Extended well-child and well teen physicals

Boy, 10yo, Russia, Pelvic and lower stomach exam under anesthesia

I am male. It happened in Russia, 1980-1989, 10 years old, Tj, My parents drove me to the exam at a regular hospital.

It happened a selected percentage of the children in my school of the age group.

PREPARATIONS AND ANESTHESIA

I was not allowed to eat some time before the exam. I got laxatives at home to clean out my stomach the day before the exam. I got laxatives to clean out my stomach at the place where the exam took place. I got a traditional enema before the exam to clean out my stomach.

I was given a gown but was naked under the gown in the time I stayed awake.

They placed me upon a simple examination table. I got IVs, tubes into blood vessels, in an arm. I got a tube or wire in through my urethra. I got a tube or sond in through my anus.

I got something to swallow. I got anesthesia through tubes into my blood vessels.

I got some numbing and lubricating cream injected into my urinary opening. I woke up ocationally during the procedure despite anesthesia given.

EXAMINATION WITH EXTERNAL EQUIPMENT

They took x-ray pictures of my hip area, but I do not remember any other external exam.

INTERNAL INSPECTIONS

They inspected the inside of my urethra and bladder with a scope. They inspected my anus with a speculum. They performed a full colonoscopy with a flexible scope.

ARRANGEMENTS AFTER THE PROCEDURE

They held me inconscious for some hours. I had IVs into blood vessels. I had catheter into my bladder. I just lay some time in a bed to recover. Tu. Tr.

THE SCHOOL I ATTENDED

I attended ordinary daytime school.

COMMENTS

This was an examination of all parts of the pelvic zone, the urinary system and lower digestive system of the boy. In some societies all children, or all kids the authorities have some concern for, get an extensive pelvic examination at certain ages.

These exams often begins at a simple exam table. But at some point the kid will be placed in a gynecological position with legs in stirrups to get full acess to the urethra and vagina in girls and the anus in both girls and boys.

Excatly when it happens to a child sems to depend upon the development state of the kid. Most often this happen just before puberty, but for some also at 10 yo.

These examinations are often a part of a more extensive assessment of all parts of the body according to an international standard. This may also have happened to this boy, but he may not remmeber all, or some of the examinations were done at another day.

Despite the frequency of these ordeals, the ordinary public get very little information about them, and both for the kid and the parents it comes at a surprice when the kid is called in. There is litle difference between the former communist block and the western societies regarding these ordeals, which points to an international coordination.

The purpose seem to be surveillance of the young population, early detection of anatomical and functional problems, training of doctors under specialization, research, and harvesting of tissue. Fairly often one detect pelvic health problems both in boys and girls by these assessments, so they are somtimes beneficial. But these ordeals are not done only for the benefit of the individual kids.

These ordeals have a history back to the 19650es, and they happen now more than ever in all parts of the world.

Knut Holt

https://www.mydeltapi.com