Almost Nonstop Gut Growling After A Hospital Enema

Has anyone ever been given a hospital cleansing enema, like before a surgery, and experienced almost constant gut growling after it was all over? I had to have a hernia surgery when I was 14. A 30ish female CNA came to my room after my parents left and told me she needed to give me a cleansing enema. She stuck a 5" long tube the width of a Sharpie pen up my butt and squirted really warm soapy water in my bowels from a clear bag. In short, I was a sobbing mess when she got through with me. It was the most intense enema I'd ever had in my life, and my mom had given me several when I was younger. After giving me the enema, she got me calmed down and ready for bed. I felt sleepy, but my guts growled all night long. I felt like I needed to fart, but I was afraid of shitting myself in bed. I finally got up and went to the toilet. It was just air coming out.

I went back to bed. I fell asleep at some point, but woke up early in the morning to my guts still growling. I think it was the soap in the enema. She probably should've rinsed me out with that second bag.

Not my story but my hubby's. In the early seventies when he was about thirty he had hernia surgery. A few hours before the surgery he was given an enema by a cute young nurse. He liked the cute nurse part, but the enema itself was two liters of strong harsh green soap. It gave him miserable cramps and days-long lingering irritation.

Beware...those wet farts!

I have experienced the gut growling after an enema several times. Not from a hospital enema but ones that I gave to myself. It doesn’t happen all of the time and I am thinking it has more to do with what I had to eat before the enema. I don’t remember it happening with an enema that I do early in the morning but more often if I have an enema in the afternoon or evening. So, maybe it is what I had to eat for lunch or dinner. Beans or cabbage?

I have found that those bowel sounds are most noticeable after I lay down when it's quiet. My gut growls depending on my food/fluid intake. After an enema, the growling/sloshing for me is an indication of leftover fluid being moved around by peristalsis. As for a hospital enema, often times the bowel is pretty quiet after surgery/anesthesia. The enema awakens the bowel, and if soapy, can keep the bowel active. I suppose that is why it is common for a nurse or doctor to listen for bowel sounds with the stethoscope/auscultation.

Castile soap enemas was the protocol for just about all cleansing enemas back in the day. Some years back we got out of that in favor of using just normal saline. I've bowel prepped adolescents and teenagers for surgery numerous times. Typically it's going to be the same as for an adult, 2-3 quarts saline warmed to 105-108F, using a 28-32Fr rectal tube inserted up to 5" depending on body mass. It's sometimes a challenge giving enemas to patients in this age group. Usually it's the dread and embarrassment leading up to an enema that tends to be the issue. The actual procedure itself is never near as bad as the drama beforehand.

But we seldom use soap unless there's severe constipation involved. The growling of the gut has a lot to do with irritation and residual water inducing peristalsis. IMO, really warm...not hot....saline is a lot more gentle and effective when you need to evacuate the lower bowel tract.

It has a name .....Borg borgamy.......thanks for asking

It doesn’t have to be in the hospital. At home in bed, I can feel the “growling” if I’ve added Castile soap to the enema because I was constipated, especially if the water is higher up using a rectal tube. Nurse Nikki describes what’s happening, sounds good to me.

It has a name .....Borg borgamy.......thanks for asking

It’s actually called borborygmi.

Thank you @Iris1858 .More reading when I am on the toilet https://integrishealth.org/resources/on-your-health/2023/july/borborygmi#:~:text=These%20symptoms%20could%20indicate%20a,working%20together%20as%20they%20should.

I have experienced the gut growling after an enema several times. Not from a hospital enema but ones that I gave to myself. It doesn’t happen all of the time and I am thinking it has more to do with what I had to eat before the enema.

My 2 cents - everyone is different of course; I also get similar symptoms if I don't follow these rules:

- no deep enema 3hrs or less since last meal. Even if meal is a snack. This is so there is a bit of a bowel rest

- first I flush my rectum with quick bidet-like irrigations and only then I'll go deeper. I think my piping hates it when waste moves up in the colon.

Back when I used a colon tube, there was no need for the 2nd point but since I am not using colon tubes any longer the above works best for me.

Also, prior to starting enemas, a menu of light white cheese and some probiotics shorten bacteria recovery a lot (2days max vs 1week). This has no impact on growling, it's just about what comes out of your bum.

Again, everyone is different...

@ Nurse Nikki , when you were prepping your patients for surgery using saline solutions, how long was the retention time? I'm assuming it was longer than the castile soap enemas.

@trw428.....Patients are different. I've seen petite sized patients take 2-3 qts of saline like a champ, and holding it for 5-10 minutes before racing to the toilet. But I've also given the same size enema to 200+ pound athletic men who were begging to be let go to the toilet with only a quart or half a bag. I'd say at least more than half of the patients experience some discomfort after about a quart, with the strong urge of peristalsis just a pint or so after that. Castile enema soap works even faster because it acts as an irritant. And not all nurses follow the same guidelines for mixing the right soap/water ratio. Definitely never more than a tablespoon to the quart. The temperature of the solution is another factor. Warming it anywhere from 104-110F is the most effective temperature range while still keeping it safe and comfortable for the patient. A solution warmed to 106F is going to help loosen hardened fecal matter and gently induce the desired amount of peristalsis to completely empty out the lower segments of the colon.

.

I feel cheated.

So many members have been able to proudly post and boast about getting an enema before and sometimes additional enemas after surgery, and some of these surgeries have been as recent as 30 years ago.

I had surgery in February 1980, nearly 50 years ago, to repair an inguinal hernia, and I was not given an enema of any kind before or after surgery. I would have gladly endured almost-nonstop, gut-growling stomach issues to have a cute female nurse administer an enema before or after surgery. All I got before my surgery, was a male nurse shaving me from my naval to my knees using a Bic razor with shaving cream.

Today, the inguinal-hernia repair is done with minimally-invasive surgery with tiny slits in the skin so they can insert a camera and few instruments into the out-patient patient who goes home that afternoon. The patient has mild constipation right after the surgery from the narcotics used during the surgery, but then only needs Tylenol for mild pain and Tylenol does not cause constipation.

In 1980, the surgeon fileted me like a fish, cutting me open from my toenails to my tonsils so the surgeon could fit his two fat fists and a small nurse through the incision. I was in the hospital for four days and the shots of Demerol every four hours killed the pain and made me high, both of which were awesome side effects of the drug. However, the primary purpose of the Demerol is to cause severe constipation in the patient and it accomplished this purpose very well. But did I get any enemas that might cause almost-nonstop, gut-growling stomach issues? Nope. And I would have happily taken the risk.

I felt like the stitches were going to pop every time I strained to poop. Somehow I got a staff infection. The surgical site swelled up and the next time I had to poop, I strained and the stitches popped and puss and blood poured out all over me.

So, I feel like suing the surgeon and the hospital, not for the staff infection which was their fault, but for not giving me at least an enema before the surgery and one a day while I was in the hospital.

$100,000 compensation for pain and suffering seems fair.

.

@Nurse_Nikki said,

Patients are different. I've seen petite sized patients take 2-3 qts of saline like a champ, and holding it for 5-10 minutes before racing to the toilet. But I've also given the same size enema to 200+ pound athletic men who were begging to be let go to the toilet with only a quart or half a bag.

Before age ten, my siblings and I could all take and hold about the same amount of soapy or rinse enema. Once we were preteens then teenagers, that changed. Our sister started taking and holding more than me or my brother. The summer I turned ten, I first took and held a two-quart enema, and my brother about six months later. Our sister was two years younger than me, and a year younger than my brother. Taking a full two-quart enema the next summer at age nine. A full year ahead of me or my brother. As we got older, into our teenage years, our sister could comfortably hold between two and three quarts. When my brother and I were doing good, if we could take and hold a two or two-and-a-half-quart enema.

@ Nurse Nikki, thanks for the information, fits very close with my experience. When I use castile soap (DR. Bronners peppermint), I mix 1 TBSP in 3 qts. of water, 1 TBSP/Qt. would be brutal, peristalsis would be quick and aggressive to the point of an accident. Even at 1 TBSP of castile soap in 3 qts water, peristalsis starts about 10 minutes after the enema is started. You are right about temperature, I find the best results at 110F-115F, seems easier to hold and minimizes the cramps.

I had my tonsils out at age 6 or so. No enemas before or after. And this was in the 1940's. So I wonder if the "routine enema before" was just a local preference or maybe nurses in some hospitals just liked to give little kids enemas? I don't know. Does anyone have any thoughts on this?

@Donaldis . I had my tonsils out in 1954 and the night before was given a soapsuds enema with the white enamel can and colon tube. It was common routine before any surgery in those days where I lived --eastern Canada. Maybe it was a geographical thing but many accounts posted here as well as sources like nursing textbooks seem to indicate hospital enemas were common for surgery preps, childbirth,etc. in North America, UK,etc. Wonder how you escaped or ,more likely, missed out ? LOL

@ronniewater. You are right. I definitely missed out. Oh well, I have certainly made up for lost time later in life!!!! Thanks for your comments.

@Donaldis Same here. Got my tonsils chopped out, about 1950. I remember struggling for life, as they slapped the ether onto my face and held me down till i quit squirming. I was surprised to discover life again when i woke up! But ahh, i loved mom's enema gifts. When i was in my 60s and she in her 80s, she told me about the games she played with her baby brother, they were the youngest of 12 kids. So when she got to me, i was her first, her brother had joined the US Marines, she took me into her arms and watered me, and talked me into a good place, i loved to go. But there was no enema in the hospital. Or if there was, the trauma caused me to forget it. I honestly was amazed i made it through.

My two operations had preliminary preparation which included an enema. I received one in the hospital. The second one at home before going to bed. But all of it was without soap, just plain tap water. My stomach problems bothered me much less than the operation itself.

But as for the topic - everything was fine.

I can say that now the enemas I do can cause rumbling for a considerable time. And I don't understand why this happens. Sometimes the normalization of the bowels can take several days, which adds to my trouble.