macrocephalopod

For background: I’ve had uterine issues since I hit puberty. I’ve had extreme pain, I never had an easy time, and I’ve had uterine surgery. I have a Thing about checkups, they hurt. For way TMI, my uterus is tilted, like totally tilted. Not medical issue, but anatomical quirk.

So I’m up there, grimacing like I always do. The doc, like every other doc, apologizes for my pain, and I assume she’s going to leave it at that. These things are uncomfortable and unpleasant. Nobody does them for fun. The experience doesn’t matter, right? It’s necessary.

Well, instead of just letting me suffer, the doc notices I’m in pain and stops. She says she’s going to ask me to do something weird. I’m naked from waist down, except my socks, and she’s got a light in my crotch. I have no choice. I’m captivated. This couldn’t get weirder.

ake a fist, she tells me, and my brain goes a THOUSAND miles a minute. I’m trying to process the word “fist” in context. So I make a fist, and she tells me to put it between your butt and the table. It’ll help with the pain. So I do, and it does.

The rest of the exam is fine. Everything’s fine. Thing is, I’m mindblown. I’ve never had a doctor even think to tell me that. Apparently doing that changed the angle of my guts and associated reproductive organs, and the angle being so severe is what was hurting me.

I’ve been quietly suffering through exams for 15 years, and no one ever thought to take a second to think about how to make the experience better. It’s just like that, after all. Not the greatest, but necessary, right? The suffering is part of the process?

I don’t think that has to be true for a product. We should stop excusing bad experiences just because we never stopped to think that maybe there is a really simple solution to a pain point. A really common pain point.