Only a nurse

Sometimes we really don’t need to reinvent the wheel, although every once in a while it’s nice to have some bells and whistles flashing.

Let me set the background:

I am an electronic gadget geek through and through. I love new toys, especially the flashy ones. I have unfortunately burned through every smart phone there is to offer out there. I’ve owned the really old Palm Treo up through and now currently possess the Verizon iPhone. I won’t go into horrid details about Blackberry vs. Android vs. iOS. All I can tell you is I love new-fangled apps to use and play with on my phone.

Enter the instant heart rate app.

As an Android user I downloaded this app and really was fascinated by it. It uses your camera and it’s flash to act like a pseudo- pulse oximeter. Now, I realize it’s just an app. It doesn’t hold a whole lot of merit or accuracy, but none the less pretty darn cool.

The app on my previous Android phone was suspect. It would only work sometimes, it was clunky and well just wasn’t all that believable. So I left it to the wayside and lost interest.

Enter the instant heart rate app for iPhone.

For some crazy reason I read a fellow Facebooker using this app. Out of sheer curiosity I download the app. And it’s light years better than the Android app, and just downright cooler (in my opinion). Of course it had more bells and whistles! (duh!).

So I’m tinkering with the app, and of course you can instantly share it to all your social media sources (Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, etc). Annnnnnd of course I have to oblige.

As I’m ‘playing’ with my iPhone’s new app I of course share this ‘stunning’ information with my wife (who is, may I remind you, a fellow nurse).

“Isn’t this just cool?!”

“Instantly get your heart rate!”

“I’m a lil leery as to how accurate it really is though…”

My wife, who is the farthest thing from anything related to gadget geekery, looks at me and calmly (and quite sarcastically) replies:

“You know, I too can instantly get my heart rate,” She continues. “It’s really cool too and utterly amazing as well.”

I jump through the ‘I’m a sucker’ door and ask: “Oh?”

She politely replies, “Yes, you take your index and middle finger and you lay it ever so gently on the thumb side of your opposite wrist. You have to count the number of beats over a full minute now, but I hear it’s quite accurate!”

….

….

(As I wipe away the word ‘sucker’ tattooed on my forehead)

Only a nurse.