Ode to a Stethescope

Well my friends, the time has come to replace my stethoscope. It feels like saying goodbye to an old friend. I remember unwrapping this one with trembling hands 25 years ago as a brand new nursing student. Awed that at last, I was on my way. I kept it safely ensconced in its oblong box in my backpack for my whole career as a student.  When I graduated and became a big-girl nurse, I finally allowed myself the luxury of throwing the box away. This vocation was here to stay.  And stay it has.

This stethoscope has been with me through  every stage of my career. It graduated with me as an idealistic young RN, and gently taught me over the years to distinguish the difference between normal sounds, and OMGWEHAVETOACTNOW sounds.  It willingly took the plunge into firefighting and paramedicine a few years later. It has bounced on my neck in the back of a medic unit scrambling to get a patient to the hospital in time, alerting me to micro changes in their condition, it has accompanied me into people's homes to assure them that their inhalers are finally starting to work and they should be breathing easier soon. It has been crammed into bunker gear pockets on car accidents to check for punctured lungs. It has heard the brand new cries of a newborn, filling its lungs with air for the first time. It has borne witness to the last few breaths of a soldier who, after fighting for the freedoms of this country, is at his final rest. It has reflected the full, moving rush of air into the bases of healthy lungs, and alerted me to the immediate need for action when listening to diseased lobes. It has assured me of the bilateral movement of a successful intubation, and cautioned me to the strangled thump of a heart in struggle.

Now, as a Forensic Nurse, it is used as a way to reach the very young, it patiently fits into little ears and allows them to listen to their very own breathing and beating heart, and allows me access to their deepest untold secrets if they choose to tell. Many a story has been told into its bell, as a way for the teller to focus on talking to a toy microphone rather than a human ear.  

This tool has become a part of me. And it's hard to say goodbye. There's a history there.  I'm a big believer in buying quality, taking care of it, and keeping it forever.  But my trusty stethoscope is practically begging for retirement.                                                                                                                                                                

It's missing one of its ear pieces and the replacements keep falling off.  The other earpiece is chewed up from some enthusiastic loving at some point.  It has endured more alcohol wipe baths than any instrument should be exposed to.  There is a slash of some unknown cause down its side, and the tag is nearly unreadable.  But it still amplifies sound perfectly.  Quality to the end.  Thanks Littmann!! 

So I ordered another stethoscope, another Littmann, because I am a loyalist after all.  This one is shiny.  The earpieces are uniform and fit perfectly in my ears.  It's pretty and in an updated color.  Yet it doesn't know me yet.  It hasn't been with me through good days and bad.  It's still just a tool, in it's box, in my bag.  When I finish school again, with more letters to put behind my name, I will take this new instrument out of its box and give it a permanent pocket in my bag...because once again...it will be here to stay.

Make it a great day!!