Hi James, Thanks for your reply.
I’d be pretty certain that there was probably quite a bit of communication between your wife and her medical friend behind the scenes, probably even before your wife even mentioned her deal to you at all, as to how to best handle you and maximise the probability of you agreeing to be a volunteer and to having the examination. In truth I’d actually be more surprised if there hadn’t been considering how keen you said your wife was to get you to sign up for it , and I also suspect there was probably also, as you suspected, a fair bit of discussion between them as to how much, and exactly what information about exactly how everything would need to be done during the examination that it would be wise to tell you beforehand, so as to give them the absolute best chance of convincing you to say yes and not freaking you out with any unpleasant details before you agreed or prior to the day of the examination, which it almost certainly wouldn't have helped you to have known in advance anyway. That way they would also be ensuring you would be a lot more likely to say yes to signing up and allowing all the tests to be done, as if they knew you were going to find parts of the examination unpleasant or uncomfortable they maybe thought it best for you as well as them that you didn’t know or worry about that in advance.
I’d imagine your wife and her medical friend were probably chatting as us girls usually do, when her friend mentioned the study she was doing and how hard she was finding it to get enough suitable male volunteers and maybe explaining to your wife what sort of volunteers she would need and what things she needed the volunteers to be willing to have done.
I’d think after that and maybe a bit more discussion, that your wife then maybe said something along the lines of,
“What about my James, it’s been ages since he’s had a proper thorough medical check up and this would be a great opportunity, but to be honest he probably won't be all that keen to do it as he’s really reluctant and nervous about getting anything medical or uncomfortable done and he's never had anything like this involving his prostate done before either, but maybe if we introduce him slowly and gently to the idea of volunteering, and if I also try and give him the right incentives to persuade him to put his name forward in the form of a deal he will find it hard to refuse, and if we also ensure we both just tell him the basics about what he will need to have done during the examination without too much detail, and don’t overwhelm him with too much information beforehand from either of us about exactly how those things will actually be done during his examination, especially details about anything he might find a bit uncomfortable or embarrassing, then I think I can almost certainly persuade him and get him to sign up for it”.
I’d assume from experience that it probably went pretty much like that to be honest James, with them also discussing and agreeing in advance exactly what you were to be told and not told by either of them before the day of your examination. After that I’d imagine your wife then came to you soon afterwards and told you what she wanted you to agree to do and offered you her deal in return for your agreement.
I’m thinking their discussion very probably went very much like that James as you certainly come across as someone who is probably routinely nervous and apprehensive and reluctant about having anything medical like that done, and your wife would be well aware of that, and quite possibly also saw this as a potential opportunity to get you to finally get checked out medically. I’m sure she did it that way to help you, as it’s quite often best not to know too much about stuff like that in advance and then to spend the time leading up to it worrying yourself silly about it and maybe even allowing the nerves to make you back out of having it done as a result .
I suspect your wife and her medical friend thought you would find any unpleasantness and discomfort much easier to deal with if you only had to deal with it in the moment and didn’t know anything about it until you were actually in the clinic and actually experiencing it as nerves and tension from worry would have you tensed up from the start and you being tensed up like that could have made any discomfort you did experience feel much worse, so that way you’d only have to deal with the actual uncomfortable bit as opposed to also having to also deal with stressing and worrying about it for days or weeks before the examination and also during the start of the examination with you knowing it was coming, dreading it and being all tensed up wondering when the parts you were dreading were coming and then finding that part of the examination even more uncomfortable when it did come time for that to be done as a result of you being so tense. There is also the possibility that if they had told you every detail that there might have been parts of the examination you might have assumed were going to be really uncomfortable which when you didn't have any prior knowledge of, or time to overthink them ended up not being that uncomfortable or unpleasant at all.
If I’m being totally honest with you, I also suspect the optional additional tests you mentioned were probably always on the cards, and your name was probably always pencilled in to have them done as well. I’d be surprised if they weren't also discussed by your wife and her medical friend at their initial discussion about you being a volunteer, but as I’ve suggested above, again they probably felt little steps at a time were best and to concentrate on getting you past the first hurdle and to have already have signed up to have the core examination done first before they mentioned anything extra or optional, again not to panic or have you worrying about it.
I’ve never encountered a nylon cape like that but I do suppose it being a bit water resistant would make sense to have you wear for the sort of procedures you were about to be having done during your examination, where potentially both water and lubricant would be likely to be involved as I assume you were also given a clean out and well lubricated before any of the internal parts of your examination were carried out
Clarissa x