exposed

jj has had knee aches for many years. we had gone to a physical therapist 4 years ago who gave her exercises that seemed to help. recently the problem has been bothering her again, so we went to a dr who recommended a foot doctor to make some inserts for her shoes, to relieve the problem. she has been a typical, sensitive teen of how things “appear” about her. she has not been happy about the idea of getting “old lady orthotics”. she says, “i’m too young to be an old lady”. we got the name of a specialist and it seemed like a convenient location near jj’s school. the appointment was conveniently scheduled for the morning so jj could go directly to school afterwards. in fact, the office was just across the street from her school. the office was on the first floor, the windows facing the street, with inadequate window coverings – so you could see in, if you looked hard. jj has been very modest in exposing her parts. (ie. would not consider going into a women’s group changing room in a store). she was wearing her typical very tight skinny jeans, but the doctor needed to see her naked knees as well as her feet. so she had to take off her jeans. then she had to stand on a box about 14 inches off the ground, which had a mirror on the bottom, glass on the sides and top, and a light shining up. this allowed the specialist to see the bottoms of her feet. so, there she was, a self-conscious adolescent, standing in front of the window, on a pedestal, lit from below, in her underwear, as kids from her school walked by. i could feel her discomfort. she looked out the window, waiting with dread that someone she knew would walk by and look in to see her, exposed. minutes went by as the specialist chatted, unaware of the situation. finally, she was allowed to stand down, with a sigh of relief.

brought maynard to visit new “second” family.  wanted to have him see their house with me and so it would not be totally strange to him on his first playdate.

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