Unpacking boxes from moving to a new house, I picked up a blue nylon bag that said “Take Along” on it. I ask my mom about it and she said “That’s for an enema for grownups, I’ll show you how it works next time you need one.” Enemas were not common outside of an occasional bum bulb for us as toddlers in our household.
Fast forward to me being home sick with the flu in middle school. Sitting at the breakfast table I said I was uncomfortable because I hadn’t gone to the bathroom. Mom said she would get me a laxative when she went out to the store. I said “is there something that’s better and faster”? She said “ maybe a suppository”. I said “what about an enema?” She said “an enema would work right away and I can give you one after breakfast”.
I went into the living room to watch TV and a short time later mom came out and ask me to come to the bathroom with her. She had obviously decided that this would be the time to teach me how to give myself an enema. She had the equipment out and a stainless steel bowl and a bar of Ivory soap. She was busily swishing the soap in warm water. She ask me to hold the top of the folding bag open and she filled it with soapy water, all the while she was explaining ladies nozzle vs rectal nozzle and making sure to lubricate it well with Vaseline. Next she told me that you need to hold as much moisture as possible and that adult enemas sometime make you sick to your stomach. I ask “does the water have to be soapy”? Mom said “The soap is what make you go”. She next said take you pants off and lay down, I ask if the bag should be hung up and she said only if your giving it to yourself. Then she said I can give you this or you can give it to yourself. I told her I wanted her to give it to me, whereupon I laid down on my stomach on a towel. She said put your bottom up (semi knee chest position). In went the nozzle unceremoniously and click. Nozzle popped out and was re-inserted. Next mom said, I think that’s enough. On the way out she said “this process can be repeated” as she opened the bathroom window saying “I always like fresh air when I have one of these”. She also remarked that sometimes you think you’re all done and it hits you all at ounce. Then she retired to let me expel. It didn’t work very well, too small an enema. So she had to repeat it. This time she had me lay on my left side, and the insertion was much more comfortable and the enema was much larger.
Several years later, home from college and sick, I ask for an enema, mom said “I’ll get it ready, and you can give it to yourself”, I guess she thought I had been taught.