Today, I am going to the doctor. My family and I will walk to a large brick building. The doctor helps keep my body healthy.

I will check in at the front desk.

My Visit to Get My Heart Rate and Breathing Checked

My Visit to Get My Heart Rate and �Breathing Checked

I will have a seat in the waiting room. There are toys there for me to play with. There may be other families there, too.

In the waiting room, I will wait for the nurse to call my name.

When my name is called, I will walk with the nurse into a hallway.

My Visit to Get My Heart Rate and �Breathing Checked

I will walk through a door and into a quiet room. This room will have an exam table, desk, and chairs.

The exam table will have a crinkly, long, white sheet of paper on it.

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In the exam room, I will take off my coat and shoes. I will set my coat on the chair and put my shoes underneath the chair.

My Visit to Get My Heart Rate and �Breathing Checked

Then I will go out to the hallway and get my weight checked. I will stand in the center of a gray box on the floor. It is important to not touch the wall so that the scale can measure my weight correctly. After a few seconds, I will hear a beep. This tells me that my weight has been measured.

Next, I will have my height measured. I will step onto the floor and stand with my back and heels to the wall. I will stand as tall as I can next to a measuring ruler. The nurse will mark my height by touching the top of my head with a metal bar. It will be fun to see how much I have grown.

My Visit to Get My Heart Rate and �Breathing Checked

Then I will go back to the exam room and sit on the exam table.

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Next, the nurse will take my body temperature. She will touch a gray plastic thermometer to my ear. When I hear a beep, the nurse will know my body temperature.

My Visit to Get My Heart Rate and �Breathing Checked

Then the nurse will need to take my heart rate. She will do this by putting a small gray box on my finger tip. The gray box fits comfortably around my finger. It is not too tight or too loose.

I will need to hold my finger still on my lap while my heart rate is being taken. The gray box will make a beeping sound and will continue beeping until it is done counting my heart rate. When it is finished, the nurse will take the gray box off my finger.

My Visit to Get My Heart Rate and �Breathing Checked

Sometimes, the nurse needs to count my heart rate using a stethoscope, too. The stethoscope has a long black tube with ear buds attached to one end and a metal circle attached to the other.

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The nurse will put the ear buds in her ears and the metal circle on my chest over my heart. The metal circle may feel cold. The nurse can hear my heart beat through the stethoscope. She will leave it on my chest for 1 minute while she counts my heart beat.

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My Visit to Get My Heart Rate and �Breathing Checked

Finally, the nurse will check my blood pressure using a special tool that has a Velcro band on one end and a pump on the other. The nurse will wrap the band around my arm, fastening it with the Velcro. The Velcro will make a loud, raspy sound when the nurse is adjusting it around my arm.

Then she will squeeze the pump. I will hear the sound of air pumping and feel the band get tighter. It will be tight, but it will not hurt. The nurse will put the stethoscope on my arm to find my blood pressure. If I sit still, this will take less than a minute. When she is done, I will feel the band loosen and hear the air escape. She will unfasten the Velcro band which will also be noisy.

My Visit to Get My Heart Rate and �Breathing Checked

I did a great job at the doctor’s office and now it is time to leave! I will go out of the room and choose a free book from the bookshelf in the hallway.

Then I will go through the door back to the waiting room. I will walk by the big giraffe, get a sticker at the front desk, and say goodbye!