A stethoscope

Yesterday, one of my mentor gave me a box at the cardiac conference handled by Matsushita Memorial Hospital. He said with smile that this was from Dr. A, who is his mentor.

I opened the wrapping of the box and found a label on the box, saying "This is a small legacy in The Second Department of Medicine, Kyoto Prefectural University of Medicine. I give it to you, Dr. Kawasaki, via Dr. Sugihara."

I was really surprised to found an unfamiliar stethoscope in the box. I have good knowledge about the history as well as the types of stethoscope, but I have never seen anything like this.

It seems like that this stethoscope was one that Dr. S, who is a giant regarding auscultation, purchased when he had studies in the U.S. in the 1960s. He gave it to Prof. Marumoto after coming back to Japan, and later the professor handed it to Dr. A, my mentor's mentor.

I was at a loss for words since I was really impressed. On top of that, I was wondering if I was valuable enough to keep it. I heard the sound of my heart with the legacy, and found it working perfectly. The condition of the stethoscope is incredibly excellent, although it is almost 50 years old, like to me.

No wonder, my role is to hand this legacy to next generations. I will pick up one guy to pass the legacy before my retirement in order not to stop the continuity of what I have been taught by my wonderful mentors.

A test for the first time in 10 years.

I took a test to get a licence for cardiac rehabilitation, today. I think I did a good job.

To tell the truth, I did not do any homework to prepare for it because I thought I would pass the examination without difficulty. I've been a cardiologist for more than 2 decades, and I have been engaged in cardiac rehabilitation for over 3 years.

To my surprise, almost all attendees around me were likely to study so hard; their textbook told me so since I have found tons of checks on it.

I had to have lots of lessons before the test, which took almost 7 hours and made me actually exhausted. If I remember correctly, the last time I had an exam was almost 10 years ago. The result will be shown 1 month later.

I am pretty confident of it, but I hope my 3 colleagues will also pass the examination together.