My mother was a hypochondriac! There’s no other way to describe it! Not only pertaining to herself, but as to her children as well. Every time we sneezed, she was making appointments with the family doctor to “see what was ailing us”! Since I lived at home while attending college (free rent), I tolerated this until I graduated from the local university at age 21 and left home.
All through grade school, high school and college, my mother would make appointments for annual “physical exams” for my brother and me. Our family physician was a kindly old gentlemen, a widower in his mid 60’s. He had, as a nurse, a never married lady in her late 30’s or early 40’s, whom I never knew by any other name but “Miss Judy”. I don’t really know if she was an “RN” (Registered Nurse), or not.
Every year, when I went in for my physical, “Doc Smith” would require me to strip nude, then listen to my heart and lungs, probe every conceivable orifice, perform the “hernia” exam (all males know what that entails!), and then check the old prostate gland (another “fun” part of the physical!)
The only part that I really dreaded on a yearly basis, was when he turned me over (still nude) to Miss Judy for a chest X-ray and an EKG. (Electrocardiogram). Miss Judy always said that it was necessary to be nude for an EKG so that there would be no “false readings” on the recording. I never questioned that at the time, because I had no other experiences from which to draw. I still remember vividly, lying there on my back on the exam table, stark naked, sometimes with an erection, while Miss Judy swung the x- ray machine over my chest for the x-ray. Next she would roll the EKG machine over to the left side of the table, then hook up the electrodes to my ankles and wrists. Then she would attach the suction cups to my chest (all the while taking her sweet time) before turning on the EKG machine for what seemed at the time to be an interminable tracing. In actuality, it probably took no more than 20 to 25 minutes for both the chest x-ray and the EKG, but it always seemed like a life time to me, simply because it was so embarrassing to be nude in the presence of Miss Judy!
The last time that Miss Judy saw me in my “birthday suit” was during my senior year in college at age 21 during my last physical exam at “Doc Smith’s”. Subsequent to graduation, I joined the military service where I had EKG exams routinely for service physicals. And you know what ? It was then that I made a interesting discovery! One does not have to be nude for an EKG exam! The service technician (male) said, “Remove your shirt, undershirt, and shoes and socks.”
I said, “You mean I don’t have to undress completely?” He looked at me sort of strangely, and responded, “No, you can leave your pants on!”
That left me wondering why Miss Judy required me to be totally nude for her EKG exams? Was it a subterfuge just so Miss Judy could see her male patients in the nude? Was it only “certain” young male patients whom she required to be nude? Was “Doc Smith” in on the plan? Or was it that they really believed that one should be nude for an EKG exam?
I guess I’ll never know for certain, but I’ve arrived at my own conclusion. I think Miss Judy was just taking advantage of the situation.
This is a true story!