Your Doctor has scheduled you for testing at the clinic for women.

Your check-in to the clinic will be at 8:00 AM the first morning after your menstrual period begins as instructed by your doctor.

Special Note: Please be sure you drink at least 24 ounces of water before you report to the clinic and refrain from urinating before being checked in to the clinic. Be sure to also limit your breakfast to clear fruit juice, tea, and/or coffee.
 

 

INITIAL EXAM

Upon arrival you will be taken to an exam room by a nurse for an initial physical exam. In the exam room you will be instructed to disrobe and put on a hospital gown. You will then be placed on an exam table and your legs placed in the stirrups. Your legs will be strapped in the stirrups and a strap will be placed around your chest and arms to insure your safety should you be startled by a cold or unfamiliar instrument. You will then be asked to urinate in a specimen container which the nurse will hold for you. If you cannot urinate at this time a specimen will be collected later. It is important to get this specimen to verify that you are not pregnant even though your period has started. Next the nurse will administer a 4 ounce mineral oil enema to prepare you for a rectal exam. After the enema is administered the nurse will insert a device similar to a tampon in your rectum to help retain the enema.

After you have been prepped, the Doctor will arrive to examine you. Your exam will begin with a routine pelvic exam, a PAP smear, and a visual exam of you vagina and cervix by the use of a speculum. While your vagina is dilated with the speculum it will be irrigated and suctioned out. Next the Doctor will insert a small cup-like device made of rubber called a “Keeper”* into your vagina. The cup fits around your cervix and will catch your menstrual flow. This device will eliminate the need for tampons or pads during your visit and provide laboratory samples. Your nurse will remove the keeper for samples and cleaning on a regular basis. Next the Doctor will remove the retention device from your rectum and you will be instructed to empty your bowels into a bedpan. The Doctor will then insert a gloved finger in your rectum to examine it. After your initial exam is completed your nurse will take you to your room. (more…)

I have just had a rather wonderful experience.

For some years now, I have experienced bleeding during bowel movements. It is less likely to occur when I have had an enema, probably because there is less effort involved in evacuating.

My doctor has attributed it to hemorrhoids, which is quite likely given my genetic makeup. But recently it became more severe, and the doctor’s digital test showed internal bleeding also. So, she prescribed a colonoscopy.

A year ago, I had undergone an endoscopy to determine the cause of severe heartburn. That turned out to be a hiatus hernia (I knew that was likely, but the doctor wanted to be sure).

In that experience, I was prepared with a venous drip, which the nurse assured me was only dextrose, but which would make way for other drugs when I needed them. I asked what drugs they had in mind, and was told that there would be drugs to relax my throat muscles, and also to erase memory of the experience afterwards. It was therefore no terrible surprise to me to find myself in the same room where I had started, sort of half wondering why they had brought me back there without having done anything in the room into which I had been wheeled earlier. Suspicions were confirmed when the physician joined me and my significant other and informed me that the problem was, indeed, an inflamed hiatus hernia, which he would prescribe medication for (it didn’t work). (more…)