Rectal Bleeding

My most recent ex stuck his finger down my pants, took a little survey, smelled his finger, and then presented me evidence that apparently I had been a tad hasty the last time I was decorating the toilet paper.

My Uncle George has often decided to visit when I’m passed out in the beds of men I barely know. Unlike water, apparently your period does not stop in other people’s beds.

I have snorted, farted, queefed (terrible thing, that), smelled myself (yes, twas the "black-out period," I remember fondly), and I have almost puked during sex.

As I'm sure you are inferring, my life is essentially one huge embarrassing moment. I am a perfect example for why you should never be too lazy to get a condom.

This tale I'm about to tell is more of what I would call humiliating rather than embarrassing, and, unbelievably, it also involves my ex-boyfriend and a brown finger.

About a month ago, all of a sudden my precious boyfriend decided that he needed to be single. I got the "I need some time to think about us," accompanied with the old favorite "It's not you, it's me" line, which at least made me laugh during an otherwise grueling, boring conversation.

So, being me, and me being “comfortable” with "change," I picked up a pack of smokes for the first time in a year, grabbed a bottle of wine and got to work.

For days the only thing I ingested was nicotine, alcohol, and water. Solid food held no interest to me, and the only real side effects of this diet seemed to be weight loss, bad breath, and bad circulation. Yes, hold onto your fellas, ladies. You wouldn’t want them to see what they are missing.

However, it was my sister's birthday, and since I'm only 99% selfish, I took her to dinner, so we could talk about me and my situation more, and I consumed my first real solid food of the week.

The next day, I woke up feeling good. I had a slight cramp in my liver, but otherwise, I had moved past the "picturing myself in a music video" phase into the "I'm so strong look what I'm going to do with my life to prove my self worth to the world" movie montage phase.

Now at work, I had my morning coffee, and about ten minutes later, like clockwork, it was number 2 time. I used to have a pretty big issue pooping in public places, but then I single-handedly destroyed the ladies room at the Waldorf Astoria. They considered evacuating the entire hotel. So. I’m over it, I guess.

I’m always curious to see what comes out of me. Sometimes, I’m proud of the length or the width or the color, and other times I’m ashamed by my performance. *Shakes Head* “Could have done better.”

So that morning, I turned to rate my work before I flushed and *SCREAM.*

Everything in the toilet was red.

My heart started beating, my armpits started sweating, and I was swallowing uncontrollably.

I ran back to my desk, told my boss I was going to the clinic and flew out of the building across the street to the Medical Center.

I took a deep breath and walked into the clinic. I approached the front desk.

“Good morning,” I whispered.

“Hi, honey, what’s the problem?” the short little woman paper clipping files asked me.

In my head I said “My liver is bleeding out of my asshole and I’m going to die,” but aloud I whisper-stuttered “I-I-I-I went to the bathroom and there was blood in my stool.”

“Okay, honey,” she said. “Have a seat, I’ll get the Doctor.”

I sat down on the sterile blue-grey couch-chairs that they have in all Doctor’s offices, and in my head began delegating my belongings to my friends and family.

Just as I had decided who was going to get my state quarter collection, a woman who looks exactly like this appeared in the doorway. Not looking up from her clipboard, she called out my name. If I hadn’t thought I had anal cancer, I would have found this humorous because there really wasn’t a need to call as I was the only one in the waiting room at the time.

I followed her back to a typical examining room. At this point, she looks at my file and asks me what was wrong.

I repeated my issue, and without looking at me, she took off her glasses, sighed, rolled her eyes to the ceiling and said “Oh, God.”

I paused. Not exactly the reaction I was hoping for.

“Umm…” I was a bit bewildered.

“You probably have hemorrhoids,” she said matter-of-factly.

“But I’m going to have to perform a rectal exam to be certain. Are you giving me permission to give you a rectal exam?”

“Umm…” I wasn’t sure what to respond to, especially considering I think I’d rather have brain cancer than have this woman stick her finger up my ass. She continued:

“Listen, I don’t want to give you one either, but we have to check to make sure. I repeat: Are you giving me permission to give you a rectal examination?”

“Yes,” I squeaked.

“Okay.”

She got up and started opening cabinets, slamming them, opening drawers, slamming them.

“I don’t know where anything is in this place,” she muttered as she exited the room.

The Doctor’s bedside manner was probably not what got her hired. I hope it was her rectal exam proficiency.

She came back a few moments later with some drops and slides.

“My hands are shaking,” she said. “I hope they don’t shake when I’m inside of you.”

Pause.

“That’s comforting,” I said.

She sort of snorted which I suppose is how she expresses laughter.

“It’s because it’s so cold in here. Don’t worry, I’ve performed this procedure a million times. Lie down.” She slapped on her rubber gloves.

Now, I have had many colonics before, and I did go to college, so I’m not exactly new to things going up the exit ramp. However, there was something about having a finger rummaging around up there that made me…squeamish.

“Pull up your dress, she ordered.

What, no robe, I thought?

“Now, roll over on your side.”

Christ, in another situation, I might enjoy this.

“I’m just looking right now, and I don’t see any hemorrhoids.”

Good to know.

“But they could be internal.”

Great.

“Now, take a deep breath, and, don’t worry, my fingers are small.”

As I stared at the stark-white walls, I felt a little intruder moving back and forth.

After a few moments, it was over.

She presented her gloved finger to me, (sort of how my ex had) and said,

“Looks brown.”

(Sort of how my ex had).

She then proceeded to do a little test with the drops and the slides.

“Yes, there is no blood…maybe it’s NOT hemorrhoids.”

Wow. Did you get your Medical Degree from Toys R US?

“Well….then what could it be???” I asked.

“Do you have your period?” she asked.

“No.”

“Are you sure the toilet was red?”

“YES.”

“Did you eat anything strange yesterday? Perhaps something that had food coloring?”

I wracked my brain while having the mild thought that these were all questions that could have been asked before the rectal exam.

All of a sudden, something dawned on me.

The night I had taken out my sister, I had eaten an enormous beet salad.

“BEETS!” I squealed.

“Beets?”

“Yes, BEETS!”

She gave me a disgusted look, and sighed heavily.

“That’s probably it, then. Come back if your problem persists.”

I did a fist pump and practically cha-cha’ed out the door I was so relieved.

Now, yes, the experience itself was a tad humiliating, but the truly humiliating part came when I decided to share this story with the guy I was about to get under to get over my ex.

He laughed, but I noted that we didn’t do it doggy-style that night. Hmmm.

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