Units of Measure

I went to the doctor again today - just a preventative check of my ears before we fly again. But this time, perhaps because I was visiting during normal office hours and not having any kind of emergency, the visit started with a vitals check.

I visit the doctor at home with more frequency than I care to think about. So I am very familiar with the routine start to most visits. But this one was a little different. It wasn't the language, although the nurses did converse partly in something other than English. It was the fact that the meaning I associate with certain numbers was thrown completely off.

To start, I was wearing a long sleeve shirt cuffed to three-quarter length. (You don't see many bare arms here, despite the temperature.) The nurse wrapped the blood pressure cuff around over my shirt. Maybe it's living in California, but I can't remember having my blood pressure measured over clothing before. That number, when it appeared, was the only one that made any sense to me. It was just the same as it is at home, slightly lower than average. It was also the only number the nurse felt compelled to explain - she assured me that it was "very good".

She took my temperature and read the number off to another nurse to record. 36.2! To get that temperature at home, I'd have to hold an ice cube in my mouth. (A quick google search in the waiting room assured me that converts to 97, which is my typical daytime temperature.)

Then she wanted to weigh me. But first, did I know my height in meters? No, no I did not. So she had to measure that as well. This led to an awkward dance as I stood on the scale while a woman who was probably not five feet tall tried to measure me.

The measurements, in kilograms and centimeters, didn't hold any meaning to me. But I weigh so much less here! Less than half as much as at home! And I'm so tall!

In fact, I think I'm going to start responding to people who ask for my height with "177 cm". It's really only acceptable for children to add "and a half" to a measurement like that. But since reaching my adult height, I've been torn between stretching to say that I'm 5'10" or shrinking to say that I'm 5'9".

But it funny to think that these numbers, which seem so clear and simple, can change so much depending on the unit of measure you're used to. I can do all the conversions, of course, or use google for an even quicker answer. But it isn't automatic.

If I were visiting a doctor at home, I would know immediately if I had a fever. But the temperature of 36.2 meant about as much to me as if she'd said it in Arabic. Usually when I step on a scale, I know if I'm up or down in the range I tend to fluctuate within. But here? I haven't seen that number on a scale since I was a chid.