“All right, Joan, I’m going to examine your left breast now. You’re doing just fine.” The doctor performed his thorough maneuvers on her other breast, following the protocol as before, again covering every inch of her flesh with his professional touch. Since each breast felt slightly differently, it was impossible not to pay total attention, and it was like going down a new highway in your car and being careful to note the landmarks. And it was as riveting for Joan also. She analyzed Doctor Welch’s technique, the way his fingers searched her tissues and manipulated her breast flesh. It wasn’t a massage or foreplay -- this was an examination, and she was acutely aware of the difference. This time she was more interested in watching his hands as he examined her, fascinated by the way it looked as his fingers disappeared deep into her. She was both an observer and the object, and she enjoyed the distinctions between the two states. When he had finally reached her left nipple, his fingers were as adept as any real doctor’s and she was completely sure that she was in the hands of a good playdoc. Two squeezes later and he was through with this part of the exam. “Very good. You can put the vest on again if you’d like, Joan.” He jotted down a few more notes as Joan pulled on the paper vest again and closed it loosely over her naked breasts. An important part of the playexam was the repeated patient exposure; although one of his other patients had wanted to be completely nude during the entire exam, Joan indicated that she wanted to cover back up when possible and have to re-reveal as necessary. Doctor Welch heard the crinkling of the vest and he looked up at her again.
“Okay, Joan. I’d like for you to lie back on the table and I’ll examine your breasts again in that position.”
He watched as his patient swung her legs up on to the table, holding the drape tightly around her waist with one hand and the vest closed with the other, and lay back. This time Doctor Welch delicately opened the crinkly paper top to expose Joan’s breasts again. In the supine position they were now slightly flattened but still quite rounded, due to their size. “Joan, would you put your right arm up and behind your head, please? This makes it easier to feel all the underlying structures and muscles as I examine your breasts.”
She followed the doctor’s instructions, the paper vest crinkling as she moved, trying to relax as she lay there bare to the waist in front of the doctor. Being prone on the table signified the beginning of the second phase of the exam; she felt slightly more passive not sitting up anymore, but it wasn’t unpleasant. She was more aware of her nakedness now. Possibly seeing her legs sticking out from beneath the bottom of the towel/drape reminded her that she was indeed nude beneath it and that soon it would be removed, too. Perhaps it was the sight of her bare breasts and her uncovered abdomen that made her feel more exposed. She definitely felt different, but for now there was the rest of the breast exam to concentrate on.
Doctor Welch began his exam on her right breast with the same motions as before, but in this position her breasts were situated differently and when he pushed down he could feel the chest wall beneath the flesh. Although he had only a few moments before examined this same breast, it felt like a new world now, and it was fascinating. Again, he noted the difference between this large breast and the smaller ones he had probed before. Even in this position the large breasts were more unknowable to his fingers.
“Joan, do you perform self-exams every month?” he asked as he continued his circular patterns. “With larger breasts it’s very important.”
“Yes, Doctor, I do,” Joan replied calmly, looking down at the doctor’s hands as they moved over her bare breast.
“And you need to do it both sitting up and lying back like this,” he reminded her as his fingers made their way over her flesh in small circles.
“Yes, I definitely will,” Joan promised. Then they fell silent again as the doctor’s examination continued, finally ending again with another squeeze of her still erect nipple.
“Good. And we’ll be sure to set you up with a mammogram, of course. Now, let’s examine your left breast. If you could put your left arm up, please,” he requested.
Joan lowered her right arm and raised the left in the same way; in a moment she was being examined again, her left breast palpated and probed in Doctor Welch’s thorough manner. She had to admit that this examination was going strictly according to all the instructions she had ever read about a proper clinical breast exam, and she was impressed with Welch’s knowledge and technique. Had their been hesitation on his part, or a perceived lack of serious intent, or a hurried-over detail, some of the realism of this encounter would be lost, but there was no concern of that happening. This playdoctor took his roleplaying seriously.
Doctor Welch was also quite impressed with his patient. Though she was probably nervous on some level, she was cooperative, interested, totally immersed in this playexam. Her embracing of the moment helped him to inhabit the doctor role with total commitment, and he felt he was doing a good job so far. There was, of course, a side of him that stood apart and amazed that here he was, playing doctor with a woman, using his fingers and hands to freely manipulate and examine her uncovered breasts. That part of what he was doing was exciting and erotic, and yet the actual medical protocol of administering a proper breast exam demanded a great deal of focus and though he couldn’t quite believe it himself, he was rather more fascinated than sexually stimulated. It had been that way with the other exams he did also, and he had decided then that the real erotic payoff (if there was one) for a playdoc was in contemplating the examination afterwards, perhaps days later, and marveling that it had taken place at all. He wondered if it were the same for the patient, although Joan’s hard nipples showed otherwise, and there were other signs that could become apparent as the exam went on.
“Very good, Joan, you can put your arm down now.” he said. “I’d like to listen to your heart again and then your abdomen.” He put back in the stethoscope earpiece and touched the disc between her still uncovered breasts, moving it over and around her breasts and listening intently. He moved it lower and began to travel it over her middle section, hearing faint digestive noises. “I’m listening for standard bowel sounds.” The steth was definitely a revealing instrument; he was fascinated by what he heard and he also enjoyed the tactile sensation as he pushed it against the patient’s belly. Doc Welch worked it over her entire abdominal area, moving lower and lower until he reached the edge of the drape just below her waist. Wanting to maintain his patient’s semblance of modesty at this point, yet knowing that the feel of the stethoscope slipping to her lower abdomen would be an interesting sensation, he folded the towel back a few more inches then delicately slipped the disc under its edge as he worked the steth between his patient’s hipbones and listened for the femoral pulse. He moved it to a point on her lower abdomen; as he bent over her he could see the swell of his patient’s pubic mound beneath the drape but did not want to expose anything more just yet. After listening for a few seconds he pulled the disc out from beneath the drape as he straightened up and removed the earpieces.
“Very good. I’m now going to palpate your abdomen and feel for your various organs. Please let me know if there’s any pain or if the pressure is uncomfortable.” He cupped three fingers of his hand and placed them just below Joan’s breasts, then pushed down on them with his other hand. Doc Welch could feel her flesh yielding under his touch as he pressed her upper abdominal area, tapping his way around her belly and listening for percussive changes. There was obviously a lot more detail that he could go into here, such as expressly feeling for individual organs, but for the purposes of this examination it would suffice to check for general tenderness of the area. His fingers moved around her navel then a little lower, barely grazing the top of the drape. “Any tenderness here, Joan?” he asked.
“No, none at all,” she answered.
"Good. It feels like you have a slightly distended bladder, but there’s nothing unusual." He continued pressing on her lower belly, moving his fingers in small circles. Joan watched intently as without wasted movement he folded back the top of the drape to expose the top of her pubic mound, which he now noticed was completely shaved. His fingers pushed into her flesh as he went lower, feeling the more rounded area of the upper mons, the labial split just barely visible. She felt more exposed than ever now, her entire upper body and now her more private areas beginning to be revealed to the playdoctor’s gaze. It made her a little nervous, but was completely authentic to exam protocol, though in a real exam the doctor may or may not have left her breasts uncovered. This part of the exam completed, Doctor Welch removed his hands from her and straightened up again, then pulled the paper vest closed again over Joan's breasts and re-adjusted the drape, restoring her modesty for the moment. They had agreed beforehand that in accordance with real protocol Joan would not be completely nude during the exam, and so during the pelvic portion of the exam she would otherwise be covered. "Everything seems fine, Joan. Do you have any questions so far?"
“No, Doctor, I don’t. Thanks.”
“All right then. I’m going to need you to scoot your bottom down to the very end of the table, and place your legs over the supports.” He motioned towards the two chairs that had been set up as makeshift stirrup supports for this exam scenario. They would serve more like the knee supports that were in use in some offices, rather than holding the feet like most American women were used to. Doctor Welch moved to the end of the table and consulted his notes as Joan moved herself down the table until she could hook her legs over the provided chairbacks. This spread her legs very wide, and she pushed down on the drape so that it covered the area between her legs a little better. Dr. Welch gave her a quick glance as she got into position. He saw that she was careful to keep the vest closed over her breasts, and had adjusted the draping to keep herself covered as much as possible with her legs now spread wide. He could also see that she wasn’t situated far enough down the table. The patient’s rear needed to be at the very brink of the table, which always seemed like too far if you were the patient. “Could you move a little further down the table, please?” he requested. Joan moved a few more inches until she heard the doctor’s “Okay, that’s fine. You can put your head on these towels to raise up a little.”
Joan lay there, her knees draped over the chairbacks, the drape covering her lower half and hiding her pubic area from the doctor. “All right, Joan, I’m going to be starting your vulvar and pelvic examination now. I’ll give you a hand mirror so that if you want to see anything that I’m doing, you can use it to watch.” He handed her a mirror with a long handle. This gesture was evidently standard practice in some gyno offices, and was particularly germane here in this circumstance, as it would afford the patient an opportunity to be both the subject and observer of the exam. “I’ll explain everything as I go along,” he added, “but please ask any questions that you might have, in case I don’t cover them.”
Joan’s heart began to beat strongly. “Yes, thanks, Doctor. I will.”
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