Facts About Stethoscopes

 ^^^MY stethoscope

1.  Stethoscopes are used for auscultation of internal body sounds like heart sounds, lungs sounds, blood flow, and intestinal flow. Additionally, in conjunction with a sphingmomanometer they can be used to determine blood pressure.
2. The stethoscope was invented by the French physician René Laennec in 1816.
3. When a soon-to-be medical student gets her very own stethoscope, the moment it touches her hands she will immediately jam the earpieces in her ears and insist on listening to the hearts of every living human in the adjacent area.  

I knew the first fact from being the daughter of a doctor and being a pre-med, and I learned the second fact from watching an old rerun of ER. The third I learned quite recently when my mother told me she had her old med school stethoscope sent off to be refurbished for me to have for school. I was thrilled. Not only did it mean I didn't have to pay to get a new one, but I loved the idea of having something of my mom's go with me to medical school. That stethoscope saw my mom threw all her rotations and now it would get to help me too. My over-active imagination visualizes it as having already gone through medical school once, so it already knows the drill.

Anyway, when it came back from being refurbished and I went to pick it up, she just haphazardly threw it at me saying "Oh here ya go." I on the other hand held it like it was the most precious thing I'd ever seen. And then suddenly it was like I was a little girl playing doctor again. I immediately put the earpieces in my ears and started listening to my heart. Did I know what I was looking for??? Absolutely not. My ability to perform heart exams at this point consists of the following..."Is your heart going buh dub buh dub buh dub? Ok then you're probably still alive."

But the fun didn't end there. My poor boyfriend got caught in the wake of excitement I had over owning my very own stethoscope and I preceded to force him to let me listen to his heart, the four quadrants of his back, his tummy and his neck. Why did I make him do this? Is it that I knew at all what i was doing? Nope, it's because I've seen it done by other doctors and wanted to see what it all sounded like.

It's not that I haven't used a stethoscope before. As a child of a doctor, it is practically impossible to escape childhood without finding one in your parent's white coat, sneakily removing it and testing it on yourself, your siblings, and your pets.  But this time it was different. This time it was better, because this time the instrument was mine and I had every right to be using it, no sneaking needed. 

I know that I will eventually become jaded with the use of my stethoscope, but I hope that doesn't happen for a while yet. I want each time I use it in school and beyond to be as exciting as this first time.