It had been five days since my second visit to Village Pediatrics. After much monitoring by Katie and Liz, my fever had finally broken on Friday, and I started to feel better. Mom got home on Saturday, and Katie gave her a detailed, albeit lightly edited, summary of the week’s events. Things were getting back to normal, except for Katie’s and my budding (if still somewhat hesitant) romantic interest in each other.

Mom, Liz and I were having dinner Monday evening when Mom dropped a little bombshell."

Jill from the doctor’s office called this afternoon. She wanted to know how you’re doing,” Mom said with a little smile. “We agreed that I should bring you in for a check-up, to make sure your strep is completely gone. I’ve already taken tomorrow afternoon off, so I went ahead and scheduled it for 3:00.”

I was caught completely off-guard by this development and wasn’t really sure what to think. Honestly, I didn’t mind going back to Village Pediatrics. On the contrary, memories of my experiences with Jill and Debra the previous week had been translated into rather lurid daydreams in my teenage mind. And the idea of my mother taking me in for another exam seemed somehow strangely titillating. On the other hand, I knew that I was too old for the pediatrician’s and was embarrassed about my infantile fantasies. So, I tried half-heartedly to resist.

“Um… Mom, don’t you think we should wait until I start with a new doctor, especially now that I’m 18?” I suggested. “I’m really feeling fine. Honest.” What I neglected to mention was that my left ear had been sore ever since swimming in the local creek with my friends the day before. The pain was not that bad, but it did seem to be getting a bit worse. I knew I shouldn’t have gone swimming and definitely didn’t want Mom to find out about it.

But Mom’s decision was already taken, and there was no point in arguing. Liz smiled coyly, almost as if she had a little secret. We finished dinner in silence. After the dishes were done, Liz immediately went on the phone and chattered quietly.

So, the next afternoon, I found myself again in the waiting room of Village Pediatrics, this time accompanied by Mom. The practice was not as busy as the prior week, and I was acutely conscious once again of the fact that I seemed to be the only patient over 12 years old. I sat down several seats away, hoping no one would notice I was with my mother. My discomfort increased when Mom’s friend from church, Julie Porter, arrived. After checking in, she sat down next to Mom, and they started talking.

Mrs. Porter was about 35, and I had always found her extremely attractive. In fact, I often fantasized about her even though (or maybe because) she was married. I knew she was pregnant with her first child. But although her breasts had become larger in the past few months (of course, I had noticed that!), the bulge lower down under her blouse was still more like a small bump. I overheard her explain to Mom that she was having an initial consultation with Doctor Walker at the recommendation of her obstetrician, to see what she should prepare before the baby was born. Mom told her about how I was recovering from strep and that she was bringing me in for a check-up. She gave more details about my fever than I would have preferred, but fortunately didn’t mention how my temperature had been taken. I was relieved when the conversation finally moved on to something about planning an upcoming potluck dinner for the church.

A few minutes later the door leading back to the exam area opened. My heart skipped a beat when Debra appeared and called me back. She was dressed in scrubs again and had a stethoscope dangling from around her neck. Mom was still talking with Mrs. Porter and said she would join me in a few minutes. Debra informed her we would be in room 4.

“Jill is tied up and asked me to take care of your preliminaries, Luke,” Debra announced in a friendly yet rather authoritative voice when we got into the exam room. Although, like me, she was just 18 and had only started her internship a few weeks before, she was clearly comfortable in her role as a nursing assistant. I could sense from her tone that she was again enjoying being in charge of me. “You’ll need to strip down to your underpants,” she continued in her slightly bossy voice.

Once I had undressed, climbed up and seated myself on the side of the exam table in my briefs, Debra proceeded with my vitals. She began with my pulse, which of course was elevated. Next came my blood pressure. Just as Jill had done the previous week, Debra took my right hand and lodged it under her left arm so she could wrap the cuff using both her hands. The palm of my trapped hand pressed against the side of her warm, pert breast, causing an immediate reaction in my loin.

Then she did something that sent my hormones into overdrive. As she inflated the cuff, she turned her body slightly to the left so that my hand slipped and came to rest in full contact with her breast. I realized she wasn’t wearing a bra and could feel her nipple pressing against my palm. The effect on me was an immediate explosion of my erection, which pressed hard against the confines of my briefs. Debra acted oblivious to my reaction, her eyes focused on the dial of the blood pressure cuff, but she had to be aware of she was doing.

Next came the moment I had been both anticipating and dreading.

“I need to take your temperature now, Luke,” she began, a small smile creeping into her face.

“Normally, for someone of your age I would get an oral reading,” Debra went on in her rather condescending tone, pausing for effect as she stared me in the eye. “So, I could try it that way if you REALLY want me to,” she continued, emphasising the word “really” and pausing again to let her message sink in. “On the other hand, your chart has only rectal readings, and I remember Liz said that you get it that way at home. Rectal measurements are more accurate, especially for boys who don’t necessarily want to have to keep the thermometer under their tongue. So, shall we stick with the same method?”

I was so flabbergasted by the question that I didn’t know what to say. I felt the blood rising in my cheeks as I once again grappled with all the conflicting emotions in my head. On one hand, I was ashamed that one of my former classmates was treating me as if I were a little boy. On the other hand, I was so aroused by the intimacy of the moment and the prospect of having Debra take my temperature again that I found myself unable to resist her suggestion.

Correctly interpreting my silence as acquiescence, Debra smiled and instructed me to take off my underpants and lie down on my tummy. I hopped down and pulled off my shorts, doing my best to hide my now obvious erection. Debra kept her professional demeanour, but she was obviously enjoying seeing me naked since she flushed slightly, and I could see her nipples protruding through her blouse. I used the stool to climb back up and lay face down with my feet pointing toward the door.

I watched as Debra withdrew a thermometer from the “R” jar, shook it down, and applied Vaseline to the tip before turning around to face me, that smile still planted on her face. She gently spread my cheeks, pausing for just a moment before plunging the thermometer into my rectum. I got tingles all over as I felt the cold glass being pushed deep inside. And, of course, my erection got even harder.

“There, how does that feel?” Debra asked in a sweet voice as she moved the thermometer in out a few times before cupping my butt and holding the instrument firmly in place between her fingers. “It’s not so bad, is it?”

Before I could answer, there was a knock, and the door opened. I couldn’t see from my vantage point but heard one of the other nurses talk with some urgency in her voice.

"Deb, Jill needs some immediate help with some stitches in room 1,” the nurse announced. “I’m tied up handling a nosebleed in 6. Can you give her a hand for five minutes?”

Debra immediately agreed and instructed me to lie still until she came back.

It was only after she was gone and I started to hear noises from the hallway that I came to a startling realization: in her rush to go help, Debra had left the door to the exam room wide open. My naked body, with a thermometer protruding from my bottom, was visible to anyone in the corridor, and I was powerless to do anything about it. I thought I heard whispers and a few giggles as people walked by and tried to bury my face as the minutes slipped by.

After a while, I could hear Mom and Mrs. Porter still talking away as they came down the hall toward my exam room. They stopped in front of the door, and there was a pause in the conversation. It was Mrs. Porter who broke the short silence.

“I see someone is getting his temperature checked!” she observed lightly. From my position, I couldn’t see her, but I sensed her smile and could almost feel her eyes trained on my bare backside. “Do you still take it in his bottom at home?”

Mom explained that she had switched Liz to oral temps before we had been teenagers but that I had always been more comfortable having mine taken rectally. And since it was anyway more accurate that way, she hadn’t bothered changing.

“I was planning to try oral next time he got sick,” Mom said as she finished her explanation. “But it looks like the nurse thinks that it’s still better to use the baby thermometer!”

My erection pressed into the paper, and I don’t think I had ever felt more humiliated in my life.

“I’ve never taken anybody’s temperature like that,” Mrs. Porter said. “I guess I’m going to have to learn before this little guy arrives!”, she continued, patting her slightly swollen abdomen.

“Why don’t you come over later before dinner? We can finish planning the potluck, and I’ll give you a few pointers.”

“Oh, that would be great! See you in a few hours then,” Mrs. Porter said as she headed down the hall toward Doctor Walker’s office.

Debra reappeared just as Mom was coming into the exam room.

“Oh, hi, Mrs. Williams!” she said as she entered without closing the door. “Jill is finishing with another patient and should be here shortly for the exam. In the meantime, I was just getting Luke’s vitals. We decided that I’d better take his temperature rectally for more accuracy, didn’t we, Luke?” she stated more than asked, with that smug grin back on her face indicating she knew who was in charge.

Debra pulled the thermometer from my rectum, wiped it with a tissue and held it up to read it.

“Hmmm. Looks like you’re running a slight temperature again, Luke. It’s 100.5. How are you feeling?” she asked as she rinsed the thermometer and placed it back in the “R” jar.

“Um, OK,” was all I could muster. The dull ache in my left ear was still there. But it didn’t seem serious, and I didn’t want to raise the issue with Mom there.

“OK. Well, Jill will want to look into that. You can sit up now,” Debra said as she turned and started making some notes in my chart.

My erection had only partially abated by then, but I figured it would look strange to stay lying down after Debra’s instruction. So, doing my best not to face Mom, I pushed myself up and swung my legs over the side of the exam table. Debra finished her notes and turned back around to face me, her eyes darting down quickly at my swollen penis. I thought I perceived a flash of color in her face, but she kept her composure, wished us a nice day and left.

There was a long silence after she left, since I didn’t want Mom to see my erection and focused my mind on willing it down.

A few minutes later Jill came in, dressed in her usual scrubs with the stethoscope around her neck, and greeted us both. I found her just as attractive as the week before, which didn’t help my mental state. I could see the outline of her bra under her cartoon blouse as she turned to face the counter, and I was reminded of the previous week’s exam. She had a quick look at my chart and frowned.

“Hmmm, rectal temperature of 100.5. That’s a low-grade fever,” she said, apparently unfazed that I had once again had my temperature taken in my rectum and was seated totally naked on the exam table in front of her. I guess she must have seen that a lot with the smaller kids, but it still felt weird to me, given my age.

“Let’s look you over,” Jill proposed.

She took the stethoscope from around her neck and started to auscultate my chest. I wondered if she could hear my heart pounding. Then she reached around back and asked me to take a deep breath as she listened to my lungs. She was now so close that her breast pressed against my body, and I could smell her perfume. I inhaled while trying desperately to avoid staring at her as she examined me.

“Your lungs don’t sound congested, so that’s good!” she said brightly. She then proceeded to palpate under my jaw and look at my throat. To my relief, she expressed satisfaction that there was so more sign of strep. My apprehension returned, however, when she picked up the otoscope and added, “I need to have a look at your ears.

”Everything was normal on the right side, but I winced slightly when Jill took hold of my left ear and inserted the tip of the instrument.

“Uh oh, this looks a bit red in here,” she said ominously. “And I see that it’s a bit sensitive. It might be nothing, but it could be the early stages of an infection. How long has it been sore?”

I was forced to admit that it had started shortly after my outing to the creek two days before with my friends. But I insisted that it didn’t hurt that much and wasn’t really serious.

“Well, it seems serious enough to cause a low-grade fever,” Jill chided me. “Your body is still vulnerable from the bout of strep, so I’d suggest you take it easy for a few days. No more swim parties!”

She then turned to Mom and continued as if I wasn’t there. “I don’t think it warrants antibiotics at this stage, but it’s worth monitoring. You should take his temperature three times a day. If it spikes or the pain doesn’t abate in the next few days, then call us and we’ll get him in for another appointment.”

Mom agreed and said she’d keep a close eye on me.

I was a bit annoyed at being treated in such a childlike way. But at the same time, I was glad that at least Jill didn’t have me lie down for an abdominal exam like she had the previous week. I was thus spared the indignity of having my still somewhat aroused penis on full display to my mother.

After Jill left, I hopped down from the exam table and dressed as quickly as I could. There was a gooey spot on the paper where I had been sitting, and I could still feel the Vaseline squishing around my backside as we walked out to the car.

The drive home was uneventful. To my surprise, Mom didn’t scold me for my admittedly reckless behavior of swimming in a cold creek so soon after being sick. So, I started to relax a bit, blissfully oblivious of what was to come my way in the following few days.