How did you feel when you bought your first stethoscope? + a quick story

I've always been kind of late getting going with just about everything in life, and 5 years since I first posted on here about auscultation being my favourite part of medfet, I finally bought myself a Stethoscope! I went for a Litmann Classic III. How did everyone on here feel when they did this for the first time? I kind of felt a little embarrassed even though it's my secret and nobody knows I've done it, right down to ordering it from Amazon and getting it delivered to one of those pick-up point things so none of my housemates can accidentally open it, but after a couple of minutes that secret felt really cool, then I felt like I was cool for finally taking another step in enjoying my favourite quirk.

So here's something I felt like sharing - my choice of stethoscope is a little bit commemorative. I went for a blue one, because the best doctor I think I saw as a kid had one that colour. One story I've never shared before is how I'm lucky enough to have an auscultation memory from my own bedroom as a kid. I was about seven or eight, and this same doctor was the one on call in my town out of hours. My mum made the call because I was really bedridden sick and it turned out what I had was something not so different from that Step A that's been going round in England recently. It wasn't that, but I think it must have been similar because I got given antibiotics after the doctor saw me and I remember him checking for the strawberry tongue thing first. This was the one time as a kid I really did NOT want to see a doctor. I was in a really shitty mood that I was that sick and behaved like a total brat, but this doctor was brilliant with me when I look back at it now. He was so patient despite how much I whined and didn't want him to do anything to me. When he finally wanted me to take my shirt off so he could listen to my lungs I remember protesting and then eventually saying ‘Yeah go on then’ while I pulled my shirt off, then he used the blue stethoscope on my back, and I just sort of cooled off after that. I don't think I got an erection at it that time thanks to just feeling like crap, but I think it calmed me down. Brilliant stuff from that doctor, brat-me was a total handful at that age.

I totally had to choose a blue one thinking about that memory. In my head I love going back to being a kid going to the doctor and seeing that colour to bring on the real memories will always make me smile. For the moment it's just to use on myself and to get me into that zone, but I'd love to explain the story of it to a boyfriend one day, or at least a play-partner who gets why I'll like having it used on me. I'd love to age-play being that brat again just as much as the kid who likes his check-up and gets curious about everything!

I bought my first one off Amazon when I was 18 which was a cheap Spague-Rappaport style one. I was so excited waiting for it to come and when it arrived I wanted to listen to myself straight away and pulled my shirt off in my bedroom so I could use it. I found it amazing to listen to myself for the first time since I was a kid and my doctor had let me listen to my heart, lungs and belly. Since it didn't have a non chill rim the coldness on my bare skin made me aroused and gave me an erection as I moved the ice cold bell and diaphragm over myself. I enjoyed listening to the sound of my heart beating - and did some star jumps to speed it up - my heavy breathing and the gurgling out of my stomach ands also tucked it under my boxers to listen to my femoral pulse.

I kept it tucked under my bed and would get it out if I was with a girl so I could listen to her, and for them to listen to me. Some of them didn't like it and I think they just thought it a little weird, but if they were happy to play along then it was really arousing be semi-naked and listening to one another.

I remember the first time i bought a real stethoscope in a medical webshop. I had never owned a real doctor/nurse stethoscope before. And never think i would. But one day i began to think about the possibility to do it. And suddenly i found my self on that website, was searching around, and picked out some goodies. I bought two stethoscope, one good and one training scoope. And when i was in there, i choose some other medical stuff, like thermometer, bloodpressure cuffs and urinesticks.

That day after I paid that orders i felt like another person. I remember that evening i watch a picture of a doctor on the first page on a newpaper, he had a stethoscope in his pocket, and for the first time, i dont want his stethoscope, because now two of this was on the way to me in the post.

i think that order used tree or four days, from i order it, to it was in my hand. But that days was going slow. but i remember i was in extra good moods, all day long.

And than i got the message on my phone. I could go and get the package. Was a great day. I had a really throughly chest-exam that day. And the next month i had exams every day. But unfortunatly i have never used my equipment on others.

I got it because I have been lurking on here for a bit and discovered that anyone can just purchase a real working stethoscope. Not just real people in the medical field. I felt guilty because I'm not a doctor. I got a cheap 20ish dollar stethoscope on amazon. I PRAYED that it didn't get lost. I just don't want to explain what I bought to an Amazon custome service rep. I justified it by telling myself, “You have asthma, it's good to know if your lungs are wheezing or not.” It's also OK to take a heart listen once in a while.

@Newbie35 Nice justified reasoning. But did you have a better one now?

No, I'm cheap! 🤣

I have a loud heart so it works.

Apparently, stethoscopes do expire. The one I have now expires in 2025.

Apparently, stethoscopes do expire. The one I have now expires in 2025.

I’m in real trouble then, as I have ones in my collection dating back to the mid-1960s!

I received one today which was manufactured in 1993. After a coating of Amor-All on the tubing it seems good as new.

I got it because I have been lurking on here for a bit and discovered that anyone can just purchase a real working stethoscope. Not just real people in the medical field. I felt guilty because I'm not a doctor.

I totally get that, I felt the same for a long time, thinking ‘this will never be used on a real patient so is it a waste?’ In the end I decided no, it wasn't wasted if it brought me some pleasure/happiness and it's totally done both. I love this day and age where anyone can order something like this online. As a kid I always did think ‘Where does a doctor buy a stethoscope from?’ because there was no such thing as a doctor-stuff shop, so I guess they ordered them from special catalogues.

But anyway, the guilt soon disappeared when finally playing with a proper, real good quality stethoscope totally put me into kid-me headspace - after all these years I'm amazed how powerfully it did that. After one hospital exam I had around 9 years old where I particularly enjoyed a doctor examining my chest I couldn't stop thinking ‘What did he actually hear? What was it like for him while I was on the cold-end and he was on the ears-end?' What I wanted for years was to get my hands on a real stethoscope and use it on myself to find out; and nearly 3 decades later I finally got to sit on my bed and be that curious kid for two hours, and it was magic! Even just using it on myself brought back the doctor saying ‘Okay Alex I’m going to ask you to take all your clothes off except for your pants' which baffled me because it was what was in my pants that needed operating on, so surely he just wanted to look at that. Then he tapped all over my chest and then it was ‘I’m just going to listen to your heartbeat, breathe away normally for me' and I looked at my mum and said ‘It’s totally freezing!' as I pitched a tent in the pants they'd let me keep on, and she just smiled and gave a shrug as if to say ‘What were you expecting?’ Owning a real stethoscope is like a connection to cool, innocent times and I'm now even more guilt-free about it than I was after clicking ‘buy now’. Pity modern stethoscopes are so warm though!

I haven't quite got the hang of listening to my own breathing yet, but after finding a couple of places where it's easy to do I can now see why that same doctor didn't ask me to take deep breaths when he moved away from my heart. I did manage to hear it just breathing normally and it almost became like meditating.

@tjc, I just know that in the directions, it said “expires 2025”. Let me repeat its a 20-25ish stethoscope I bought on Amazon almost 2 years ago. Can you still hear your heart with your older stethoscope?

@RocketStripe90 the one I got is actually kind of cold until your chest warms it up!

@Newbie35 Yes, I tried it this morning and it's still as good as when it was first purchased on 5/2/64 (not by me, I hasten to add).

It's why I found the bit in your post that it expires a bit odd; unless the tubing is made of latex which does degrade, or it's a single use sterile one, a stethoscope shouldn't need an expiry date at all!

@tjc yep, it could be latex! That makes sense!

Additional: I tried it on myself this afternoon after a 5.5k run, which I pushed hard for the last 2 minutes so my heart would be pounding when I got back to my front door. By the time I managed to get upstairs and grab the stethoscope and get my t-shirt off I timed myself at 147bpm, which is well outside of my maximum recommended zone, but it sure was exciting hearing my heart working that hard. I want to get back to being as fit as I used to be and I think this new way of taking my pulse using my apex beat is going to be quite a good incentive!

I felt like a big shot. I put it around my neck like all the other nursing students. Then it didn't take long for me to realize that the well-off students were wearing Littman's etc. Plus all of the new students were the only ones wearing them. We stuck out like a sore thumb.

I felt like a big shot. I put it around my neck like all the other nursing students. Then it didn't take long for me to realize that the well-off students were wearing Littman's etc. Plus all of the new students were the only ones wearing them. We stuck out like a sore thumb.

@Tabitha32 The expensive ones are a status symbol for students. My son is a cardiologist and he buys decent but relatively inexpensive ones cuz he loses them!