Hospital Enema

Back in the '70s I went into the hospital for a colonoscopy. They had me admitted the afternoon before. They gave me a large dinner [much to my surprise] followed by a small brown bottle to drink. The laxative kept me up all night running to and from the bathroom. Somewhere along the line they gave me bottoms in addition to the standard short gown open in the back. I had tied a knot in the drawstrings of the bottoms. Two female black enema nurses came in at 6AM, rolling a stand with a metal can, tubing, and a white nozzle with rather angular profile. I thought the nurse would undo the knot, but they stood there and watched me fumble with the knot, then remove the bottoms. The nurse controlling the enema stood on my left, the other on my right. She had me lie on my back and pull my knees up while she inserted the nozzle, then roll onto my left side. She started the enema. After 1/3, she had me roll onto my stomach. This went really fast and she soon had me roll onto my right side for the final 1/3. I then had to hold it 5 minutes before I could get up and expel it. I'm sure nothing was hidden from either nurse during the process.

When you do get admitted into the hospital,how do you go about asking for a enema instead of being given a laxative or a suppository since hospitals don't like giving enemas anymore?

Enemavamp: Hard to do. You might talk with your physician before you are admitted to the hospital as his/her orders are golden. Still, it may be hard to do. Yes, they do not like enemas anymore as they take time and interrupt the staff's coffee & donut hour! Good luck to you in getting your enema. By the way, you might also ask for the proper one, not the Fleet deal, to make the experience a good and memorable one.

Sounds good SeanM58. If it was to happen I would ask them for a 2 quart bag or more definitely not a fleet. Those have never really worked for me.

I've had only a fleets when I was hospitalized for a hip fracture thirty years ago. I didn't care for it but I was in no place to suggest anything else.

Here Microlax enemas are the brand which is used at hospitals

Yes, for the appendectomy 😃

It was a fleet enema 😜

I have never been given an enema in the hospital. I've had a colonoscopy but they give you a liquid to drink the day before to clean you out. I've had a hernia operation and again, no enemas. During my foot surgery, no suggestion of an enema. Guess I missed out. Thank you all for sharing your hospital experiences.

I have a question for our medical people. If you have appendicitis, you are in great danger of your appendix rupturing and giving you peritonitis, which can kill you. If you take an enema, which forces the colon into unusual effort, do you not increase the danger of rupture? Why would they want to give you and enema anyhow? How does it make the surgery go better?

hankb

I can't answer all of your questions but can answer one. Here in the states they never to my knowledge give you an enema prior to an appendectomy.

Mashie

Hank I can say categorically that in the states enemas are never given prior to an appendectomy because of the danger of rupturing the appendix. Turns an emergency situation into a disaster. In fact lay people are warned about laxatives or enemas in the presence of abdominal pain for that very reason.

I will be scheduled to undergo a knee replacement surgery in March.... The protocol the hospital gave me is for a Fleet's enema to be taken at home the night before surgery. I was also given a menu for a low retention diet for the day before the procedure. I previously had that knee scoped and do not recall any such diet (only NPR after midnight the day before) or an enema before that procedure.

While hospital enemas have become fairly uncommon these days, they are still part of a preparatory protocol for different types of procedures or surgeries. Because so many are done on an outpatient basis, preps are usually specified to be accomplished at home prior to admission. That may well include a Hibiclens shower and also an enema.

My orthopedic surgeon suggested a Fleet's enema prior to my TKR. He also suggests them prior to hip surgery and indicates in the printed handouts that it is to reduce the need to use the toilet for a BM shortly after surgery. His staff actually provided the Fleet enema and Hibiclens solution and brush.

Because I enjoy some dialogue, when I was asked if I had any questions by the nurse, I inquired if a water enema was acceptable. I furthered the issue by asking if soapsuds was suggested and what quantities were recommended. This dialogue can continue when asked, prior to surgery, if you followed the prep protocols, urinated, or had a BM.

Post surgery, and prior to discharge, the recovery room staff usually go over the pain management issues among other things. They almost always cover the potential for constipation due to the opioid pain meds. This has always been another opportunity to engage in dialogue regarding enema use or recommendations.

I've found that most older nurses are fairly well versed and will discuss such topics with a degree of experience. Many younger nurses don't seem to have a base of knowledge or experience to discuss such things. They often have to go ask someone else. It seems they are well versed in carrying out their specific tasks, but alternatives sometimes pose some difficulty.

OIC or opiate induced constipation can now be treated by Relistor which is methylnaltrexone bromide given subcutaneously. It's like narcan just for the gut. It is mainly used in constipation from extended high dose opiate use in cancer patients.

Liquid--that is more or less what I thought. thanks.

hankb

Relistor® is kind like the US Healthcare system in general: In love with very expensive solutions to problems that generally can be dealt with at far lower cost, if you are willing to actually make the effort.

Relistor® works because the modified nalaxone molecule still binds to the opioid receptor, and can block the effects of the opioid (you can think of the receptor as a lock, and the opiate as the key, Nalaxone is essentially a key blank. It fits in the key hole, but lacks the ability to activate the tumblers and actually turn the lock). Unlike Nalaxone, the modified molecule is unable to pass through the blood-brain barrier, so it cannot reach the opioid receptors in the brain to block them. Relistor can only block the receptors outside the Central Nervous System, i.e. the gut. If you think laxatives are expensive, hold on to your hat. Relistor® is about $100 a dose wholesale, so probably closer to $500 in a Hospital or Hospice setting. Most insurers won't pay for it, even brand name Senokot® is a small fraction of the price. Even an enema administered by an RN will be substantially less expensive.

The price has already dropped quite a bit actually. A single dose is 48 dollars and a 7 dose vial kit is 336. But I am sure because it's a somewhat new medication prices are probably all over the place.

Mashie

Along these same lines, while those newer methods and drugs are quite effective, a cost factor may be a legitimate question to raise in furtherance of those types of questions/interactions. I'm not shy about inquiring if an old fashioned enema might accomplish the desired outcome.

The sad realization on my part, is that it is highly unlikely that I'd ever get another enema in the hospital/clinical setting.

Are there any retired nurses out here that can post the recipe and procedure for giving a 1950s style hospital SSE? I have been trying to find the formula for the "DREADED" hospital enema with no luck. not sure if they come under the heading HHH. my lady would love to give me them if she knew how. Thanks......

As I was 10 in 1960 I was given suppositories after cicumcision in hospital most of the time from a red rubber aproned nurse. One day I was in stirrups in the bed ( I tried in the night to get the material around my penis away) in the morning this nurse came in a white rubber apron and turned me to the side, she gave me two bulb enemas. She had put rubber gloves on her hands (I think it made me a klismaphile), I was given a red rubber sheet under me, then in came another two nurses on this morning also in white long rubber aprons, they were going to the operation room in those long aprons as they watched it. The nurse I had was a beautiful woman with nice great chest, I think she liked rubber aprons. She was wearing her red rubber apron so often, also and my mom in her rubber apron made me rubber fetishist.I loved all my life to masturbate with soft cold smooth rubber.

When I had my first baby in the 70's, the protocol was an enema on admission to the labor room. However, my labor was very short and was over in less than an hour. No time for the enema. In those days you stayed in the hospital for 5 days. The routine on the 3rd day after delivery was if no BM in PM, an SSE in AM. One doctor had a habit of ordering the enema to be HHH (high,hot and hell of a lot). Since I had no BM by the 3rd day I was given an enema. The nurse came in my room with an IV pole with an enema can and tube dangling from it. It seemed like it took forever to empty that can and it was the best enema I had up until then. I've had much better enemas from my husband since then but that one was memorable.

Two years later, when I had my second baby I had a different doctor and went to a different hospital and no enemas were given on admission. I was discharged on the 3rd day but since I hadn't had a BM I was given an enema in the morning before I could leave the hospital. This one was a Fleet enema. I had had Fleets before but they never took as long as this one. For a Fleets, it was very pleasurable. In the mid 80's I had two abdominal surgeries and had SS enemas the night before, No more enema cans, though. Everything was disposable by then.

In the mid 1970s, about 1973-74, I had minor surgery to remove a cyst. The doctor told me I would be given an enema later that night and I was expecting to get a large volume soapsuds or tap water enema of at least 1 Liter. I was given a Fleet Enema in the hospital that night before the surgery. The nurse gave me the enema in front of my wife, which I certainly didn't mind. It was the first time either of us had ever heard of Fleet Enemas.

In the very late 1990s, I had major surgery to remove a cancerous kidney and fully expected I would be given an enema the night before the surgery, hopefully a large soapsuds enema or two. But no enema was given either before the surgery or afterward either. I was in the hospital four days and was able to be discharged only after I had gone to the bathroom on my own.

Sadly I couldn't afford the co-pays, even with medical insurance, in the 1970s when my doctor wanted me to have a base-line barium enema exam for comparison to future barium enema tests if required. That was an experience I would like to have experienced.

Other medical tests like prostate ultrasound exams, a rigid sigmoidoscope exam required a Fleet Enema, either before I went or in the doctor's office, and in the case of a flexible sigmoidoscopy exam in the 1980s, two Fleet Enemas, 30 minutes apart, before I left home..

I have been fortunate to not have to be in the hospital for any reason other than the birth of my children. Prior to the birth of my first child, my mother told me that I would probably be given a large soapy enema in the labor room. The thought of an enema under those circumstances did not thrill me but I was not afraid of an enema having given myself countless enemas over the years. Once it was determined my labor was real, the nurse told me it was time for my enema. She gave me a Fleet instead of the expected large volume enema. I don't really remember much about it because I had other things on my mind at the time. But I guess it worked. For my child second, I probably waited too long at home before going to the hospital. Once I got to the hospital it was rush-rush and everything was over in just a few minutes. No time for an enema, or anything. When I was packing up to leave a few days later the nurse put a Fleet enema in my bag to take home. I asked her why she did that. She said every labor room kit has an enema in it. I paid for it, so I might as well take it home because some day I might need it. I did use it on myself some time later. I did not like it as well as my trusty old bag.

My life long enema interest was influenced greatly by an early hospital experience where I received numerous SSEs (I've described this experience in some of my posts here, including an in depth story I outlined in "A Hospital Experience Part 1"). In my twenties, during a hospital stay to diagnose abdominal pain via a rigid proctoscope and barium enema, I encountered a nurse who was also a klismo. She was very experienced at administering my cleansing enemas during that stay and thus began a long term relationship based on a mutual love of exchanging all types of enemas. We developed many varied role play scenarios employing enemas and other similar treatments. These included nurse/ patient, D/s scenes of all types, and erotic scenes using enemas given in a gentle loving manner; sometimes including mutually received enemas while engaging in all forms of sexual activities.

Unfortunately, since large volume SSEs are no longer a hospital mainstay, and even fleet type enemas have lost favor in a hospital environment, it's no longer possible to establish a relationship like I describe above. It would be great to return to the "Golden Age of Enemas" and bring back white hospital irrigator cans, colon tubes, old fashioned red open top bags and red bulbs equipped with black bakelite nozzles and filled with Ivory soap solutions.

I think some things should be left to your imagination. I am a nurse and a hospital enema isnt all that you think it will be.

@ginnie Maybe not Ginnie, but I'd still enjoy you giving me a couple enemas. 😉

Ginnie I was admited to the hospital and had flu like symptoms or anything of that nature and I was constipated and asked for a enema honestly what is the absolute largest one they would give would it be anywhere near 4 qts

T-man I would have to say if the Dr even considered an enema it would be a Fleet.

I was given a good HHH SSE prior to the delivery (all vaginal) of all of my kids. I agree that in The States in is now next to impossible to convince a nurse to give you a "real" enema. If you clearly state to your doctor and the admissions personnel to chart that you receive SSEs rather than other protocols, usually this will be followed. The 3 day no BM rule is pretty much in the crapper, so to speak. At that point, you again, would need to ask for one.

What I do find interesting though, on a tangent, is when I have a mom or dad come in with their adolescent child and mention that their kid has problems with constipation, or is constipated for "X" days, I do recommend an enema, and we do administer SSE. However, what's interesting to me is the parents' response of "Oh, yeah. My Mom would have done the same thing." Well, if that's the case, why didn't you, and why don't you on a routine basis? It does often become a most interesting conversation starter as well, as most of the tweens/teens look on with the blank, fearful, OMG! expression on their faces!

In the sixties (where I'm from), I don't believe you could hardly stay in the hospital overnight with out receiving one. Why was it important then and not now?