After what felt like miles of corridor the nurse stopped outside a door, pushed it open and ordered me inside with the instruction “There’s a gown in there, take everything off, put the gown on then go out the other door”.
“What?” I squeaked “Everything?”.
“Yes, everything now get a move on!”
“But I’m only having my knees looked at, why?”
“Just do as you’re told, please.”
Now very unhappy I locked myself in the cubicle and stripped to my skin to put on one of those lovely hospital gowns that leave your arse bare for all the world to see. I’d hardly got the beastly thing on when there was a rap on the other door and the nurse’s voice demanded to know if I was ready yet.
Clutching the gown closed behind me I opened the door to be led off to the X-Ray department. Even though we had annual chest x-rays at school, courtesy of a mobile unit, one was taken anyway, standard procedure in those days. If you were in an x-ray department you got a chest x-ray taken as well as the ones you were actually there for.
That out of the way I spent the next half an hour having both legs bent into almost impossible positions then x-rayed from assorted angles. By the time I was allowed to get off the table I could barely walk, I wanted my Mum so badly just then.
After a long wait while the Radiographer checked that all the films were OK I was collected by the nurse and led off to another waiting room to sit and wait to see the Consultant.
Just to add to my woes I was expected to carry the huge pile of x-rays, it wouldn’t do for a lady, the nurse, to carry anything while there was a boy available for the task now would it? Needing two hands for the task I could no longer protect my dignity by holding the gown closed.
In retrospect it’s quite funny that at 15 I should have been so coy about anyone seeing my bottom, a couple of years into the future and I’d be cheerfully showing it off all over Sussex, Surrey and Hampshire much to the delight of quite a few men.
Looking round I couldn’t help but notice that I was the only one in such an advanced state of undress and that I was also the youngest person in the room by a very long way.
I suppose I should have been grateful that I was being seen in an adult clinic, if I’d been treated as a paediatric case, which would normally have happened at just 15, I’d have probably found myself wearing a gown with teddy bears printed on it.
Small mercies, Malcolm, always be thankful for small mercies.
Love
I’ve gotten those knee x-rays well, having your knees fucked up and then bending them into these impossible positions was goddamn painful and gruesome. Thank god i didn’t have to waer such a gown.
love!
Yeah, those knee investigations are much worse than all the operations I’ve had on them afterwards.
Those gowns were the standard thing (and still are really) but somewhen in the 70s it became normal for patients to be allowed to keep their underwear on rather than being forced to tramp around the hospital bare-arsed. Of course when I was 15 nobody gave a damn’ about boys’ feelings over things like that, we just did as we were told and if that meant strip, we stripped. Fun days!
Love
Mac
I see you have the same uncaring nurses as we have here in the states. It must be really painful to them to treat the patients with some respect and common courtesy, because you rarely see either here very often. They do know how to make the patients feel like cattle being led to slaughter though.
I would like to meet the guy who designed the hospital gowns too so I could give him some tips that would make them offer a little more privacy for the wearer.
While I am on a medical subject I wish the Doctor and Nurse would shut the door in the examination room when I am sitting there in my underwear. Being a modest person I do not appreciate being exposed to other patients when they walk by the room.
Sorry for the ranting reply today.
I hope you are having a good day. Love and hugs, JR
Hi JR
I just love it when you have a bit of a rant, it makes me feel I’m making a good point along the way.
It has to be remembered that the experiences I’m talking about where a long time ago and back then a boy could expect little or no respect for dignity in any situation. When I was in primary school all of us boys had to line up for our annual medical in just our underpants, girls got to stay fully dressed until they actually went in to see the doctor. Naturally the girls all thought it was hilarious, we didn’t!
Over here most hospitals now have gowns that are designed to offer much greater privacy but there’s still that unmistakable feeling that nobody really cares about your dignity or feelings.
I know just what you mean about leaving doors open, it’s happened to me a lot in the past. I’m very lucky now, my GP actually locks the door if he needs to examine me in any detail, something I genuinely appreciate.
Love
Mac
You’re quite right, Malcolm, that any patient who possibly can is asked to carry their own x-rays – the theory being that then they cannot get mixed up. Even a scheming 15 year old wasn’t seriously likely to try to swap his x-rays with anyone else because even he would have realised the greater embarrassment of getting caught!
You realise, of course, that those hospital gowns were specifically designed to allow digital rectal examinations!
Micky
At Charing Cross, where I was a SRN student in the 70s, we very rarely allowed patients to carry X-Rays, it was usually done by a nurse, a male nurse if available of course, but that theory was applied in many hospitals.
Scheming 15 year old? That sounds like a pretty accurate description of me back then but I think a prank like that might have backfired quite dramatically.
Well, if that was the purpose of the design then it was certainly put to good use by an unseemly number of doctors when I was a child and a teenager. Thankfully the orthopaedic consultant didn’t go quite that far, even I’d have questioned his need to do that.
Love
Malcolm
I’m telling you; I’m so pleased I never have been asked to dress up in one of those gowns. If not hospital visits are horrible as it is! The guy who came up with them would be forced to wear them 24/7. Pink gowns, with yellow rabbits on.
If you’re there to xray your knee, why fully strip?? Your knees ARE located on your legs, right??
Beside a few school exams all my visits has been more or less clothed thank God. I never have been asked to undress more than needed for the exam itself.
Love
Daniel
Daniel
From my childhood and teens I can’t remember very many doctor visits when my clothes actually stayed on and I had a lot of doctor visits. I prefer to think that there was nothing sinister going on but it does seem a bit odd when you think about.
Those were my feeling exactly, my knees are down there! Why the hell do you need to see any other bits of me?
Doctors, especially hospital consultants, occupied a place similar to teachers and parents, they expected and were mostly given absolute obedience and respect, calling them Sir seemed quite natural to a child.
If I’d had to have surgery then, at 15, I’d have been put on a children’s ward and probably would have ended up wearing a gown with bunnies or teddies on it, imagine my reaction to that.
Love
Malcolm
Hi Mac
I’m happy to see that you’re blog is doing so well. And I’m even happier to see that you’re feeling better and life is like a bowl of vanilla ice cream with chocolate syrup on top.
{{hugs}}
Andy
Andy
Life is going pretty well at the moment thanks. I’ve got to say you’re sounding pretty upbeat yourself at the moment.
Love
Mac
Hello Mac. Wonderful day to you. I have to tell you one of the hardest things is to put one of those gowns on a PT in the ICUs. The sleeves have four snaps and then it is one big sheet. So if the sleeves are not snapped, you have to figure out what is the top, what is sleeves and then lift an arm, shimmy the part under the arm while making sure it is right side out and then try to line up the snaps. Doing all this with out pulling out any lines, tubes or the pressure cuff, and the heart lines also. So you have all these lines sticking out between the snaps. I have seen people do them backward so the bottom of one part is hooked to the top of the other. Even then the gowns mostly don’t cover anything. Every time we roll a PT, get them up , move them in any way for anything, their dignity is shot to heck. If they are not conscious then it is not too bad but some times the older ladies who are awake get really embarrassed. For us working there it is normal and even though we always try to remember to give the PT cover for their sake, we become numb to the sight of everyones private parts. We deal with all those parts so much they are just normal parts to us, with no mystery.
We have rolling X-ray machines that come right to the rooms and they can get any type of shot we need right there. Every time we put in a tube or line we need a shot stat.
Many hugs and warm thoughts.
Scottie
Scottie
I do know that most nurses these days are a great deal more sensitive to patients’ feelings but back then kids weren’t people, they were just there to be ordered around and if that meant a loss of dignity that wasn’t important.
Things have improved a lot over the years and I’m only ever asked to bare all if an investigation actually requires it.
Love
Mac