S3 Denialism. Part 2

In my third year of internal medicine residency I discovered that I had magical powers.  I discovered that I could create or destroy the third heart sound, the S3, at will.  On rounds I would listen to the heart of a patient and if I wanted the S3 to be there I said so.  Magically it would appear so in the chart thereafter, even if three med students, two interns and an R2 had missed it.  It was equally easy to make them disappear.  It was a power I used selectively and wisely.  An S3 could be produced to encourage a medical student, but could be disappeared for an over-reaching intern.  Near absolute S3 power.  I say near because there were, however, some dark wizards in the hospital with some seriously black magic who could reverse my S3 conjuring.  The cardiology fellows would flaunt their magic cruelly.  I once saw them transform my loud S3 into an atrial plop after an echo confirmed an atrial myxoma.  One week it's S1S2S3 every day, and the next it's S1S2 plop. Mercifully, surgery put an end to it all.

Comments

[ErnieG]

I stumbled across your blog a few weeks ago, and I have enjoyed reading it. Your writings on the S3 are right on. I too am a rheumatologist, in private practice in Pennsylannia. Keep the posts coming!

[3+speckled]

Nice to hear from another rheumatologist, and especially the fact that you're enjoying the posts. You are, in fact, the intended target audience but I've never had the moxy to really go out and tell people about it. The people that visit have, like you, stumbled across my blog. Keep on commenting as well, that too was part of the master plan.