Once my job became very demanding, I tended to see my then-primary care provider only for sick visits, and for a while saw him approximately annually for sinusitis.
He’d found an antibiotic that worked well for me, so after taking my blood pressure and spending maybe a minute on an ENT exam and some breath sounds, he’d log that order in the system. Normally he’d just fit me into his schedule, for which I was extremely grateful, and our encounter would end after three minutes.
Once, however, I must have been placed into a slot created by a cancellation. After my script was ordered, he noted it’d been more than three years since my last Pap smear and asked if I wanted him to do it. I was surprised but agreed and undressed while he went to pull in his nurse as an observer.
He then proceeded to give me both an abdominal exam I wasn’t expecting (complete with bowel habit questions) and a pelvic. The sinusitis had me sick in bed for a few days with no appetite, so I’d recently taken a few warm water enemas to help with the dehydration and constipation, and I knew my colon must have been completely empty. I remember wondering if he’d notice upon exam, and hoping not, but if so there was no remark and he moved on to the pelvic and Pap.