If you tell most old time clinicians that you can't hear anything out of your stethoscope, they'll say you aren't listening. But I know better. I know they don't make stethoscopes like they used to. I have a Littmann. It's my second one. The other one sits dormant in the kitchen cabinets of our new home remodel. My current stethoscope has been through several surgeries. It has had on the fly stethoscope repair with a pocket knife after the tubing experienced catastrophic failure. I also had the stethoscope eartips replaced after they became cracked and worn out. The other day, I found myself thinking, I can't hear anything out of my stethoscope. And sure enough, eartip failure once again.
I'm always amazed at how well these things work, when they aren't broken and just how terrible heart and lung sounds are transmitted when they are. But I have faith in her. I think she's got another 20 years left in her. We'll just have to patch her here and there along the way.
