Even though I've already replied to a few posts about having my first rectal/prostate exam at age eleven while visiting the pediatrician for an annual physical, my first rectal exam did happen in the hospital by a doctor I didn't know when I was around six to eight years old. I can't really recall my exact age.
I started having occasional sharp pain that eventually turned persistent in my front lower right side groin area for a few days, before I finally gave in and said something to mom about it, because the increasing discomfort wouldn't go away. After mom asked me how bad it hurt and where the pain was located, she immediately called the pediatrician, which was around 4:30 in the afternoon, and he told her to bring me in. Since his office usually closed at 5:00, mom and I quickly left home to go visit the wonderful Wizard Of Oz. This occurred on a weekday so dad hadn't come home yet from work, which was typically around 5:00.
When mom and I arrived about fifteen minutes later, the nurse and pediatrician immediately brought us into an exam room, because we were the only ones there. Neither the nurse or pediatrician asked me to take anything off, but started asking me specific questions about how long had it hurt, where did it hurt and how bad it hurt. After I'd briefly explained everything, he had me lye back on the table, pulled my tucked in shirt out of the waistband of my jeans, unfastened the belt, unbuttoned my jeans and lowered the fly, so he could slide his hands under the waistband. Within moments he pressed on the exact spot and then he looked at mom, telling her that I urgently need to go to the hospital. Pediatrician made a call to the nearby hospital before mom and I left his office, letting them know we'd be there shortly, would enter through the emergency entrance and once we'd checked in to get me into emergency as soon as possible, informing them what he thought the serious problem might be. Well what a surprise this was turning out to be. At the time after finding out that now I'd be going to the hospital, I was really wishing that I hadn't opened up my mouth and said anything to mom. So now I'm going to the hospital for whatever unknown reason? Isn't this just great!
The hospital was only ten minutes away. After arriving, we entered the emergency entrance, mom checked us in at the receptionist and it wasn't even minute before a female nurse asked us to follow her down the hallway into the emergency ward, where several exam tables were surrounded with privacy curtains. Although there was a vacant table, the nurse didn't have me sit on it, but told mom and I to stand near a wall between a couple of base cabinets for a moment and she'd be right back. Then the nurse exited through a doorway and headed down a hallway out of sight, while other nurses and medical staff were hustling around the area treating other patients as we just stood there off to the side, and I'm wondering what's going on and I'd be pretty sure mom the thinking the same thing too. The nurse returned a minute later with another female nurse and two male medical staff, and they asked mom and I to follow them to another room. So we all leave the emergency ward area, head a short distance down the hallway and step inside a private room. Then it seemed like all hell broke loose real quick.
It was kind of a blur to me because everything started to happen so fast. A few more medical staff entered the room so now there were over a half dozen, all busy going about the room and doing things rapidly. But I was soon told to sit on the side of the table and began being asked all sorts of questions by a couple of male medical staff, before my shirt was taken off, and they listened to my heart, took my blood pressure then had my temperature taken orally. Then I was told to lye back on the table with my legs extended straight, and they started to poke and press my torso, before concentrating on my lower groin area. Then my belt and jeans were unfastened, and another male medical staff standing on the other side of the table pulled my jeans and underwear down to my knees. Mom was still standing in the room off to the side of the wide open doorway, talking to some nurses and other medical staff as some would leave the room and others entered and yes, the door remained wide open so anyone walking down the hallway could easily look inside to see what was happening.
So while I'm laying on the table looking at mom, everyone else is staring at me, and then I see dad step in the doorway and he's looking at me, and I'm sure he's wondering what's going on just like I was. Next thing I know one of the male medical staff tells me he needs to put a finger up my ass and feel around, then someone whether it was a female nurse or another male medical staff, which I can't recall lifts my legs up off the table to at least ninety degrees, and in went his lubricated finger, all while mom, dad, all other medical staff in the room or anyone walking down the hallway and glancing in the room can see this happen. As his finger was slowly swirling around inside my rectum, he's asking me where I felt the most discomfort and of course I told him it was toward my right side lower groin area. After telling him again, since I'd already answered their questions a little earlier, he finally withdrew his finger and a nurse quickly wiped the remaining lubricant from my crack with some tissue. Now there's three or four medical staff talking to my parents while I'm still lying on the table with my pants and underwear lowered down to my knees, and then next thing I know a nurse is sticking a needle in my forearm for an I.V. drip. She then hooked up a clear hose connected to a clear bag filled with clear liquid, and then I'm being told by a male medical staff that I'd be staying in the hospital overnight. Once again, I'm still wondering what's going on and now what for. I could still feel some persistent pain coming from my right side lower groin area, but it certainly wasn't excruciating.
At this point I'm a scared nervous wreck and start to softly cry. The last thing I wanted to do was stay in the hospital and for whatever reason it was I still didn't know. As most of the medical staff began to leave the room, a nurse brought in a wheelchair. I slid down off the table in tears, pulled my pants back up as I was told by her that I was going to be taken to another room. I said to her that I'd just walk there instead of being pushed in a wheelchair, even though I now have an I.V. hooked to my arm, but she insisted that I sit in the wheelchair and she'd take me there. I was then brought to the other private room while my parents followed, my mom being a sad, crying wreck like me, but dad seemed to keep himself together somehow though I could see he was saddened. I guess somebody had to be the strong one and not be a cry baby, and that was him. After we arrived in the room, the nurse instructed me to strip off everything and handed me an open back cloth gown to put on. It was sorta challenging to do so since I had an I.V. hose connected to my arm, but somehow it was able to be done though I can't recall exactly how we did it. Then a couple of male medical staff entered the room, one who I'd assume was my assigned doctor because he finally told me that I was going to be having surgery and would be brought to an operating room very soon to have my appendix removed. Appendix? What's an appendix and what does it do? Now I'm absolutely floored not knowing what to think.
Within three hours after mom and I had arrived at the hospital, I was on the operating table. I later heard my appendix burst after the incision had been made by the doctor. I ended up getting some kind of an infection too, because I had to go back to surgery a day or two afterward to have two rubber drainage tubes put in me through the same incision, and the tubes extended an inch or two out of my body from the opening, which was kept covered with thick white gauze and held in place with clear tape. The dressing had to be changed by a nurse twice a day, once in the morning and once in the evening, and the doctor would pop in the room whenever to take a look for himself at least once daily. What an awkward, extremely weird feeling it was to have those tubes removed several days later. I was wide awake when the doctor slowly pulled tubes out of me, and the only way I can kind of describe the feeling was like my guts were being pulled out of my body through the incision opening. If you know how it feels to suck in your stomach as hard as you possibly can to make your belly look flatter/thinner, imagine doing that with all of your might but times that feeling by thirty. It was extreme discomfort unlike anything I'd ever felt before and much worst than the persistent sharp pain coming from my appendix before it'd been removed. I was practically screaming at the doctor when he was pulling them out, and it was so bad that even the nurse had to leave the room, and made sure to close the door tight behind herself, since it probably sounded like I was being murdered in there. Toward the end of this whole unexpected ordeal, I don't think my doctor liked me much anymore and I didn't like him either, although the last time I saw him I did thank him for saving my life, but honestly I thought his bed side manner sucked. I can still remember his last name but won't share it here. I ended up staying in the hospital for almost two weeks before I was cleared to go home. I likely could've left sooner if I hadn't gotten a stupid infection but one thing for certain, I couldn't wait to get the hell out of there.