The Pressures of Physiology

I walk to Physiology lab feeling pumped up as I knew that we would learn how to take blood pressure. I felt like that day had been the moment I had been waiting for all my life. I reminisced about the time when the nurse had asked for my arm and wrapped the cuff around it. I bust through the doors only to hear the teacher say, “I will teach the lecture notes on blood pressure, then present a video, and we will practice taking each other’s blood pressure at the end of the lab. “No!” I thought to myself. I want to take blood pressure now. While I sit in my seat I cannot keep myself from fidgeting around. Barely paying attention to the lecture notes, I decided to sleep. Finally, I woke up, only to hear that we are watching a video. Instead of watching the video for instruction, my arrogant self goes back to sleep. Then the time that I had been waiting for arrives. Of course I get irritated again as my partner decides take my pressure first. Soon I was my turn. While holding the blood pressure cuff, sphygmomanometer, and stethoscope I had felt a wave of confusion. How do I put the cuff on? How do I attach the sphygmomanometer? When do I stop pumping? When do I release the dial? How do I know what numbers to choose? Is this the sound of your pulse? Not feeling so pumped up anymore, I said to myself, “I guess I should have paid attention.”