The ride to Dr. Laura’s office was quick, oddly there wasn’t any traffic in Los Angeles. As they got there, Justin and his mom entered the building thru the back, trying to avoid any fans or paparazzi, even though the street seemed empty. Justin was quiet the entire time as Pattie tried to calm his nerves a little bit.

Dr. Laura has been Justin’s doctor for more than 9 years, and even being extremely comfortable in her presence, he was deadly afraid of anything involving doctors’ appointments. She usually cared for small children, but as Justin was so afraid, he never really planned in exchanging doctors, even after he turned eighteen. He preferred how she was always babying him when he felt yucky.

“How can I help you?”- a young receptionist said, smiling sweetly as Justin and Pattie approached the front desk. The waiting room was empty, and it seemed like Justin was the only patient there. Dr. Laura always suggested that he booked his appointments early in the morning so no one would bother him, but right now, even though it right in the middle of the day, no one was there.

“I just called to make an appointment for him. Justin Bieber”- Pattie said, a little too cheerfully as Justin just stood there, playing with the hem of his hoodie, blushing furiously even though the receptionist had no idea why he was there.

“He’s Dr. Laura’s patient, right?”- she asked, and Pattie nodded her head- “Alright, great. Have a seat right there and someone will come and get him shortly, okay? Just wait one second so I’ll print his file just so you can look and make sure everything is right and nothing has changed”.

As his mom checked his papers, he looked around. Everything was white but the colorful childish details made the room a bit welcoming and less scary, but still, he could hear his heart racing. He just wanted to sit down, feeling overly sick and achy, but for some reason, he wouldn’t take a step without his mom.

“That’s perfect, thank you”- he wasn’t even paying attention at the receptionist as he heard her voice once again- “Alright, honey, you can take a sit and someone will call your name, alright? Would you like some water or is there anything that I could do to make you feel any better while you wait?”

Justin was about to shake his head ‘no’, but his mom answered for him:

“He’s just a bit cold and the air conditioner isn’t making him any good. Would you mind to turning it off just for a while? I’m boiling, but his fever is making him shiver like crazy”- Pattie said and the receptionist smiled. In fact, the room was freezing.

“Sure, I’ll get it off right away. I’ll almost get a fluffy blanket for this poor baby; how would that be?”

“Thank you”- Justin said his first word since he got there.

He carefully took his seat, still very uncomfortable, in one of the big colorful chairs of the waiting room. When Pattie sat down beside him, he was quick to lay his head on her shoulder. She rubbed his arm and tried to soothe him with a few encouraging words. He was shaking, not sure if it was from the fever or because he was scared to death, at this point. An instant later, the same kind receptionist laid a baby blue furry blanket over his shoulders, and he almost feel asleep waiting, still in his mother’s arms.

He wasn’t sure how much time had passed, but he opened his eyes and saw a smiling blond nurse right in front of her. She called his name and motioned for him to follow her down the hall, despite Justin already knowing the way.

“Can my mom go with me?”- he asked, feeling shy about his own request. He really wanted them to respect him as the famous heart-throb Justin Bieber, but his real personality couldn’t stay hidden at times like this.

“Of course, honey”- she said. Everyone that worked there was more than used to Justin being a patient, so he didn’t have to do or say much. Every person in that office was familiar to him and always made sure to make him as comfortable as they could, aware of his uneasiness when it came to doctor’s appointments.

After walking a few steps, the nurse pointed to the exam room on his right and said with a smile:

“You have to remove all your clothing, alright honey? Even your underwear and socks, but I left a little gown right here for you. As you’re so cold, you can put the gown and put your hoodie back on top of it, okay? Dr. Laura will be with you in a minute. I hope you feel better soon, darling”- then she left, closing the door behind her.

Pattie sat on the armchair beside the exam table as Justin slowly began to remove his matching sweats set, messily folding, and handing them to his mother. He shivered slightly and his face flushed, but he was glad she wasn’t looking at his naked body. Doing his best to cover his backside with the gown, he slipped back his hoodie and finally sat down on the edge of the white paper-covered table.

“Look who’s here, my favorite patient of all times”- Dr. Laura said, not even a minute after he settled down, right as she walked in the room, followed by the same nurse who took him there before- “How was your tour, honey? It’s been a while, huh?”

She rubbed his shoulder and tried to make him comfier as he replied a quiet: “The is nice”. Dr. Laura knew it took a while for Justin to let her touch him, so she just tried to get him to talk a bit more.

“I bet it’s nice, I would like to travel around the world too. Maybe you could take me, huh?”- she asked, and he giggled- “Oh, you wouldn’t always want a doctor with you, huh? You would just leave me here”.

“I wouldn’t take you”- he laughed, and Dr. Laura followed, loving his honest.

“Justin!”- Pattie giggled but tried to reprehend him, not believing he would say that to the doctor.

“It’s alright, Pattie. I get it, I’m a doctor after all. But I’m your favorite, right Justin?”

Justin giggled but he moved a little, which cause him to whimper in pain, his bottom hole burning once again. Dr. Laura frowned.

“Alright, let’s just check his poor boy already and get him all better”- the doctor said, rubbing his knee with a sympathetic smile- “This is nurse Carla, she will be assisting me today, okay? I think you know her already. I’ll just quickly check you out and then we can take a look of your tush, okay?”

Slipping some blue gloves on, Dr. Laura began by taking his temperature. She always liked to get rectal temperatures but since he was in that much pain, she opted for the oral thermometer. After saying that he was running a 102.5 °F fever, she proceeded into checking his blood pressure. She wrapped up the quick examination by checking his throat, eyes, nose, and ears and then quickly listened to his heart, lungs and back.

“Lie down flat for me, sweetie, please”- Justin stretched out very carefully not to put any weight on his bottom, but stull caused the white paper on the exam table to wrinkle under his weight. Dr. Laura slowly palpitated all over Justin’s abdomen, but heard a little “ouch” back when her hand poked around his pubic bone- “Does it hurt here, honey?”

He nodded his head and shifted a little bit, uncomfortable by the pressure her hand was making on his crampy belly.

“Stay still, Justin”- his mom said, but he was getting a little overwhelmed with the palpitations- “Justin, stop moving, darling”.

“It’s okay, he’s a little tender on the lower stomach, definitely constipated”- Dr. Laura said and, once again, Justin blushed- “How long since your last bowel movement, Justin?”

“I don’t know”.

“Alright, now I will need you to roll over onto your belly. Lay your head on the pillow and your momma can walk over and hold your hand. I need to take a look at your bum and check it with my finger, okay?”

A sudden overwhelming feeling took a toll of Justin’s whole body and he felt so nervous his stomach heaved. His anxiety made his head pound as he took a few shaky breaths and Dr. Laura sensed his fear.

“No, please. I don’t want to”.

“Honey, how am I supposed to help you if I don’t know what am I dealing with? Lay down, I won’t hurt you, I promise”.

“No, please”.

“Honey, what do you want me to do then? I need to examine you. I won’t touch it, okay?

Can I just look? - she asked but he wasn’t quite sure if he would believe- “Just going to part your buttocks and take a look, if I need to touch you, I will let you know and absolutely won’t do it until you say so, alright?”

He just nodded and slowly placed himself down, turning quietly onto his belly. His mom made her way to the right side of the table and quickly wrapped her hand around his. When Justin looked up at her, Pattie melted looking at his teary eyes.

“Just a little bit, okay? You’ll be just fine, baby”- Pattie said, rubbing his head after kissing his forehead.

Nurse Carla positioned herself after slipping on some blue medical gloves. When Dr. Laura nodded her head, the nurse gently grabbed both of Justin’s cheeks and parted them slowly. But, even with that minimal touch, Justin yelped out in pain and discomfort.

“I’ll be quick, honey”- Dr. Laura said, illuminating Justin’s rectum with a small pen like device. She could immediately see that he was all infected, probably by a bacteria- “I see. He definitely didn’t get hurt by a suppository insertion or the enemas that he took. This is a bacterial infection; I’ve seen flare ups like this one”.

“How did he get this? And how do we treat it?”- Pattie asked, a little more worried now. Justin looked frightened, but his mom just smiled and kissed his head, a silent way to tell him that he would be just fine.

“Are you done yet?”- he asked the doctor, impatient for the nurse to stop touching him. Having his butt open like that, not only made him extremely embarrassed, but it caused him more discomfort.

“Yes, sorry, hon. Carla, you can let go of him, but close his cheeks very gently. He really must be feeling pain with this infection”.

Justin held his breath as his butt was slowly closed. The contact between his cheeks sent chills all over his body as a dull pain spread quickly.

“Ow, it hurts”- he whimpered, and Dr. Laura frowned, running her gloved hand smoothly in circles over his ass. The nurse soon opened the cabinet across the room and got a white sheet out, and Justin felt much more comfortable when she laid it over his body after lowering his gown.

“Alright, this is definitely a bacterial infection, and it can be treated with an antibiotic. But the problem is that there’s many kinds of bacteria that could cause the same symptoms, to make sure witch medication I should give him, I’ll have to get a swab to send to the lab and get it test it”- Dr. Laura began to explain, looking at Pattie- I’ll just have to insert a small swab inside the rectum and that should be it. It’s usually a very simple test, but, in his situation, he will experience some pain. The good news is that it won’t take me more than a minute to do it”.

“No, no, no”- Justin said, fear rushing all over his body. He was really trying to be brave, but he never felt that much pain before, and he was really not looking forward to having a long Q-tip shoved up his tushy.

“Sh, you’re going to be alright, baby”- Pattie said, kissing his head- “Lay back down, huh? Momma’s here and Dr. Laura will be very careful with you, alright?”

“I don’t want to, please. It hurts too much”- he practically begged, his whole body shivering with angst.

“Honey, I’m sorry, but you’ll really need to let me do the swab test. A bacterial infection is not something to play with as it can turn in to something severe if not medicated correctly”.

“But, please, no”.

“Come on, honey. You’ll be okay, let’s just get it over with, alright? Lay down on your side and I’ll slip a pillow between your legs to make you more comfortable”.

The poor boy started to feel overwhelmed. He looked at his mom, pleadingly but she just nodded her head at him:

“Lay down, Justin. This is for your own good and Dr. Laura doesn’t have the whole day”- she said, a little harsher this time.

Justin swallowed hard and laid back down, his whole body shivering with nerves. Nurse Carla was quick to place a long pillow between both his legs, adjusting his body so he was laying on his side. She gave him another pillow to hug, and Pattie held his hand, trying to ease his fear a little bit.

Meanwhile, Dr. Laura separated what she would need in a small metallic tray. She laid two long swabs, a clear sample tube and a pair of sterile gloves down and silently walked towards Justin, who was already in position.

“Alright, love. Please, stay very still, okay? You may feel a bit of pain because your tushy is very sore and hurt right now, but I’ll do everything very gently and carefully, okay?”- Dr. Laura said, rubbing his back a little bit before slipping her gloves on.

“What are you going to do?”

“I’ll just insert the swab a little bit, only 6 cm centimeters into your rectum and very gently rotate it for a bit around your tushy walls. And that’s it, honey. Just stay still, okay? Tell me if it hurts and I’ll stop”.

Justin nodded slowly and pressed his eyes closed as his mother rubbed his shoulders and whispered encouraging words on his ear. He felt the doctor slowly parting his cheeks but being on his side with the knees up to his chest, helped a lot, so there wasn’t much pain added. He took a deep breath, thinking for a moment, that maybe it wouldn’t be that bad.

Seeing his round inflamed pucker, Dr. Laura took a firm hold of the long swab and very gently placed outside of Justin’s rectum. She barely touched him, but Justin immediately started to sob under her touch. He tried to calm down, but every small inch of the swab going inside him made the pain unbearable.

“Ow, ow. Please, take it out. Ow”- he cried hard, but the doctor couldn’t stop. She just buried the cotton swab on his rectum and watched his red anus swallow the tip as she put a little more force on it to enter him nicely.

“Don’t cry, honey. Just a little more. Deep breaths, okay?”- Dr. Laura started to slowly rotate the swab inside him, making sure to rub all his rectal walls.

“Stop, please. Ow, it hurts. Ow!”- Justin begged. The movement inside him made him grow more and more desperate.

After a minute, the doctor withdrew the swab, placing a small cotton ball just outside his tush, as a bit of blood came out. Even after the test, Justin didn’t calm down one bit, an intense pain making him sob.

“There you go, you did well, honey. This infection of yours is no fun, it hurts, I know. It’s all over, okay? Calm down”- the doctor soothed, placing the swab inside the culture tube- “Carla, can you please drop this at the lab?”

“Sure, I’ll be right back”- she smiled, and quickly excused herself with the test in her hands.

Pattie grew worried. She was more than used to Justin being fussy and crying during examinations, but the intensity of his sobs alarmed her:

“Is it normal to hurt these bad? He didn’t seem to calm down any”- she asked the doctor after another few minutes passed, and Justin’s cries kept the same.

“It’s usually a very simple test, but taking in consideration the gravity of his infection, it should be pretty painful for this poor baby. But he will be just fine in a moment, right honey?”

“Try to calm down, Jus. You’re getting yourself all worked up. Do you want to call Hailey and tell her what’s going on? She sent you a few texts”- Pattie asked, continuing to rub his back after she handled him the phone.

Only hearing Hailey’s name was significant effective for Justin start to calm down. He just wanted her there to keep him company and hold his hand as she used to do. Every time he got sick, she would go to every doctor’s appointment with him, always making sure to calm him down with soothing words and gentle affection.

“Alright, so this is going to happen now. I’ll ask nurse Carla to put an IV in your hand to give you some fluids and some fever reducing medication. I can’t let you go home without me knowing what type of bacteria we’re dealing with because I couldn’t prescribe you any medication, so you’ll stay here until the results from the swab come back from the lab. This usually takes four to five hours, but that’s okay, because the fluid IV take a while and it will also make you very sleepy, which is perfect”- Justin made sure to pay close attention to every word the doctor was saying. He nodded, not wanting to stay there any longer, but having no other option as well.

After a few minutes, nurse Carla was back inside the room. He extended his arm and allowed the nurse to wrap a blue tourniquet around his elbow. The nurse prepared the smallest needle she had, and after disinfecting his tattooed skin with a soaked cotton ball, she very gently pinched his vein. Justin made sure not to look at the needle and hold his mom’s hand tightly, but the pinch didn’t bother him that much. He winced a little bit but made sure to keep still. After taping the IV down and applying a transparent protection, the doctor walked over and injected the medication directly into his blood system.

“Ouch, it burns”- he complained when the milky substance was pushed inside his tiny vein.

“There you go, honey. It just burns a little, but we’re done. I’ll connect you to the fluid bag now”- Dr. Laura smiled down at him after the syringe was all empty and he was fully medicated. She connected his access with the fluid bag hanging by the stretcher and pulled the blanket up to his chin. Not even a little later, Justin’s eyes started to drop, and he became relaxed- “I’m going to talk to your mom outside for a minute, okay honey? Try to get some sleep”.

Dr. Laura motioned the door to Pattie and after kissing her son of the forehead, she followed the doctor out of the room. A nervous feeling took a hold of her whole body, fearing there was something else going on with Justin’s health.

“It’s okay, I just brought you out of the room because I don’t want him to be scared. He is very constipated and even after starting the antibiotic, it would take him about a week to be comfortable enough to go to have a bowel movement. The medication takes a while to kick in and reduce the inflammation. I really can’t let him go another day without pooping”- Dr. Laura started to explain- “Constipation doesn’t seem like a big problem, but keeping the bowel impacted can cause infections, hemorrhoids, bowel incontinence and fecal impaction that could only be solved with surgery. The best treatment for him is going to be an enema and I still need to do a rectal examination with the canula camera, just to make sure this infection is nothing more serious”.

“But he’s crying even from a slight touch. He’s not going to be able to handle an enema or a canula inside”- Pattie pointed the obvious.

“Yes, I know, but it really needs to be done. The only thing I can do for him is apply a little anesthesia to make it bearable. The pain could still be there, but not as strong so we can treat him”.

“You’ll put him to sleep?”

“No, I can’t do that with him running a fever like that. I can give him local anesthesia. It would be just two pinches, but it would make the enema and the exam much more comfortable. But is indeed, very painful and that’s why I just wanted to clear it out with you”.

“Oh God, poor baby”.

“We’ll do everything very slowly and try to keep him as comfortable as we can. But, there’s no another way, unfortunately”.