My Manipulative Husband

James survived his first week of med school!  His first test is already here (tomorrow), and he's been busy.  He spends almost all of his waking time at school and studying.  We live 20 minutes away from the school, so it's hard for him to give up the 40 minutes of study time to drive there and back so he can study in a group, so next year we'll probably move closer to the school.  Their biggest class so far has been anatomy, which he's loved.

Now, James is going to be a DO, and one of the differences between a DO and an MD is that DOs do osteopathic manipulations.  This means they do stuff to your muscles.  (Remember, chiropractors = bones, DOs = muscles.)  They started in on that this week, and their first lab was finding key features on bones so they can...I don't know...so they can find them.  On people.  And something about muscles.  So James comes home one night this week for dinner and announces, "I need to manipulate you for fifteen minutes tonight.  It's homework."

This was my favorite thirty minutes of the week.  (See?  He doubled his homework time!  He's gonna be a great DO!  Actually, it's mostly because when he was done I said, "I don't think you got them all right.  You should try again.  You're not very manipulative.")  I lay there while he turned my arms, feet, and mostly my head this way and that, trying to press through my muscles to feel landmarks on the bones.  I heard such things as, "Prepare to turn your head laterally," "That can't possibly be too hard, Sariah; I can barely feel it through your muscle here," "Wow, your jaw is in really bad shape! Do you think you can let my study group feel it sometime?" "Where IS that....oh, I was in the wrong place.  It's on your chin," "Oh, that's just your belly button," "Don't be ridiculous, Sariah" and "Your external occipital protuberance is much more pronounced than my lab partner's" (one of my best features! I do what I can to support my husband's manipulation skills).

It was really great, though.  Strange as it sounds, there's something soothing in having someone cradle your face and poke around your skull with their fingers.  He's supposed to learn real manipulations soon (as opposed to poking around your head).  In fact, I'm pretty sure he isn't very good yet and will need lots of practice.  If you come visit us, I'm sure he'll practice on you, too.