb **** all the time. You can't push phenobarbital on grandma and if you **** up, grandma's family can sue your ass for everything.

Thats definitely not true....maybe its less than for humans. But a farmer who's animals are their livelihood 1000% cares if their cow dies and it could have been prevented. People also wont go "oh well. Just euthainize" because you screw up....you still have to try and fix it, and if it ends badly, the owners go after your license just like in human medicine. And sometimes they sue go after your license when it wasnt even your fault. Also, the "euthanizing for dumn stuff" just means that veterinarians have ADDED ethical dilemmas that they are forced to deal with everyday and make far less while being told they are in it for the money if they refuse to treat for free. Sorry...but saying they can "just euthanize" and that no one cares is blatantly false and incredibly direspectful to professionals who go through just as much schooling.

 

[PippyPony]

No one diagnoses autism or Tay Sachs or Wegeners or TTP in a dog, I think. Definitely not in a chicken or guinea pig.

We diagnose it in sheep, does that count? 😛

(As far as TTP, you may want to check where some of the human research came from as a start 😉 )

And to be blunt, for every rare/complicated disease we don't learn about in humans, there are easily an equal number of diseases that you'll never hear anything about in an MD program. Pizzle rot, anyone?

 

[PippyPony]

My friend in vet school regularly got 100% on tests. That's unheard of at my med school. They also don't have shelves, so their clinical years are much easier.

Also, where is this school and can I go to it? Haha

On the residency front... my sister is a (human) neonatologist, and I actually thought her internship/residency years were a human rights violation (she was working 36hr shifts up until the day she went into labor, wtf?) so I think you all have it rough enough on the human side of things, too.

 

[PippyPony]

yea but the liability isn't there like it is in humans. Unless you are working on expensive show animals, no one really gives a **** if you misdiagnose a cow and it dies. Pet owners put their pets down for dumb **** all the time. You can't push phenobarbital on grandma and if you **** up, grandma's family can sue your ass for everything.

People definitely give a ****.

Including the vet who misdiagnosed that cow and it died. 🙄

Put another way, do you feel worse because you missed something and killed grandma due to negligence, or because you're getting sued by the family afterwards? Practicing high quality medicine and caring about your patients' health isn't limited to doctors.

What you're describing is actually one of the drivers of suicide in the field.

 

[PippyPony]

Does anyone have experience living/growing up in a physician + veterinarian household?

How much family time together is there?

Isn’t it good to have a partner who is in a completely different world of medicine but who can still relate to the other person’s career at a fundamental level given that both are in healthcare?

Were there any unique challenges?

Thanks 🙂

Don't have direct experience with this, but the similarities between the two fields are far greater than the differences imo.

It is really fun to be able to talk with my sister about medical stuff now. I imagine it would be the same in a marriage.

 

[chocoholicsoxfan]

We diagnose it in sheep, does that count? 😛

(As far as TTP, you may want to check where some of the human research came from as a start 😉 )

And to be blunt, for every rare/complicated disease we don't learn about in humans, there are easily an equal number of diseases that you'll never hear anything about in an MD program. Pizzle rot, anyone?

I didn't say animals don't get the diseases. I'm just saying that people probably aren't as educated in the management and treatment of it as you have to be in human medicine, because 99% of dog owners probably can't afford an ICU admission and PEX and steroids and q2hr labs and biologic agents for their dogs. I'm sure human admissions for some of these diseases are tens of thousands of dollars. My family is in the top 6-7% of earners in the US and there's no way that we could afford to pay that for a dog whose prognosis following the event is grim at best.

All I'm saying is I don't think it's harder to be a veterinarian than it is to be a doctor. Both professions require so much knowledge that you kind of reach a ceiling. You can see that in human specialties like OB/Gyn, where the average one tends to not be as good at Medicine as someone in IM, but also not as good a surgeon as someone in General Surgery. I'm sure for vets it's similar, considering they have to work with multiple species and do surgery/medicine. When the breadth of a job is wide, you have to compromise the depth. That's just the limitation of the human brain.

Plus, I'm sure that just as a 60 year old cardiologist probably can't walk you through the latest antipsychotics and the finer points of the menstrual cycle, the average vet who has been working with exclusively dogs and cats for 30 years knows diddly squat about anything beyond the basics of livestock.

And my friend went to MSU for vet school, where she said the academics were a complete joke. I think she actually got over 100% one time in a class.

 

[Splenda88]

I respect Veterinarians...Either you guys/gals have incredible love for what you do or you are simply [insert]... There is no way in hell I would spend 300k on a degree with a salary potential of 100k/year.

My med school COA was ~55k/yr (I borrowed more) and still felt like it was highway robbery even if physician salary potential is anywhere from 200k (FM/Peds) to 800k(spine surgeons).

 

[PippyPony]

All I'm saying is I don't think it's harder to be a veterinarian than it is to be a doctor.

Agree. There are these vet med tshirts/bumper stickers etc. that say "real doctors treat more than one species," and I have always found that to be an immature claim. It's no harder to be a vet than it is to be a doctor...but on the flipside, I don't think it's harder to be a doctor than a vet.

Both professions require so much knowledge that you kind of reach a ceiling. You can see that in human specialties like OB/Gyn, where the average one tends to not be as good at Medicine as someone in IM, but also not as good a surgeon as someone in General Surgery. I'm sure for vets it's similar, considering they have to work with multiple species and do surgery/medicine. When the breadth of a job is wide, you have to compromise the depth. That's just the limitation of the human brain.

Ah gotcha. Sure, that is certainly true. Sorry, it sounded like the initial point of your post was that vets don't ever achieve the same degree of depth as human medicine or ever work with complex conditions, which for certain specialities is not the case.

For GP (especially mixed practice GP), then sure -- in that case I'd say a primary competency for a vet is to maintain breadth of knowledge and also understand what we don't know. Just the same as how I wouldn't trust my gynecologist to repair a compound fracture, but if I saw her right after I got kicked by a horse, I would hope she could stabilize me and get me to the closest surgery wing haha.

Plus, I'm sure that just as a 60 year old cardiologist probably can't walk you through the latest antipsychotics and the finer points of the menstrual cycle, the average vet who has been working with exclusively dogs and cats for 30 years knows diddly squat about anything beyond the basics of livestock.

Definitely true. Also a lot of old school vets out there, which is a good thing in some cases and not a good thing in others.

And my friend went to MSU for vet school, where she said the academics were a complete joke. I think she actually got over 100% one time in a class.

That is... unfortunate? Fortunate? Nice for her ego I guess, but my earlier comment aside, I'd prefer to get my butt kicked a bit more than that. Gotta make that crushing debt feel like it's something you earned

 

[PippyPony]

I respect Veterinarians...Either you guys/gals have incredible love for what you do or you are simply [insert]... There is no way in hell I would spend 300k on a degree with a salary potential of 100k/year.

Yeah we are smart in some ways and maybe not so smart in others.

 

[7331poas]

We diagnose it in sheep, does that count? 😛

(As far as TTP, you may want to check where some of the human research came from as a start 😉 )

And to be blunt, for every rare/complicated disease we don't learn about in humans, there are easily an equal number of diseases that you'll never hear anything about in an MD program. Pizzle rot, anyone?

The original research for most diseases came from animals. There is a reason for that, society has decided the animals are less valuable than human, life.

The poster is making the point that, if my dog was diagnosed with cancer I would take it out back and shoot it. If my mom was diangosed with cancer, that is a much different clinical picture.

 

[finnickthedog]

And my friend went to MSU for vet school, where she said the academics were a complete joke. I think she actually got over 100% one time in a class.

Which one? Because if it's mine then I can say it would definitely be inaccurate to call the academics a joke. If she actually had that easy of time, good for her but if that's the case she probably would have kicked ass in med school too.

Don't know anything about the other MSU but I highly doubt the academics are a joke there either.

 

[Splenda88]

The original research for most diseases came from animals. There is a reason for that, society has decided the animals are less valuable than human, life.

The poster is making the point that, if my dog was diagnosed with cancer I would take it out back and shoot it. If my mom was diangosed with cancer, that is a much different clinical picture.

You wouldn't do that as an American...

 

[Splenda88]

Which one? Because if it's mine then I can say it would definitely be inaccurate to call the academics a joke. If she actually had that easy of time, good for her but if that's the case she probably would have kicked ass in med school too.

Don't know anything about the other MSU but I highly doubt the academics are a joke there either.

I would be cautious in making such statement... if I have never attended med school...

 

[PippyPony]

The original research for most diseases came from animals. There is a reason for that, society has decided the animals are less valuable than human, life.

The poster is making the point that, if my dog was diagnosed with cancer I would take it out back and shoot it. If my mom was diangosed with cancer, that is a much different clinical picture.

Meanwhile, I took my cat in for chemo when he was diagnosed with nasal adenocarcinoma, then tried rescue therapies and finally palliative care. My top career choice right now is to go for double board certification in medical oncology and radiation oncology.

Basically, just cause you'd shoot Ol' Yeller in the backyard when the doc says he's got the C-word does not mean that's the approach everyone takes to their pet's health. Modern veterinary medicine -- perhaps partially by virtue of being at the forefront of all that biomedical research -- often has the same healthcare options that are available to people for those who wish to go that route/are able to afford it, and many do. We see tens of thousands of cases a year at our university hospital.

 

[finnickthedog]

I would be cautious in making such statement... if I have never attended med school...

I need to attend med school in order to make a statement that has a built in level of uncertainty? I said probably. Vet and Med school are not the same so of course there is no guarantee that someone who excels at one will do well in the other.

How easy do you think vet school is that you think its unfair of me to guess that a student who 100%s every exam would likely also do quite well in med school?

 

[Splenda88]

I need to attend med school in order to make a statement that has a built in level of uncertainty? I said probably. Vet and Med school are not the same so of course there is no guarantee that someone who excels at one will do well in the other.

How easy do you think vet school is that you think its unfair of me to guess that a student who 100%s every exam would likely also do quite well in med school?

I don't know...

 

[altadama]

The original research for most diseases came from animals. There is a reason for that, society has decided the animals are less valuable than human, life.

The poster is making the point that, if my dog was diagnosed with cancer I would take it out back and shoot it. If my mom was diangosed with cancer, that is a much different clinical picture.

My cat had intestinal cancer (which came with chronic constipation), chronic kidney disease, hyperthyroidism, cardiomegaly with abnormal rhythm, the start of liver disease, and some other bloodwork abnormalities and the internal medicine department at a specialty hospital managed her very complicated assortment of conditions for several years. I didn't do chemo for her...but we did a whole lot of other stuff. Managing older animals medical complications is definitely a complex process, especially with added financial constraints due to lack of insurance and animals trying to mask pain. It requires a lot of medical knowledge, skill, and dedication. Just because you would take your dog outback and shoot it doesn't mean that the rest of the population would and again...its an insult to veterinary medicine to suggest that's the only "treatment" we'd need to utilize for ill animals. Veterinarians can specialize in oncology, ophthalmology, cardiology, soft tissue surgery, radiology, dermatology, pathology, or even by areas of medicine like lab animal medicine, and much more. You are grossly underestimating the profession as a whole and the people who go into it. And regardless of how you feel about animal life, a veterinarian treats animals with the same level of compassion as you would a human...their suffering matters to us. Fixing the problem matters to us and it matters to the vast majority of pet owners as well.

 

[greatnt249]

My soon-to-be wife is a veterinarian. To be fair, it's way more than anatomical differences between animals that makes the difference between veterinary and human medicine. It's about having to remember the various disease states across a wide variety of species and their different presentations, while also having to remember that what might be good (and seemingly innocuous) therapy for say, a dog, would in turn kill a cat if you tried to do the same thing (and I'm not just talking about dose adjustments for weight). Add to that some of the we'll just call "less than endearing" clients who probably have no business owning an animal to begin with demanding you do everything for virtually nothing, and being told you're a horrible person for daring to ask to be reimbursed for your services, all while probably hearing a few off-handed remarks a day about only being a veterinarian because they couldn't "hack it" in "real" medicine. All this for less pay and the same debt as the "human medicine" counterpart would make. Keep in mind this is a gross generalization of my understanding of what she does day-to-day, but apart from some shared medical lingo, there often just isn't intuitive overlap between human and veterinary medical management.

From a technically challenging standpoint, each specialty has their ups and downs, but for vets to do what they do for the pay they earn and the debt they accumulate, I have nothing but respect for them, even if I wonder if they might just be a little crazy some days for doing what they do.😉

 

[PippyPony]

My soon-to-be wife is a veterinarian.

Wait a sec, you are a doctor (almost) married to a vet! You therefore have the power to restore this thread to its original purpose 🙂

 

[PippyPony]

its an insult to veterinary medicine to suggest that's the only "treatment" we'd need to utilize for ill animals.

If it were the only treatment, my midterm tomorrow would be a heck of a lot shorter haha.

 

[aaronrodgers]

My soon-to-be wife is a veterinarian. To be fair, it's way more than anatomical differences between animals that makes the difference between veterinary and human medicine. It's about having to remember the various disease states across a wide variety of species and their different presentations, while also having to remember that what might be good (and seemingly innocuous) therapy for say, a dog, would in turn kill a cat if you tried to do the same thing (and I'm not just talking about dose adjustments for weight). Add to that some of the we'll just call "less than endearing" clients who probably have no business owning an animal to begin with demanding you do everything for virtually nothing, and being told you're a horrible person for daring to ask to be reimbursed for your services, all while probably hearing a few off-handed remarks a day about only being a veterinarian because they couldn't "hack it" in "real" medicine. All this for less pay and the same debt as the "human medicine" counterpart would make. Keep in mind this is a gross generalization of my understanding of what she does day-to-day, but apart from some shared medical lingo, there often just isn't intuitive overlap between human and veterinary medical management.

From a technically challenging standpoint, each specialty has their ups and downs, but for vets to do what they do for the pay they earn and the debt they accumulate, I have nothing but respect for them, even if I wonder if they might just be a little crazy some days for doing what they do.😉

Thanks everyone for answering my questions regarding lifestyle of md + dvm couples. Greatnt249, could I ask you about how much you and your soon-to-be wife have been able to spend time together on a daily basis? Do you think it’s similar to a dual physician household where nannies will be necessary when kids come in the picture? What about managing each other’s student debt? Finally, how about the future of finding jobs together in the same city...my SO and I both would want to stay in CA..thanks!

 

[7331poas]

My cat had intestinal cancer (which came with chronic constipation), chronic kidney disease, hyperthyroidism, cardiomegaly with abnormal rhythm, the start of liver disease, and some other bloodwork abnormalities and the internal medicine department at a specialty hospital managed her very complicated assortment of conditions for several years. I didn't do chemo for her...but we did a whole lot of other stuff. Managing older animals medical complications is definitely a complex process, especially with added financial constraints due to lack of insurance and animals trying to mask pain. It requires a lot of medical knowledge, skill, and dedication. Just because you would take your dog outback and shoot it doesn't mean that the rest of the population would and again...its an insult to veterinary medicine to suggest that's the only "treatment" we'd need to utilize for ill animals. Veterinarians can specialize in oncology, ophthalmology, cardiology, soft tissue surgery, radiology, dermatology, pathology, or even by areas of medicine like lab animal medicine, and much more. You are grossly underestimating the profession as a whole and the people who go into it. And regardless of how you feel about animal life, a veterinarian treats animals with the same level of compassion as you would a human...their suffering matters to us. Fixing the problem matters to us and it matters to the vast majority of pet owners as well.

Let me clarify, I am poor. So I simply do not have the capacity to spend thousands and thousands of dollars to take my dog to dialysis MWF and get regular chemo infusions.

 

[7331poas]

You wouldn't do that as an American...

Not all americans are rich urban dwellers. Many live in the country and are poor. Medical care for animals is a luxury.

 

[greatnt249]

Thanks everyone for answering my questions regarding lifestyle of md + dvm couples. Greatnt249, could I ask you about how much you and your soon-to-be wife have been able to spend time together on a daily basis? Do you think it’s similar to a dual physician household where nannies will be necessary when kids come in the picture? What about managing each other’s student debt? Finally, how about the future of finding jobs together in the same city...my SO and I both would want to stay in CA..thanks!

1. We usually are able to spend evenings together. Every few weeks, she'll have to work in the office on Saturday, but she generally doesn't have what you would call "call." Every few weeks or so, I wind up working on the weekend when I'm covering inpatient service. All in all, our practices aren't so time-consuming that we never see each other.

2. Can't really comment on what would be necessary to raise kids, as we don't have any at the moment. Every once in a while, she has to bring the dog to work so she can be fed if I have to work late; I don't think that situation directly translates to child-rearing, though.

3. Where I work, I qualify for student loan discharge if I make 120 qualifying payments (at least toward my federal loans; a portion of my student debt does not qualify). She does not qualify for this. Our plan was to aggressively pay off the debt that does not qualify for discharge. Both of us are still on IBR plans, so we both have to sit down and figure out what the budget would be to make that happen. Honestly, our lifestyle isn't going to change a whole lot from when I was still training, so it should be manageable.

4. She works about 30 minutes from where she grew up, and my job is at the same site I did my training, which is in the same area. Neither of us are very far from where we grew up. Probably more fortuitous than most, so I can't really speak to what the job market would be if you're both looking at the same time. I should also add that we live in a very rural area of the state, so I also can't speak to what the job search would be like if you're looking for an urban setting.

 

[altadama]

Let me clarify, I am poor. So I simply do not have the capacity to spend thousands and thousands of dollars to take my dog to dialysis MWF and get regular chemo infusions.

I'm poor too...I'm a vet student living on loans and every penny I spend is accruing interest as we speak. I found ways to make it work, but the point isn't what I did for my animals vs. what you'd do for yours. The point was you implied veterinarians don't treat cancer and don't need to have the knowledge and training to manage complicated and advanced clinical disease...and that's disrespecting the profession as well as a blatantly incorrect assumption. That was my point. Veterinarians go through 4 years of higher education, do internships/residencies, specialize and often manage very complex disease processes across multiple species. Their expertise is no less valuable to their patients than the expertise of a physician is to humans.

 

[7331poas]

I'm poor too...I'm a vet student living on loans and every penny I spend is accruing interest as we speak. I found ways to make it work, but the point isn't what I did for my animals vs. what you'd do for yours. The point was you implied veterinarians don't treat cancer and don't need to have the knowledge and training to manage complicated and advanced clinical disease...and that's disrespecting the profession as well as a blatantly incorrect assumption. That was my point. Veterinarians go through 4 years of higher education, do internships/residencies, specialize and often manage very complex disease processes across multiple species. Their expertise is no less valuable to their patients than the expertise of a physician is to humans.

I was not aware that vets need to do residency as well. I stand corrected.

 

[PippyPony]

I was not aware that vets need to do residency as well. I stand corrected.

We don't have to. It is possible to go directly into GP after school, although from what I've encountered it's becoming a lot more common nowadays for people to at least do a 1 year rotating internship after graduation.

People who take a specialty track will typically do 1 rotating internship year, plus sometimes 1 more intern year, followed by 3-4 years of residency based on the specialty. Plus complete the normal residency stuff like publishing peer-reviewed research and passing specialty boards.

And then some crazy people decide to go back do it all again or do a fellowship, yada yada

 

[kraskadva]

Does anyone have experience living/growing up in a physician + veterinarian household?

How much family time together is there?

Isn’t it good to have a partner who is in a completely different world of medicine but who can still relate to the other person’s career at a fundamental level given that both are in healthcare?

Were there any unique challenges?

Thanks 🙂

Hey OP -
While this thread goes completely off the rails with species-ist one-upmanship arguments, let me ask you a question ...

Presumably you posted because you have a vet SO and you're in med school, or vice versa. While I totally understand asking for advice/insight, if folks were all "the vet-med life sucks, don't do it" would you dump your SO?
I'm guessing not...
So if you're not going to dump them, then whatever issues or challanges you two face, you'll face.
Both of you will have patients you care about, you'll both have large loans, decent incomes, and busy schedules. Whatever life adjustments need to be made to work in the priorities you care about can be made, but will be individual to your relationship.
So what do you hope to glean from this thread? What advice are you looking for?

 

[greatnt249]

Hey OP -
While this thread goes completely off the rails with species-ist one-upmanship arguments, let me ask you a question ...

Presumably you posted because you have a vet SO and you're in med school, or vice versa. While I totally understand asking for advice/insight, if folks were all "the vet-med life sucks, don't do it" would you dump your SO?
I'm guessing not...
So if you're not going to dump them, then whatever issues or challanges you two face, you'll face.
Both of you will have patients you care about, you'll both have large loans, decent incomes, and busy schedules. Whatever life adjustments need to be made to work in the priorities you care about can be made, but will be individual to your relationship.
So what do you hope to glean from this thread? What advice are you looking for?

Maybe he/she was just looking to see what unforeseen challenges he/she might face in this kind of relationship to avoid surprises? Not necessarily from a relationship standpoint, but from a financial planning standpoint?

 

[7331poas]

Maybe he/she was just looking to see what unforeseen challenges he/she might face in this kind of relationship to avoid surprises? Not necessarily from a relationship standpoint, but from a financial planning standpoint?

I dont think it is a secret that there will be a **** load of loans, and poor repayment options

 

[aaronrodgers]

Hey OP -
While this thread goes completely off the rails with species-ist one-upmanship arguments, let me ask you a question ...

Presumably you posted because you have a vet SO and you're in med school, or vice versa. While I totally understand asking for advice/insight, if folks were all "the vet-med life sucks, don't do it" would you dump your SO?
I'm guessing not...
So if you're not going to dump them, then whatever issues or challanges you two face, you'll face.
Both of you will have patients you care about, you'll both have large loans, decent incomes, and busy schedules. Whatever life adjustments need to be made to work in the priorities you care about can be made, but will be individual to your relationship.
So what do you hope to glean from this thread? What advice are you looking for?

As eloquently put by greatnt249, I am here to seek perspective and advice from those who are wiser and more experienced.

Certainly, my SO and I will work to overcome whatever obstacles lie ahead. Just like how one uses Google Maps to assess traffic conditions, we would like to know what the road ahead might be like 🙂

 

[deleted87051]

I dont think it is a secret that there will be a **** load of loans, and poor repayment options

Somehow I don’t think that’s an issue for @aaronrodgers.

 

[altadama]

As eloquently put by greatnt249, I am here to seek perspective and advice from those who are wiser and more experienced.

Certainly, my SO and I will work to overcome whatever obstacles lie ahead. Just like how one uses Google Maps to assess traffic conditions, we would like to know what the road ahead might be like 🙂

I think a lot of that depends on what you and your SO decide to do after school. There are so many areas of medicine with different lifestyles and the same applies to veterinary medicine. So just saying doctor/vet household doesn't really mean much in terms of assessing what kind of lifestyle you guys will have. If you decide to do family medicine and small animal general practice...you'll probably have evenings and weekends to spend together. If your SO goes into large animal medicine, expect them to have more on call hours. If one or both of you do more emergency medicine and have a lot of overnight shifts, it may be more difficult.

And for residencies should you SO decide to specialize, you may both wind up different states and need to do the long distance thing for a while. Basically, I think what you can expect depends more on the specific are of med/vet med you guys decide to go into and what kind of contract you each negotiate when you get a job. It can either be amazing, horrible, or anywhere in between. But it 100% can work if you each decide its important to you, factor it into your respective career paths/specialty choices, and keep the lines of communication open.

 

[PippyPony]

Could always try to both go for derm residencies -- cushy schedules across the board haha.

 

[KeikoTanaka]

Could always try to both go for derm residencies -- cushy schedules across the board haha.

I would say if they were both GPs they could open an office together, but given potential immunocompromised patients/Allergies, I actually don't think animals and people patients in the same waiting room would be a good idea lmao

 

[Polocrosse2017]

Interesting discussion to see what we may be in for. I'll be starting vet school next year and gf starting med school the following year. Hopefully we will only be 2 hours apart for the school part but heaven knows after that. We've talked a lot about it and it is a long road! (Luckily she will end up with way more debt than I will and neither of us will have any undergrad debt.) We will be the backwards guy a vet, female the doctor family.

 

[KeikoTanaka]

Interesting discussion to see what we may be in for. I'll be starting vet school next year and gf starting med school the following year. Hopefully we will only be 2 hours apart for the school part but heaven knows after that. We've talked a lot about it and it is a long road! (Luckily she will end up with way more debt than I will and neither of us will have any undergrad debt.) We will be the backwards guy a vet, female the doctor family.

2 hours isn't bad. You'll be so busy studying, both of you, that it really won't matter how far or close you are, you'll both be too busy. Just make sure you try and find good weekends to meet up from time to time. One kid in my class is a 2nd year med student with me and his GF is in California as a 2nd year med student. They unfortunately were not as lucky as my husband and I to be in the same class/school together, but they make it work. they're both from Cali so he's kind of the odd one out leaving home - but they both plan on doing the Couples Match together

 

[KeikoTanaka]

2 hours isn't bad. You'll be so busy studying, both of you, that it really won't matter how far or close you are, you'll both be too busy. Just make sure you try and find good weekends to meet up from time to time. One kid in my class is a 2nd year med student with me and his GF is in California as a 2nd year med student. They unfortunately were not as lucky as my husband and I to be in the same class/school together, but they make it work. they're both from Cali so he's kind of the odd one out leaving home - but they both plan on doing the Couples Match together

(PS I'm in New York, I forgot to mention that, so NY to Cali is very far)

 

[that redhead]

@sinombre would be able to contribute to this (hopefully this isn’t becoming a dumpster fire...)

The only thing I can comment on is your question about having a partner in healthcare. I actually like coming home to someone with no medical background. I’m less tempted to talk about work/cases/etc. However, I know many people in healthcare who value their partner’s similar experience or knowledge. It’s all personal preference.