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In reply to the discussion: As a kid, what was your dream job going to be? Mine was to be a nurse. [View all]3catwoman3
(27,787 posts)...were new heart murmurs that no one had previously documented. I never had any extensive cardiology training, so I didn't feel comfortable being the one to decide on the level of seriousness of a murmur. I have excellent hearing, so I was really good at hearing murmurs, some of which were so faint that my colleagues often referred to them as "Martha murmurs" because they were so faint they might not have noticed them.
"Bad" murmurs usually sound bad, and with the very faint ones I was usually 99% confident that they were not serious, but there is no good way to say "heart murmur" to a parent, without seeing a look of terror appear on their faces. I thought parents appreciated having the additional reassurance of one of my docs also listen.
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