Your Blood Pressure
The doctor will also check your blood pressure. To do this the nurse or doctor will put a blood pressure cuff around your arm. There is a dial attached to the armband and it squeezes your upper arm in order to get two numbers. They will listen with the stethoscope right under the cuff to hear your pulse. They pump a little rubber balloon to make the cuff tighten and stop the blood flow in your arm. Then they slowly let the air out of the cuff. When your blood starts to pound through the doctor looks at the needle on the dial. This is the first number. Then they listen for the blood sounds to get very soft. This is the second sound. If the numbers are very high it indicates high blood pressure.