I rehabbed my stethoscope!

It was time. My trusty hunter green Littman II stethoscope had seen me through 4 years of medical school and 4 years of residency. (Also 4 years of graduate school, mostly on a shelf.) I bought it from the scrub shop in Champaign with some money from a dear family friend. The sound wasn't as good as the Littman III, but it was pretty good. I had originally planned to treat myself to a pediatric stethoscope when I got to residency, but then I decided the one I had would do well enough. 

In its last year, one of the ear pieces split, so I wrapped it with tape, because you have no idea how painful cracked rubber is when the weight of a metal chest piece is hanging from your ear canals. A friend gave me a replacement ear piece, but that quickly split too. (I don't know whether that was from being thrown in my bookbag or chewed on by a toddler. Oops.)

When I realized the tubing was cracked (below), I decided it was time to replace it. My in-laws gave me the money for Christmas to replace the ear pieces and tubing. Alas, hunter green was no longer available, so I'm sporting a dark blue stethoscope these days. But only after using a utility knife to hack the old tubing off the chest piece--terror, thy name is taking a sharp implement to one's functional if aging stethoscope. Also, I cut myself twice trying to recover the bell. Thankfully, it all fit together at the end. The last two pictures are me trying to auscultate Rosamunda to check the sound. She was suspicious.