1001, 1002, 1003, 1004...

Circumcision drive when I was in junior high.

Back then, I was never sure of what I wanted to be when I evolved into an adult (which makes taking a premed course a moronic career choice) there was this one thing I was definitely certain of: I feel happy and fulfilled when I gather the vital signs of a person. 

In high school, I participated in several medical missions so I was taught how to get the blood pressure using the manual sphygmomanometers (I typed the word without error, ehem!) which require also the use of stethoscopes. My teacher back then was a doctor so you could ask her anything and she will answer. She talked about the radial pulse for taking the pulse rate, the brachial artery for the Kortokoff sounds. I wanted to ask her everything about the human body. It was amazing how everything worked. So I became a fan of medicine. 

I liked how medicine name parts of the body and how it explains something we were born with but never really needed to comprehend. Listening to the heart and feeling it vibrate the skin above the wrist is another love story. I love hearing the heart beat. I love counting how many times a person breathes in a minute. All of them keep a person alive and they are barely given notice then suddenly they become parameters that could determine something paramount. 

The patients! Those were medical missions so all of the people who went there had less. It was heart-warming how they would offer their wrists for vitals, how they would not complain when the sphygmo upper-arm band becomes too tight and how honest they were to the doctors. It was wonderful how they laid their trust upon health professionals so easily. This is, of course, because these doctors are trained to use information strictly for wellness. Wouldn’t the world be ideal if everyone worked the way doctors do? 

I’m so excited. My org’s having a med mission next Sunday and I’m a vitals volunteer (came from the training).