The Good News and the... Exam

So I went to the doctor on Monday to follow up about my cholesterol... the doc put me on me on medication to try and bring it down, because it was at a whopping 156. (Apparently they like your 'bad' cholesterol to be under 100. My 'good' cholesterol was perfect.) When I went into the exam room and the doctor sat down to chat with me, he realized that the lab never sent the results of my blood work back to him, so he went to have his assistant call and have them faxed over. While we were waiting for the fax, I decided to ask him about something I've been struggling with for a a couple of years: I can't sit in any one position for very long without pain. If I DO sit for too long, it hurts to stand up. I thought it might be a bruised tailbone or something, until a few weeks ago, when I felt a kind-of grinding sensation near my tailbone. Huh - that can't be good. So I asked the good doc about it. He said, "Well, I can check it out for you. I know it's not the best area to want to be checked..." He trailed off and gave me a sort-of half-smile. A half-smile that sort-of made him look like George Clooney. NOT HELPING. "I could send you for an X-Ray, but I'd kind-of like to check it first out so I can order the correct one." "Ooookaaaayyy..." I say.
This is a very nice man. VERY nice man, probably in his mid-to-late-forties, very professional, very soft-spoken and kind, and very married. He explained to me that I could leave my 'undergarments' on and he would be okay to try to locate the source of my pain. So I thought, why not - maybe we can do something about this pain thing. So he left the room, and I did it - I disrobed from the waist down, leaving my undergarments on and a thin paper 'shield' around my waist, and waited, red-faced, for him to come back. When he did come back, he had me stand on a stool and turn around, and he started putting pressure on my backbone and tailbone, gently explaining to me what each bone was that he was feeling. Unfortunately for me, it wasn't until he got to the lowest bone - the coccyx - that I felt any real pain. When he put the slightest pressure on that bone, I got a jolt of pain. "Yep, yep, that's it right there. Ouch." At this point, I'm just mortified and red all over. "Okay," he says, "I'll order an X-Ray of the coccyx for you. If it's actually broken, and it's a clean break, there's not really a lot they can do. If it's fractured and there are misplaced bone fragments, then we'll talk about your options." I step off the stool. "Okay, sounds good," I say. After he left, I got dressed and tried to compose myself. It's not that it was un-pleasant, it just wasn't very... pleasant. I kept telling myself that he's a doctor and I'm sure he's seen it all.

*sigh*

Next time I think I'll just suffer.

Oh, and my cholesterol? Down to 71. Hooray for modern medicine.