ok, so I thought the heart sounds "lub dub" corresponded to "s1" and "s2" but I read here on some post that its the other way around....with s1 being dub and s2 being lub.... which is correct?
To me neither sounds like lub or dub. It's the cadence that matters, and the way most people say it lub=s1. At normal heart rates, diastole is longer than systole. So, lub..dub........lub..dub....... or dub..lub........dub..lub...... doesn't matter. It gets harder to distinguish the sounds when the patient is tachy, so you have to feel the pulse.
There is no way I could tell which one is which until I feel the carotid pulse while I'm doing it intially. After that I know I'm listening to the correct cadence. Many times my mind plays tricks on me and i get it backwards. Like a cardiologist told our class last year in lectures.........."the most common diastolic murmur is a systolic murmur that is misheard."