Being one of those poor, uninsured types, I went to the Haight Ashbury Free Clinic in San Francisco to get some stuff in my throat checked out. I described my problems–weird tonsil spots and a lump in the back of my throat–to the evening’s practitioner and said that I’d felt around back there with my finger. He seemed kind of shocked. (I didn’t say that I learned how to suppress my gag reflex when I was 20 so that I could give better blow jobs. No, Dan, I was quiet and polite.) So he looked in my throat with a tongue depressor. He told me what the tonsil stuff was, and I was relieved to find that it was a nonproblem. Then he tried to usher me out. I said, “Well, what about this other thing? The lump in my throat?” I explained that I couldn’t see it but could feel it, and I asked the practitioner to put his finger down my throat and feel around.
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I have a lot of empathy for the folks who work at free clinics (they see a bunch of freaks and schizos), which is why I didn’t immediately pitch a fit. But, damn it, when I go to Planned Parenthood for an exam they don’t tell me that they aren’t going to feel around in there with their fingers because they think I might have a fetish. They stick their fingers in my cunt and feel around to make sure nothing funny is going on.
So do you have any idea what the fetish is that he was referring to, Dan? Is it having someone gag you? Is it having someone feel around the back of your throat? Is it having, specifically, a doctor do it? And what would be the appropriate response to a comment such as the one the practitioner made? My friends have suggested that I write a letter to the clinic’s management. Do you think that he was out of line making a comment like that, or do you think that he was within his rights to not do something that made him uncomfortable? The only thing I can think of that could’ve actually made him uncomfortable was that I was wearing my leather wrist restraints, which I always wear. Your thoughts? –Tonsil Shocked
I attempted to reach the Haight Ashbury Free Clinic for comment, but they were closed, and oddly enough, the outgoing message claimed they were observing a federal holiday on a day that wasn’t one. Anyway, if the clinic would like to respond or the doctor involved wants to get his two cents in, please write.
