Can you hear me now?

In which Mike moves on.

Suquamish, WA - 2025

Today I retire an old friend. My stethoscope. I got it when I was still in the Navy, so long ago - maybe 1990. I was at the end of my career and working in primary and acute care. The Sprague Rappaport stethoscope I had was not working out all that well. Clinically it was the bee's knees then, but when I was working in a noisy environment like on board ships and around helicopters, it was really hard to hear heart tones and other noises the human body makes. So, I coughed up the money for a fine tuned precision device made by the 3M company. My Cardioscope II has served me well over the past 35 years, but time takes its toll and the old guy just wasn't up to the job anymore. The diaphragms don't flex like they used to and the sound tubes have grown stiff. Heck, it sounds like me. The spring tension in the earpieces are shot and I had to hold those tight with one hand while manipulating the chest piece with the other.

So, I ordered a new one. The fourth model. it arrived this weekend and it is amazing. I shed a nostalgic tear as I hung the old stethoscope on the wall as a memorial and put the new one in my bag to get me through the rest of my career which will probably go on until the day I die or at least the next thirty five years. Whichever comes first.

Keep in truckin'
-Mike