Part of my job as an RN at the college health clinic where I work is to answer phone calls from patients inquiring about medical issues, and offer professional advice. This is definately not one of my favorite aspects of my job.
Many of our students are international students from other countries. Sometimes they don't speak very good English, or have very thick accents. It can be sometimes be difficult to determine what they are saying when speaking with them face to face. Understanding them over the phone is even more difficult.
Recently, I received a call from one such student*. He first asked me if there was a male he could speak with, as he was having a "male problem." I informed him that none of our male doctors were in that day, but that I was a nurse, and maybe I could help him.
In his broken English, he went on to tell me that each morning he wakes up around 5:00 a.m. and gets up to use the bathroom. He then goes back to sleep. In my head, I already knew where this was going.
Sure enough, he then went on to tell me that he has dreams, "sexual dreams", and that he ejaculates.
I asked him how old he was, (beyond puberty). I also asked him if it had ever happened before (no). Then I assured him that this is completely normal, and in fact very common among adolescent males. I told him that there was no treatment for this, though it can be annoying. I informed him that he was welcome to make an appointment with one of the male doctors to discuss it with them and see if they had any advice to offer.
I never know WHAT kind of call I'm going to get next!
I am not violating HIPAA by sharing this story, as is has been de-identified. ttp://privacyruleandresearch.nih.gov/pr_08.asp#8a
tell him to mastutbate and it won't happen as often! Haha... that would be interesting to try to explain!
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