Family Doctor’s Advice

A call to our family doctor because my husband has a nagging cold that could turn into a more serious flu. Our doctor for many years was an amazing woman who still believed in some of the basic old fashioned remedies for common illness. She said to get a piece of paper and a pencil and she would give me a list of things that I should do.

She told me to keep him in bed and use a humidifier. She said what to feed him and what not to feed him, make him drink water or apple juice every hour, give him extra vitamin C, and if his bowels have not moved in the past 24 hours, give an enema. And if he begins to run a fever, call her.

I still have that piece of paper that I wrote on with pencil. I found it recently tucked into a book that I hadn’t opened in many years. This happened in 1988, we’d been married 4 years. It was the first enema I gave to my husband.

It always seemed that as a kid during our family doctor's “exit interview ’' for his exam observations / illness diagnosis, prescription writing and illness diet orders he would eventually get around to advising my mom as I recall … ” ….. and sometime tomorrow let’s give him a good, high-volume cleansing enema … and / or ‘as needed' during his illness confinement

This ‘childhood illness edict’ he always shared with my mother with a great big smile as I sat in the big , cushy leather office chair beside my mom. Little did the ’good doctor‘ know that my mom was light years ahead of his well intentioned orders as a forthcoming enema was always a ’tool‘ in her ’wellness' protocol when I was ill .

Our family doctor would prescribe an enema for everything. Cold, fever, flu, upset stomach, skinned knee, diaper rash? Give an enema. 😂

The primary doctor (pediatrician) we saw had two things that would cure almost anything: A penicillin shot and a soapsuds enema.

Regardless of what I saw him for, before my mother left the office with me he would tell her to “Keep his bowels open.” My mother hardly needed his advice to administer a ‘good enema.’