Oh, I had so much abdominal trouble and problems in my youth time, so I had so many abdominal exams since my teenaged time I can´t remember and count them. I had to stay at (Childrens) Hospital several times, too, when I also had some surgeries, too (appendectomy and Meckel Diverticle). So, I had those exams so often that I really hated them at all. The abdominal exam was always the main and longest part of all exams and mostly I felt nervous, bad and nausea. I was always very afraid of vomiting during it, because that happened few times to me! I always hoped the doctor would finish soon, but it took always much too much time for me.
To your questions:
>> Is your belly ticklish? Do you wiggle and giggle while your belly is being examined?
No, it´s not ticklish. It´s sensitive, so I wiggled sometimes, too, but I didn´t giggle at all, because most of the part was uncomfortable and sometimes painful, too.
>>What does your doctor say to introduce the abdominal exam?
It was different. Sometimes, they said nothing, sometimes they said that they "must examine my belly now very thoroughly and intensively" and I remember a gastro-enterologist while I stayed at the clinic when I was 15yrs. Before my very first exam by him he took me from the patients room to an exam room and on the way to it he explained me in a very soft voice approximately 20 times, that I needed not be worried, that he only "wanted to feel my tummy" and when we reached the room that he only "wanted to feel my tummy very intensively", so that I got more affraid about it. I didn´t liked that doctor at all, because he was lying, he did a complete full body exam and such an intense exam of my abdomen, that it was so horrible for me. During the abdominal exam he said nothing else, he auscultated first a long time, followed by a percussion everywhere and then he started swirling with the whole hand on it and then palpating everywhere on my tummy with light pressure, and how longer he pressed on my tummy how deeper he pressed. I always hoped that I need not to vomit, because mostly I felt so nausea after a while. And when he stopped poking after a long while he explained to me then that he has "not finished at all" and that he "has to examine my bellybutton now very thoroughly, either, because it´s a complete outie navel" and because I would have "a navel hernia", too. This took always nearly as long time as the abdominal exam before, and it was still more uncomfortable and painful for me! He always inspected my navel closely first, then he swirled and touched on it lightly, when he suddenly tried to poke and press it inside with hard pressure few times! Then he squeezed my navel between his fingers for a while, what was hurting me still more and in the end he tried to pull my navel more out as far as possible few times, too, what was hurting me most. I was always oughing then, but he only said "that must be" and "there is no discussion, the way your navel looks like!" I always hoped that I need not to see that doctor again, but I had to see him regularly few times a year until I was 18.
>>Does your doctor comment on what he/she is feeling, hearing or doing while examining your abdomen?
They didn´t tell, what they felt, they often said, that they were not content about my abdomen and also about my outie bellybutton. I remember that they sometimes talked about if I must have surgery of the appendix and of my navel, too, at the clinic, and I always hoped that I need not come into the clinic again.
>>Ever had a doctor comment on a tatoo or piercing or tell you that you had a nice or fit belly during the abdominal exam?
No, I don´t have any piercings and tatoos. But doctors always comment on my uncountably many and conspicuous looking moles I have (everywhere on my whole body and) on my abdomen and they mostly examined and comment on my conspicuous outie bellybutton and navel hernia, too!