Enemas: From dreading to enjoying them
I recently had a cause to reflect on my attitudes toward taking enemas and it truly went from hating and dreading getting one to actually enjoying them. Up until age 7 or 8 I was given enemas with a small bulb syringe, but then my mother felt that I was old enough to get one from the bag. For several years the process was always the same: I'd be told that I was getting an enema, I'd wait in my bedroom as my mother would bring a saucepan up from the kitchen to mix the soapy water before pouring into the bag, and once everything was ready I'd be called. The bathroom door would be closed and there would be the bag bulging with its dreaded contents hanging from a hook on the back. I would be either in my pajamas or nightshirt; the bottoms of the former would have to come off or the if the latter then it would be raised to about my shoulder blades. I'd certainly complain and whine, but I always got the enema and it always cleaned me out.
Two things are probably true about growing up: I probably didn't get as many enemas as it seemed, and the quantity was much less, too--probably not more than a quart (I was well into my 20s before I ever took a whole bag). I think I must have been either 11 or 12 before I watched the whole process of Mom preparing me an enema. By then I had gone to the quiet submission phase and knew my fate, but the process had not changed and I was not happy either. When I was a teenager, the number of enemas dropped off drastically, but if I was sick or constipated it was still the expected treatment. Only once when I was in my mid teens and feeling rather awful did I ever ask for one, and by then I was getting them on my bed. There was a hiatus for several years when I didn't get any, but in my very late teens my PMS (although not known by that term yet) had gotten progressively worse each month and I would resort to taking a laxative; however, one month the bottle was empty and could find nobody in the sorority house with any I could beg. One of the seniors told me to take a small enema instead, which not only surprised me, but I wasn't enthusiastic about either. Debating the suggestion versus walking downtown to the pharmacy and back, I decided that the enema was probably a better idea. All I had to do was switch nozzles on my folding syringe and recall what I watched my mom do as a teenager. An hour later everything was done and I was feeling a bit better.
That was almost 35 years ago and I still do them, although now having gone through menopause I don't need one for PMS any more, but still enjoy one with some frequency. I certainly evolved from dread to enjoyment.