Around 7:40, John climbed into his car and drove to Dr. Anderson’s office. There was only one other car parked in the spaces right outside of the office. And heeeere we go, John thought as he took a deep breath, grabbed his wallet and bag of samples.

John entered the office, a little bell ringing as he opened the front door. The waiting room TV was showing CNN. At least it’s not Fox News, John thought as he approached the reception window.

“Hi, I’m John Carmody and I’m here for my 8:00 appointment,” he said as he signed in on the clipboard.

“Dr. Anderson will be right with you,” she said. “Did you complete the exam prep?”

"Yes ma’am,” John said awkwardly as he held up the brown bag.

Just then, the inside office door opened and the distinguished, silver-haired Dr. Anderson appeared in a lab coat holding John’s chart. Seeing John’s name on the schedule and reviewing his medical record, anticipating John’s upcoming exam was a bright start to Dr. Anderson’s day.

“Good morning John!” Dr. Anderson said enthusiastically as he saw his young patient standing at the reception window.

“Hey, Dr. Anderson,” John replied as he felt his heart really start to race.

“Come on back and we’ll get started. I’ll take those,” the doctor said as he reached for the brown paper bag with John’s samples, placing them in the little lab area.

Dr. Anderson led John down the hall and into his office. It was a different room than last week, an actual office with a desk and a wall full of diplomas and certificates. A door led into an adjacent exam room with a scale, standard paper covered exam table and the classic rolling stool.

“OK, you completed then exam prep, right?” the doctor asked.

“Yes, sir” John replied, glad he didn’t come out and say ‘enema’. That word just reminded John of how unpleasant it was.

“Great,” Dr. Anderson said. “Go ahead and get undressed. You can hang everything up on the rack on the back of the door. Everything off down to your underpants then we will go next door.”

“Uhhh, here?” John asked nervously.

“Yeah, it’s fine. Just us back here and we go right next door into the exam room,” Dr. Anderson said calmly, becoming more aware of John’s anxiety. While always the utmost professional, Dr. Anderson got a little thrill inside when he got to examine a handsome young man like John. The more nervous they were, the bigger that thrill got.

Dr. Anderson went into the exam room and left John to undress.

John took a deep breath and unzipped his fleece and took it off, hanging it on the back of the door. Next came the shoes and socks. Then his shirt. Dr. Anderson came back in and John was there in his crew neck undershirt and pants. “Almost undressed there, sport,” he said, as John peeled off his undershirt, armpits and back already damp with nervous sweat. Dr. Anderson took the shirt from him and hung it on the door with John’s other clothes. John’s anxiety was increasing as he fumbled with his belt buckle. “Now the pants,” Dr. Anderson said as he watched his handsome young patient nervously unbuckle his pants.

John took a deep breath as he pulled down his pants and stepped out of them, awkwardly balancing on one foot then the other to pull them off. Down to his tighty whities, John hung his pants up with the rest of his clothes.

“OK, let’s go in here and get your height and weight,” Dr. Anderson said as he gently put his hand on John’s shoulder and guided him to the scale in the exam room. The room was pretty warm and had a clean smell--like hand soap or disinfectant. Poor John still shivered a little bit despite the warm room.

John felt his sweaty feet sticking to the cool linoleum as he walked to the classic black and white metal “DETECTO” floor scale. In addition to the table and stool, the brightly lit room had a window with closed blinds at one end, a counter and sink and one of those metal “doctor tray-stand” things covered with a paper sheet. There was a generic, framed art print on the wall and a hanging plant in the corner next to the window.

“Just step up here,” Dr. Anderson said as he fiddled with the counterweights on the scale to get John’s weight.

“Alright, turn around and stand up nice and tall, hands at your side,” he said as he pulled out the measuring stick to get John’s height. John felt the metal rod rest on the top of his head.

“6’1”, 180 lbs. That’s a good weight on you.” Dr. Anderson said as he jotted notes on his clipboard. John felt a bead of sweat from his armpit run down the left side of his chest to his briefs.

“OK, hop up on the table, champ,” Dr. Anderson said as he patted the paper covered table.

John sat up on the paper covered table, paper crinkling under his cotton covered butt, hands folded in his lap as Dr. Anderson began his examination, starting with his hair and scalp. John felt him running his fingers along his scalp and through his hair as he inspected for skin issues or abnormal moles.

Dr. Anderson grabbed the otoscope off the rack on the wall and came over and looked into each of John’s ears, inspecting the exterior of each ear as he finished. Complete with the ears, he changed from the otoscope to the ophthalmoscope and looked into each of John’s eyes then shined the bright light to inspect each of John’s nostrils.

John watched as he went and got a tongue depressor and some gauze out of the glass jars on the counter.

“Open wide, stick out your tongue,” he said as he shined the light in John’s mouth. “Say Ahhhh …” Just as John said “Ahhhh…”, Dr. Anderson’s pager went off, causing John to jump a bit.

Dr. Anderson looked down at his pager. “Oh, I’m so sorry, but this is the hospital and I need to call them. Hang tight and I’ll be right back.”

Dr. Anderson discarded the tongue depressor and went into his office, closing the door as John waited up on the table in his briefs. John could hear the hiss of the ventilation duct and the murmur of Dr. Anderson on the phone in the next room. He fidgeted nervously, legs dangling off the end of the table. No way to get to his phone or a magazine to pass the time while he waited. John alternated between feeling bored, to pissed off for wasting time to anxious again as he sat there fidgeting.

After what seemed like 10 or 15 minutes, there was a quick knock on the office door and Dr. Anderson came back in. “So sorry! Now where were we … ah, your throat.” He grabbed another tongue depressor and had John open wide again, then made him move his tongue all around so he could inspect under and on the sides of it. “Since you’re sexually active, I’ll be doing STD screenings today. We’ll start with a throat swab,” the doctor said as he went to the little metal stand, pushed aside the drape, and picked up a swab package. Dr. Anderson opened it, came over to the exam table, and made John say “Ahhhh” again, as he swabbed the back of his throat and tonsils. John gagged a little and got a bit teary eyed.

Dr. Anderson set down the swab container on the tray then grabbed his stethoscope. “Let’s listen to your back first,” he said as he placed the earpieces in his ears. “Deep breaths, in and out through your mouth,” Dr. Anderson commanded as John felt the cool stethoscope on his back. “Again,” he said, moving to another spot on John’s back, repeating the process several times in different places.

“Now we’ll listen to your heart. Just breathe normally,” he said as he placed his left hand on John’s shoulder and the moved the stethoscope around, carefully listening to different parts of John’s chest. Then he moved the stethoscope to listen to the carotid arteries in John’s neck.

“Everything sounds good, sport, but your heart is beating quickly. A little nervous?” Dr. Anderson asked as he went over and made some notes on John’s exam chart.

“Well, you know, yeah. Haven’t had a full exam in a long time,” John muttered, very conscious that he was practically naked. Dr. Anderson retuned and got close behind John, almost embracing him from behind, and placed his hands on John’s neck, palpating his lymph nodes. John felt Dr. Anderson’s lab coat up against his back. “Swallow for me, John,” the doctor said as he moved to the part of his neck where John’s thyroid is. John swallowed as he got a faint whiff of Dr. Anderson’s aftershave.

“Hands up on your head,” Dr. Anderson said as he visually inspected John’s furry armpits. John was super conscious of the nervous sweat which had built up. John felt the doctor’s fingers press firmly into his hairy left armpit, palpating his axillary lymph nodes, then repeating the process in his right armpit. “You can put your hands at your sides now,” Dr. Anderson said as he went and grabbed the reflex hammer, placing it in his lab coat pocket.

Dr. Anderson sat down on the stool and reached out to inspect John’s feet, starting with his left foot, checking between the toes and looking at the soles of his feet. Done with the left, he repeated then process with the right foot. He then took the reflex hammer out of his pocket, using the end of the handle to scrape gently along the bottoms of John’s feet. John giggled a little and moved his foot away from the tool.

Dr. Anderson moved to John’s knees, tapping gently to check the reflex response on each leg, noticing the nice coating of hair on John’s legs, thickening as it got higher up on his thighs.

Finished with checking his reflexes, Dr. Anderson instructed John to stand up. John climbed off the table, paper sticking to his sweaty briefs as he got up and stood before Dr. Anderson. “Let’s check your range of motion. Hands up in the air and up on your tiptoes,” he directed, watching John assume the position. “Hands at your sides,” he said as he came over behind John and inspected his spine. John felt Dr. Anderson’s warm hands moving down his back and gently palpating the bones in his spine. John felt Dr. Anderson tug a bit at the waistband of his briefs, pulling them down a bit to expose his tailbone.

“OK, bend over for me,” the doctor said as he watched John’s back, looking for any signs of scoliosis. Satisfied with John’s back, he then told John to stand up straight, squat down, then stand back up.

John stood there, feeling his feet sweat on the cool linoleum, as Dr. Anderson jotted more notes on his chart. Dr. Anderson then went and moved the tray stand next to the table. He pulled out the table extension, replacing the paper with a fresh sheet