The triage nurse wrote a note on the chart stating, “Mom states patient is making unusual requests.”

Hmm, that sounds interesting, I thought to myself as I walked in to see the 17-year-old Ryan and his mother.

“Hi, I'm Dr. Pezzi. How may I help you?”

“My son has been . . .” She then cleared her throat and continued, “has been asking me to set him up with some of my divorced girlfriends. I think he needs to see a psychiatrist.”

“What makes you think that?” I asked.

“Doctor, he's 17 years old! My girlfriends are twice his age! He wants to have sex with them!”

“Oh, I see.”

Ryan's mother glanced at him and then looked back at me. “To hear him tell the story, you'd think it makes sense. Ryan, why don't you tell the doctor how you explained it to me?”

“My Mom had a party a few months ago and I overheard some of my Mom's girlfriends saying how horny . . .”

“Ryan!”

“Uh, OK, Mom. They were saying how much they wanted to have sex. But they're divorced, and I guess they have a hard time meeting guys. So I asked my Mom to set me up with them.”

“That's perverted, isn't it, doctor?”

“I don't think it helps matters any to use such a strong and emotionally charged word as that. I can understand what might have led Ryan to think that his suggestion was pragmatic, but I can also appreciate why you're concerned about his desire to become involved with older women.”

“He should be dating women his own age, right doctor?”

Ryan looked uncomfortable and squirmed as he said, “Mom, you know what I told you about that.”

“Doctor, Ryan thinks that no girl his age will like him because of his acne. I told him it's not as bad as he thinks it is, and that plenty of girls his age have acne, too. So can you call in a psychiatrist to see him now?”

“No, but I can refer you to see one on an outpatient basis if you'd like.”

She looked somewhat disappointed and said, “I guess we'll just have to set up an appointment and see what the psychiatrist says. Umm, excuse me, but is there a restroom nearby?”

I directed Ryan's Mom to the restroom as I jotted a few notes on his chart. After his Mom was out of earshot, Ryan huffed before giving me a wry smile and a series of body motions that seemed to say, you've been there before, you were 17 once, you know what it's like, right? Yeah, I knew.

Return to the story list

Cast away your preconceptions of sex books as being a rehash of things you already know and hence a waste of time. By reading this book, you will learn things that Dr. Ruth and other sexologists have never considered.

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