I miss the good old days
Anon
ENEMAS---I MISS THE GOOD OLD DAYS
Do you ever miss the good old days? I do when it comes
to enemas. In recent years enemas have been getting
smaller, are used less frequently, and are given by
less qualified personnel.
During the 1950's and early 1960's if a hospital
patient went for one day without a bowel movement they
could expect to receive an enema. The enema would be
given by a registered nurse, and would consist of two
quarts of warm, soapy water. The patient would be
expected to retain the enema for 5-10 minutes while
the nurse squeezed their buttocks together.
Today a hospital patient can go for 3 or 4 days
without a bowel movement and no action will be taken.
If any action is taken it will probably be a laxative
or a 4 ounce Fleet Enema. (A 4 ounce enema for an
adult? During the 1950's the nursing textbooks
recommended a pint for a 5 year old child!)
During the late 1960's and 1970's it seems that the
job of giving enemas shifted from RN's to LPN's. In
1978 I asked a registered nurse who worked in a
hospital if she gave a lot of enemas in her job. She
replied "Registered Nurse don't perform that
disgusting procedure. That's what LPN's are for.."
In the 1980's it seems that LPN's decided that they
were too good to give enemas and relegated that task
to Nurses Aides. Well guess what! Today a lot of
nurses aides don't know how to give enemas either.
I recently discussed this subject with two CNA's. One
of the ladies has worked at a hospital for 3 years.
The other lady has done private duty nursing for 11
years and is now studying to be an RN. Would you
believe that neither lady has ever given anything
larger than a 4 ounce Fleet Enema? The second lady
said "I could no more give a large volume enema than I
could perform brain surgery."
The ironic thing about the second nurse is that she
gets regular colonic irrigations from a chirporactor.
She obviously understands the importance of colon
cleansing for herself. Why can't she understand the
importance of it for her patients?
There was a time when getting prepared for an
examination of the rectum or colon involved taking
multiple enemas the night before the exam, and at
least one enema the morning of the exam. Today those
enemas are being replaced with strong laxatives.
Last summer I received a colonoscopy---the ultimate
colon exam. I was rather disappointed when the doctor
handed me the instruction sheet for the pre-exam
proceudres. It only included one enema---1 1/2 liters
of warm water. I had been hoping for enemas until
clear. Even more disappointing was when my doctor said
"The 1 1/2 liter enema is probably unnecessary. It
would be OK if you were to just take a small Fleet
Enema, or even to skip the enema entirely.
My doctors instructions notwithstanding, there was no
way I was going to have a colonoscopy without getting
at least one enema. So I hired a registered nurse to
give me 1 1/2 liters of warm water from a disposable
plastic enema bucket. It was a very good enema. It
would have been even better if I got gotten enemas
until clear. Or if the nurse had massaged my stomach
and buttocks during the procedure. But I can't
complain.
So what about the future? Will we ever return to the
days when hospital and home patients regularly get
large volume enemas from registered nurses? I doubt
it! All we can do is hope to find people like
ourselves who share an interest in large volume
enemas.
NOTE: This concludes the article that my friend wrote.
For the most part I agree with his obervations and
conclusions. I work as a maternity nurse. This is one
area where large volume enemas are still given. But
not nearly as often as they once were.
And now I'm going to wrap this up by telling you about
a rather messy enema that I gave earlier this week to
a 19 year old soon to be mother. I had her laying on
her left side. I had just parted her buttocks and
leaned down to insert the enema nozzle into her
rectum, when I was hit with a strong anal odor. I
couldn't believe how dirty and smelly her ass was.
As I was giving her the enema without warning she
expelled it all over her bed and on me. A fountain of
brown water, gas, and poop turned my previously clean
nurse uniform into soemthing that looked and smelled
like it had just come out of the sewer.
Hope you liked this.
.
Andrew Breen
Anon <anon...@cotse.com> wrote in message
news:2000052700...@cotse.com...
koehler73
"massage buttocks and stomach" who does that. If you must know, the large
quantity enema were statistically found to cause unnecessary bowel
perforation. A fleet or soap suds enema (more friction) is fine. Relax and
enjoy life.