How was your rectal temperature timed?

I‘d be interested to know how time was kept when the thermometer was in your butt. For me, there were 2 methods when I was little: my parents would use a little sand timer from a board game or one particular experience I remember when I was 4 in which I laid on my stomach in bed, felt the familiar cold intrusion of the glass thermometer, and my mom started counting under her breath. Does seeing an object like a timer or hearing someone count trigger your memories?

I seem to remember my mom glancing at her watch…but I do have a memory of her holding the thermometer in

My mum was always looking at her watch, watching for the 10 minutes to go by.

Always Mom's “Nurses Watch”; 4 minutes.

Long enough to make me realize it was inserted and I had to accept it! The nurse used her watch or had the digital kind that beeped.

My mother used a clock to time the thermometer for 5 minutes.

That is a good question. I don't think it was. Seems like I remember the thermometer being removed, looked at and reinserted.That is a good question. I don't think it was. Seems like I remember the thermometer being removed, looked at and reinserted by my mom.. At the pediatricians office my mom always went back to the exam room. I want to think that the nurse actually left the room after inserting the thermometer and came back a little later. Of course mom was always there to make sure I stayed in position. Up on that table, totally naked and exposed, lying face down on top of that crinkly paper, lol. I get excited just thinking about it.

Nurse used the clock on the wall in the exam room.

Whether it was my parents or the nurse, it would be checked by the watch on their wrist. I always remembered the nurse holding the thermometer in and glancing at her watch from time to time.

My Mom used a wind-up kitchen timer set for 5 minutes either for the rectal thermometer or for retaining a soapsuds enema.

My RTs were timed at the clinic by my various nurses’ wristwatches. A dainty wristwatch on a slender wrist can still arouse me.

When I was older and self-taking I had to count 3 minutes on my bedside clock. I think before that mom just used her watch.

It depended on what mom was doing at the time and if I was in the living room watching TV or in bed. If I was in bed mom would take it and watch the clock if she wasn't cooking. She would sit there and hold it in. If she was cooking and sis was told to hold it in me it was like a joke. I would push to make it slide out and sis would push it back in and we would laugh. Mom had and still has it an old-timer with a white dial that ticks loud and it has a loud bell. As soon as we would hear the bell we would stop joking around because we knew mom would come soon. Our joking may have added a degree to the reading also. Mom never let me hold it in sis. Probably because I was too wild. Yes, I was a tomboy always down at the dock working with daddy on the boats or in the store. It was rare for me to get sick and I was never injured. Now my sis Miss Priss was always getting injured. She hated going to the doctors and would keep her back against the wall until after we passed the ER room. I remember her in the kitchen once looking for a knife or something and pulled out a big candy thermometer. We both started laughing. I think I was 12 or 13 then. Sis asked if I wanted to try it. I said hell no. I had already suffered that one enema and thought anything in the butt was gross. I had already had a scare and pain with a tampon and only ever had one enema. I was still a virgin. She said she would. She took it to our bedroom. That night she put it in her vagina first and we watched the clock for 3 minutes. She pulled it out and no reading. So she tried it longer. No reading. Then she took some cream and put on it and stuck it in her butt deep. It kept sliding out. She kept it there for a long time and masturbated. Then she took it out. Guess what? Still no reading. This is how naive we were. She went into the bathroom and got the regular thermometer to compare them. See we had never seen how to read them. Then we noticed the candy thermometers numbers started at 100F. It was registering and would go up but stop below the 100F. Then we figured it out. She went and washed it and snuck it back to the kitchen.

Mom used her nurse's watch or our alarm clock next to our beds.

I also had one particular nurse who had the habit of tapping out the passing seconds with her fingernail on the thermometer protruding from my bottom. “tick tick tick tick tick……..” I did not hate that at all.

Mom or gram just left it in for what they thought was long enough usually, about 3 to 5 minutes don't recall them ever looking at a clock, at the doctor's, his nurse just used the wall clock.

I think my mom used the clock on my night table drawer.

In my family we just did it the old fashioned way counting haha. At the doctors office it was done via the big clock on the wall.

I vaguely remember my mom having a red plastic analog stopwatch that she would use whenever taking temperatures. I'd love to know what ever happened to it, as I haven't seen it in 30+ years.

I was too young to have been aware of it, but my best guess is that it was a watch or alarm clock…..or maybe my mom just got tired of me begging for mercy, to have it taken out. With the oral temps, it was exactly the opposite.

My temp was taken with me face down on the exam table or bed, and I very rarely looked. I was even scolded for looking back at 12 years old.

When I was a young boy, I was asked to go to my bed, lower my underwears or undress my pyjama shorts and then lay down on my left side and put my legs as close to my chest as possible. Then they came with the thermometer and inserted it slowly - until half of the shaft was in my rectum. It had to stay inserted for five minutes. My clock radio was on my bed table and I was looking during the thermometer was registering to know when it was ready to read.

It was always timed with a watch. I do that now when I take my ladies friend temperature.

It's timed for 5 minutes

Angie, my home health nurse while I recovered from an accident, seemed to instinctively know how long to leave an old-fashioned Taylor-brand glass thermometer in my behind. I think it was always about three minutes. She wore a watch with a second hand, but I don't remember her checking it except when taking my pulse. Angie was just 23 but came from three generations of nurses, so I guess “temp timing” was in her DNA.

I remember my mom counting out loud a couple of times when I was a toddler. I was in the diaper change position.

Both my mum and my pediatrician used their wrist watch to time the measurements.

Wristwatch/kitchen timer.

There was a clock next to my place.

Mum would hold the thermometer in place for 5 minutes.

@biene Did she lubricate it? I find that European-style thermometers easily fall out if not held in if lubricated (unless you insert more than the tip).