Medical technology can be amazing. I’m in the process of getting a full physical, because it’s good to do at my age, I’m trying to take some preventative measures to ensure my blood pressure stays in a healthy range, and I never quite seem to be able to hit the right tonal range when singing “Moon River“….. :-/
That said, I had an “Echocardiogram” yesterday. I’d never heard of these before. I didn’t know what to expect, but I had visions of a singing telegram delivered by an aerobics instructor with a bad stutter. Once i got there, I came to find that they use ultrasound, much like they do when looking at a growing fetus in a pregnant woman, to capture images and statistics about your heart. How cool is that?
I got to sit and watch my own heart beating, valves opening and closing, and the muscle constricting as it worked to pump my blood. And there’s even investigations under way on how the use of ultrasound might aid in blocked arteries as well, instead of the more invasive options in use today.
Sometimes, when it comes to the medical community, I think we’re only a notch or two above bleedings and leaches. Then, I get to see something like this, and I imagine we’re getting a bit closer to McCoy’s tricorder.
(P.S.: it’s a boy!)