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Old 10-04-2017, 03:03 PM
island101 island101 is offline
 
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Default #7 - Medical in Iraq

About: Amy, 33 years old from New York. She is a reporter and worked as a war correspondent in Iraq and is now covering the rebuilding effort.

Story:
After spending a lot of time in Iraq covering the war and then the rebuilding and humanitarian effort including healthcare, I finally had my own Iraqi medical experience.

Not to get too graphic, but for the past week I had some pain and itching in my “private area.” I thought it would just go away, but instead it got worse. I didn’t want to leave Iraq and go back home to deal with it, so I decided to seek medical care and hopefully some drugs that could do the trick.

I’ve done many stories from a local Iraqi hospital and one of the lead doctors, Dr. Mahmood was a major source of information for me. He gave me full access to the hospital and gave me many great interviews. He’s now more of a friend and I knew he would have access to the meds I need.

I gave him a call and brief description of my problem and he told me to come in. I hadn’t seen him for a long time, so it was great to catch up. He showed me recent pictures of his wife and children. The kids looked older than the last time I saw pictures of them.

After we caught up it was time to get down to business. I gave him more detail about the medical issue I’ve been experiencing. It was a little uncomfortable talking to a male friend about my vagina, but I managed to explain the issue without it being too awkward. I was hoping he would just pull some meds out of his drawer and say, ‘here you go.’ Unfortunately, he told me that there could be a number of issues and that it would be best to get an exam first to be sure of the diagnosis.

I was a little uneasy about getting examined by a man who is my friend, but he’s the head of gynecology at the hospital, so he’s probably the best person for the job in this situation. I’ve been told that doctors can separate their feelings as men, versus their feelings as doctors. He’s probably seen thousands of vaginas, so seeing mine shouldn’t be a big deal.

He pointed to a side door in his office and said it was the door to the exam room. He asked me to take everything off from the waist down and then put on a gown. Before I could get to the door he asked me to stop and wanted to know if I could do him a big favor. He said that his male students sometimes don’t get the proper training they need because most Iraqi females are very modest. Many will not allow themselves to be examined by a male doctor, but he wanted to make sure his male doctors had the proper training, especially for emergency situations. What he was asking was whether I would allow some of his students to observe the exam.

If this had happened back home I would have said hell no, but after covering the rebuilding effort and knowing how hard Dr. Mahmood and others have worked to raise the level of care for Iraqi citizens, and after all the interviews where he helped me obtain information for my stories, I figured it was the least I could do.

I walked into the exam room and closed the door. There was a very plain looking skirt on the exam table for me to put on. I took off my boots, jeans and underwear and slipped on the skirt. It was a little short on my tall frame and only came down about mid-thigh. My bare feet felt cold on the exam room tile. There was a chair in the room and I sat down to wait for the doctor to return.

After a couple minutes, there was a knock at the door and I told the doctor he could enter. Dr. Mahmood walked in the small exam room followed by 4 male and 1 female medical students. The skirt they gave me rid up a little I sat down in the chair and when the doctor and students walked in I instinctively pulled it down towards my knees.

The doctor introduced me to the students as each one shook my hand. I couldn’t help but notice one of the students had a non-stop awkward smile. I nicknamed him Smiley (to myself). The doctor mentioned to the students that we have been friends for many years and that I was an American journalist and wrote a number of articles about their hospital. He told them that I volunteered to help with their education by allowing them to observe my exam. They all thanked me for the opportunity.

Now that the introductions were over it was time to get down to business. The doctor asked me questions about the discomfort I’ve been having. Then he told the students he would have to do an exam to narrow down the likely cause. He motioned for me to get on the exam table.

The table was a standard exam table with stirrups. As I was getting up on the table I could feel the gown ride up, showing most of my upper thighs. Then the doctor asked me to put my feet in the stirrups. As soon as I did that, the short skirt fell to my stomach, exposing me to the doctor and students. The doctor sat on a chair positioned between the stirrups and while looking between my legs asked me to scoot down a little so my butt was at the end of the table.

The doctor gloved up and said he was going to start by identifying the parts of the female anatomy. In Arabic and then English he named each part. Outer labia (then spread my labia), inner labia, clitoral hood (then pulled it back to show them my clitoris), urethra, vagina, perineum, etc. I looked up to see all of the students craning their necks to get the best view, including my new friend Smiley who still couldn’t stop smiling.

Once the anatomy lesson was over the doctor started the exam. He put two fingers in my vagina and pressed down on my stomach while explaining what he was checking for. When that was done he grabbed a speculum and put it inside me and clicked it open. He said this would give a view inside the vagina and a view of the cervix. Then he moved away and invited each student to take a closer look through the speculum so they could see my cervix.

After he took the speculum out of me he mentioned that when examining a woman, it’s sometimes necessary to do a recto-vaginal exam. With this he added lube to his fingers and put one finger in my vagina and one in my rectum while explaining to the students what he was checking for. It was a little painful, causing me to gasp.

After the exam was over he thanked me for helping the students and asked if they had any questions. Smiley asked a question about what the doctor was feeling for during the pelvic exam and the doctor asked him to sit in the chair between my legs, put a glove on and put two fingers in my vagina. He did it, and had that stupid grin on his face the whole time. After digging around clumsily for a while, and discussing with the doctor what he was doing, he finally shook his head like he understood and took his fingers out of me.

After that was over I sat up on the exam table, the students thanked me and left the room. As the doctor was leaving he told me to get dressed and go back into his office.

Once dressed I went to his office and he diagnosed my problem, handed me a prescription and told me I could get it filled downstairs in the pharmacy. He thanked me for helping his students and said it was great to see me again and that I should come to his house for dinner with his wife and family one night. He gave me a quick kiss on the cheek and I was on my way. The meds did the trick and I’m feeling much better now. Despite the embarrassing situation it felt good to contribute to the medical education of students in this country as it continues to rebuild.
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