Did the doc tell you your temperature?

As many times as I've had my rectal temp taken at the doctors, whether i was sick or for a check up, they never told me what my temp was! I would think i deserved to know when i was 14 with a thermometer in my butt! Then again i didn't think to ask. Did the nurse ever tell you what your temp was???? I dont think they ever tell you. Mine never did!

I had many rectal temps at my doctor's and at home as a kid, i don't recall ever being told what my temp actually was. They just said you do have a fever or you are running a temperature.

I don't remember having my rectal temperature taken at the doctor's office, but my mom would always tell me my temperature and announce that it was time for a suppository if it was high enough.

When my rectal temperature was taken when I was a child, the person who took it usually announced it to whoever was nearby, not not directly to me. If a needle was to follow, that was also announced but, again not to me.

Not that I recall...I'd only overheard comments like it's a little high & to keep an eye on things...or hmmm !.... that was an ominous sign !!

Never had an RT since I was old enough to remember.

As to oral or ear temps, those are occasionally announced but often not. I only inquire if it is an issue oriented visit and I fear my temp may be high.

Nurse never said it directly to me but she would say you have a fever and sometimes say it outloud to remember it before she wrote it down.

As a child having it done in hospital very often I remember them doing it but they never said what it was and I wasn't interested either.

Now as an adult I'm getting it taken 3 x a day again rectally. I always ask what it is after the thermometer has been removed and the nurse has had chance to read it. I also read the notes the nurses leave behind each night too.

They always comment with its not bad which means it's a slight fever below 38, it's quite high if it's between 38.0 & 39.0 , it's very high 39 and above .

Over 40 and they panic as I've convulsed before .

I never had rectal temperature in a real hospital setting as temperatures are not being taken rectally here in India.

But I never had to ask because I was told By the doctor Itself. He /she would tell me rightaway if its high Or moderate.

And as a child i was told by my pediatric saying

"Hmmm (insert temperature here) it is , cookie is sick today"

If i was in his place i would have said "cookie is over baked today lol"

~cookie

In my clinical environment ITU and HDU we measure temperature rectally and continuously on the majority of our patients. Some do ask about their temperature as we record their observations and we always tell them, even if they don't inquire we usually say that its normal, or elevated or low. Most patients to be honest have an inkling as to their temperatures by the way they are feeling.

I was not told often, but the nurse would tell my mother as she always accompanied me to the exam room. Yes, it was not comfortable for me as I got older, but I also was never asked my preference by her.

I think the nurse in hospital would read it aloud and then note it somewhere.

Growing up when iI had to go for a sick visit, the nurse would announce it to my mother! If i was there for a physical, she merely said, "it's fine," and got the doctor. Either time, the process of having my temp taken was associated with a sense of vulnerability and embarrassment. There is hardly anything you can do until the thermometer registers, which seems to take forever, calling attention to my situation. Whether in a gown or not, it was always a very self conscious moment for me and made worse by having a parent observe.

You know I have never really thought of knowing my temperature from the rear or for that matter orally but I can't remember a nurse PA or MD telling me what the number was. Just that either you have a "temperature" or it is "normal." I might pay more attention from now on.

Like so many others, I do not remember the nurse or doctor ever telling ME. I believe that my mother was usually told the number, in the same way that she would tell the nurse what my temperature had been at home earlier if I was there for a sick visit. I wouldn't have understood what the actual number meant anyway until I was much older.

However, I think this example highlights the tendency in medicine, at least during the time I was growing up, to view children solely as the object of examination and treatment, rather than subjects in their own right. I had the opportunity to speak to my pediatrician right before he retired from practice. I was an adult by then and probably hadn't seen him for more than 15 years. I doubt he actually really remembered me, and the one thing I vividly remember him telling me was that it was the mothers he remembered more than anything.

This makes sense to me since my mom was really the one he conversed with, both while examining me and later in his office, while I was merely the body being poked and prodded and then a bored bystander ready to get out of there as soon as possible. I would have been too nervous and afraid to ask questions of the nurse or doctor as a child, even if I had known what questions to ask.

As an adult I have gradually become more comfortable asking questions, but I find myself more at ease in making inquiries when the doctor or nurse provides at least a little information to begin with, such as my pulse or blood pressure. I think my early experiences of feeling passive and uninvolved in the conversation have made it more difficult for me to feel comfortable taking a more active role in health care discussions with most of the doctors I have seen as an adult. Deep down I think I still feel very much like that scared, voiceless little girl lying on the exam table expecting to be talked about and talked over, rather than talked to and talked with.