At lunch, Bette told Daniel that their first-choice school had responded and that they had an appointment for Tuesday. He would be tested on Tuesday to see if he were ready for the 6^th grade, so he needed to eat a good dinner the night before, get a good night’s sleep and get a good breakfast. He needed to be well rested and relaxed for whatever happened on Tuesday.

Bette paid the bill and trailed behind her family as they walked to the car. Bette could tell that Angie was nervous about this appointment. Tina has set her GPS to give her directions to Dr. Wilson’s office. It would take about 45 minutes to get there. Bette decided to discuss the visit.

Bette:  Angie are you nervous about this appointment?

Angie:  Well yeah.  I’ve never had my lady parts examined before.

Bette:  I understand. Let me tell you what to expect. First of all, you mama and I will NOT be present during this examination. Nor will we be present in the follow-up consultation which will occur after the exam.  What you and your doctor talk about will be between you and them. They will not tell us anything about what you talk about or anything they may find. Only you can talk about what happened in that exam or in your consultation. Or you must give permission if you want them to talk to someone else. So, feel free to discuss anything with them.  And I mean anything. Now before you go in, your mom and I will ask them to discuss certain topics with you concerning physical intimacy.  We would like particularly that they talk to you and advise you and assist you with a prescription or a device in pregnancy prevention. We would like for you to have children when you choose to have children and not as an unplanned accident. Since your mama and I do not have the latest and greatest information in this area, we feel it’s best that you get this from professionals who deals with this every day.

Angie was turning red as a beet. She had not considered pregnancy prevention.

Tina:  We also want the doctors to talk to you about sexually transmitted diseases and how to prevent them. I’m sure you know someone or will know someone who will get an STD. All are treatable, but some like the herpes virus can stay with you a life time and cause pain and discomfort with an outbreak from time to time.  Some diseases can affect your ability to have children. Some like AIDS can be deadly. All of these can be prevented with some safety precautions. And you should use these safety measures particularly when you are having sex during your college years or until you find your one true love and you both get a clean bill of health. If you don’t use these safety measures, then you run the risk of damaging your health for a life time.