Sunday, August 21, 2011

Sisterly Love

I'm up in triage last night when what appears to be a nicely dressed, normal young woman walks into my booth- I'm getting my ass handed to me, so I'm not even looking at the tracker before I start asking questions to prepare myself for what these people are checking in for.
The first thing this girl says to me is, " This is so embarrassing", which is never a good start. I then look at my computer screen to see the complaint as "foreign body in vagina", so at that point I kind of cut the formalities and ask her what she's got up there. "A tampon", she tells me. Oh. That's not so weird. I reassure her, as she's obviously mortified. Naw, dude, that's not a big deal. I see that on about a monthly basis. That at least belonged up there at some point, stuff happens.
So, then she continues with, "Oh, that makes me feel better. Yeah. I didn't really want to come up here. My sister made me, though, cause she looked in there and felt around and she couldn't find it, so she said I definitely needed to come to the ER." Uh. WHAT.
That just took it back to weird territory. I mean, maybe I just don't understand because I only have a brother and obviously, that would be even weirder, but for those of you who do have sisters, is it normal for siblings to go digging around in one another's vaginas? Because it seems like it wouldn't be. Please enlighten me on this issue.

19 comments:

  1. Not normal, but I guess if you're desperate? I mean, if it saves an embarrassing trip to the ER? Although, I can't see my sister and I EVER doing that!!!!

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  2. My sister is an OB/GYN and I still wouldn't turn to her to do my vaginal spelunking if I lost something in there.

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  3. I wouldn't do it for my best friend. If I was in a similar situation, I wouldn't let anyone I knew personally, outside of the stirrups, go hunting around down there.

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  4. Wow. I don't have a sister, but I don't think so. I would go to some urgent care or ER in a land very very far away, so I wouldn't see anyone I knew.

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  5. I have three sisters and I have to admit if it came to it, I would ask my sister to do something like that for me. We are very close and I guess very comfortable with each other. Now best friend...NO WAY! but sister is just different for me. Luckily I've never been in that awkward of a situation that required assistance...yet ;)

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  6. oops!!
    just dropped in (at the wrong time?) :P

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  7. I get several a month with those c/o. Weird. What's even stranger and makes me wonder about our educational system, is that they think that the tampon can travel elsewhere as if the vagina is a never-ending tunnel.....

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  8. so was there anything up there>

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  9. My sister and I were really close growing up. I have used her toothbrush and I have chewed gum that she started. But there is no way that I would allow her to look for my tampon. My mother is an LVN, and I wouldn't even let her try it. Ick.

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  10. I agree with Still Dreaming, if I was panicking I'd probably give it a thought. I guess I'd probably ask her to take a look quickly and see if she saw the string, but that's about it (maybe that area would go numb from messing around so much). If she didn't "see" anything then I'd go in to the doc.
    My sister couldn't do a better job digging around for it than I could do myself.

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  11. Uh no, if you can't find it yourself with a mirror and/or your fingers - go to the professionals! Reminds me of the pt. I had who came in for a "lump" after consulting with her best friend and friend's father(!) Yup, she had just found her cervix.

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  12. There is no f***ing way I'd let my sister dig around in my vagina. Get a mirror and see what's going on down there for yourself. Also, I find the comment about cervix girl consulting with her friend and her friend's father ( D: ) to be slightly more disturbing than the sister/tampon-finder blog post...only slightly.

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  13. My sister had no sense of privacy. She offered to show me her stitches after her epesiotomy after she gave birth. Still, I don't think even she would have asked for my help in that situation.

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  14. No, nothing up there. Which I though made it even creepier, especially since she said there was some kind of discharge. Oh, people.

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  15. LOL...No freaking way. Being in the delivery room will be as close as my sister EVER gets to my vagina!

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  16. No. NO. NO!

    I didn't even want my mom and sisters there during the delivery... my husband and two midwives were enough, thank you very much.

    We had a girl in class who volunteered for another student to let her do a pelvic... that was too much as well, in my opinion. :/

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  17. Aside from the fact that I think most women can reach a tampon with their own fingers and squatting (I certainly do), if in a pinch, I wouldn't mind having my husband check. Siblings or friends, no. Not as long as it can be avoided.

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  18. I would have my sister look before I'd go to the ER where god knows what kind of creepy doctor might be working. If I could get in to see my regular doc, that'd be different.

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  19. Oh, and may I also add that this was a multiple day problem. So I think that's a game changer, too.

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