Taking Temps during a REAL Illness

Just wondering if I'm over the edge because when I'm sick with a fever that as an adult I still prefer getting the most accurate temp with a rectal thermometer. It was comforting to read Nurse Nikki, a professional who feels the same way. Any thoughts?

I don't think it's over the top personally. I think it is prudent to know what your temperature is. If it is not hurting anyone what harm is done?

Vicki -- Nothing wrong with it at all. I always felt it was important to have a very accurate temperature reading when you are running a fever. Nobody will dispute that rectal temps are the most spot-on correct. I am sure it is the stigma of where the thermometer is going that has curtailed its use so much (and made it such a item of interest with so many ZITY folks!)

Sad to say it is completely unnecessary. Nice for play - but no real doctor would ever do this.

Well of course you need to do a rectal temp. The vodka on the rocks you are drinking will make oral temps unreliable.

I exclusively take my temperature rectally when I'm sick. To me it's the ONLY way. If i'm sick enough to warrant a visit to the doctor, they usually take it orally with a Welch-Allyn electronic thermometer. If i'm asked what my temperature was at home, I will tell them what it was and make sure I mention the word "rectal" at the end. Nobody has ever commented on it or anything. If you want to take your temperature rectally at home, be it for fun or for real, then go for it!

The difference between rectal, oral and high tech thermometers are so slight as to be unimportant (except when consuming vodka on the rocks). What would you gain by knowing a 0.2 degree difference? The dose of medication is the same.

Of course there's a use for rectal temps, it's in a highly controlled medical environment such as the OR where body temperature manipulation may be part of the procedure.

JDS - there is no practical use for rectal temperature taking. It is 100% fetish.

I'd respectfully disagree that it's a 100% fetish. When hit with sinus and/or bronchial congestion, persistent cough, sore throat, etc., accompanying a fever, I don't feel taking an oral temp is necessarily the best route -- at least at home. In hospitals or doctors' offices probably a different story, as they have more sophisticated thermometers.

Vicki, you're absolutely right! It's next to impossible to get an accurate oral temperature when you cannot breathe through your nose. No matter what, you're going to end up opening your mouth, and therefore altering the reading. If you're at home, want to take a rectal temperature.... who cares? What you do is your business. Is there fetish involved?? No... well... maybe. But it's not the ONLY reason. Medically, rectal IS the gold standard for accuracy. And again, if that's what you want to do, to yourself, then go for it!

JDS - there is no practical use for rectal temperature taking. It is 100% fetish.

It is used in both the ER and OR to this day.

In the ER, rectal probes are used to accurately monitor the temperature of hypo- or hyperthermia patients while reheating or cooling are used to normalize body temperature.

In the OR, in procedures like open heart surgery, body temperature is purposely lowered to delay brain death from hypoxia. Rectal probes are used to monitor the process and recovery.

Except in infants and small children, rectal temps are not used for routine measurements. Even in babies, temporal or ear thermometers are more common.

It is also commonly used in ITU's/ICU's for accurate temperature monitoring. Although the last few years they have developed urinary catheters with a temperature port and this method is starting to become the preferred route.

It is also commonly used in ITU's/ICU's for accurate temperature monitoring. Although the last few years they have developed urinary catheter with a temperature port and this method is starting to become the preferred route.

I've been out of practice for a few years, OK more than a few. The catheter is a great idea - until it needs flushing.

I stand corrected - but I guess if I were lying in an open-heart scenario I think that rectal thermometer would be the least of my vulnerabilities.

I don't believe that rectal temps. are commonly used even in European countries, as they had been for years. I don't even think that most people under age 40 would know what a rectal temperature is. I'm not knocking rectal temperature taking. If you're comfortable with that method, continue using it at home. I do !

To JJM.

Actually rectal temps are used in few countries. They are not always used but i know for sure, that countries like Denmark, Norway, Sweden and Iceland all use rectal temps.

But like I said, not always. But if you might have infection,they insist to take rectal temp. If you are not very sick, you are allowed to do it, but if you are very sick, then the nurse will do it.

This is no fantasy bullshit. I have visited Iceland and I got a little cut, and I went to the ER in a town called Akureyri.

When it was my turn, the nurse said that the temp should be taken rectally. She gave me a thermometer and it had some plasic over it and it was lubricated.

Then she said that it must stay in for 3 minutes and she would be back soon. She told me also not to remove the plastic and she offered me a blanket.

She was very nice and then she left.

I laid on the exam table and took my temp.

It was so embarrassing because I knew, that the nurse knew that I was putting a thermometer in my ass.

I layed on my left side and took my temp.

When the nurse came in I gave the thermometer to her, and she removed the plastic and read the thermometer.

Then the doctor came in. She was a foreigner, I think she was from Germany.

She asked if a had a fever and I can remember how embarrassing I felt, because she knew of course, that temps are taken rectally 😃

It's hard to say that accuracy isn't important but...in most clinical situations oral is "good enough." It is important to note that there can be a full degree in difference between oral, rectal and axillary readings. Upper limit of normal for axillary is 98.4, oral 99.4 and rectal 100.4 -- at least that's what I was taught in medical school physical diagnosis class. There are clinical situations in which an accurate reading is vital, as previously alluded to: OR, ICU, clinical problems involving hyper- or hypothermia and a few others. For example, patients with significant hyper- or hypothyroidism may have significant body temperature aberrations that require some monitoring and more accurate is better.

I'm not feeling well and I just did. I figure if it's good enough for play then its good enough for real.

When I am sick I take mine rectally.

I had a migraine yesterday. When I've got a major headache like that, along with a queasy stomach, if I think I'm also running a fever, I just prefer taking a rectal.

To those that say the less accurate oral (or other) means of taking temperature are "close enough", consider this. If someone has had something to drink or even been breathing through their mouth the error is very significant--up to several degrees depending. Oral will frequently give subnormal readings also. Won't happen with a rectal temp.

So just stop the childish excuses, drop your panties, lie prone on the exam table and prepare for the onslaught of love's swift dart!

I don't get sick very often, but when I do, I always take my temp rectally. I just want to see how high the fever is and I leave it in for 5 minutes.

If the temperature is over 38 then I take one suppository.

I also do the same with my sub. When she tells me that she doesn't feel well, then I visit her.

Of course I take her temperature rectally and I do it every 3 hours all day, when she is awake.

Sometimes she get's tired of it and complains. Then I tell her that she had earned herself a spanking.

But I only spank her when she isn't sick 😃

When I am ill, I really don't need a temperature reading to confirm what so many other symptoms are already telling me. I am ill and feel just awful. I know it and that's that.

I suppose the temp taking is useful for other people to confirm you are ill and not just faking for some reason or another - say when back young to stay home from school. But even so I'm certain there are other perfectly valid ways of being ill without necessarily running a fever.

All that said, temp taking can be fun in a play setting. But in the past few decades I don't think me or my wife have ever taken a temp in relation to determining an illness or what. And now we are old enough not to have to answer to anyone (schoolteacher or boss or supervisor) or prove we are ill when we say so.

And when we go to the family doctor during an illness, he pays more attention to other symptoms than temperature. A few times he's used a paste-on strip on the forehead maybe, but not on me though. And besides, both my wife and myself have lower than normal base-line body temps so that screws up readings with docs who don't know our medical histories. And a new doc never seems to believe what we say about that anyway. Then we get the 'uneducated ignorant noobs' look from the doc, even though my wife is a medical professional.

My wife will endure a rectal temp when she is sick but prefers them as part of sexual play. For me, it is even sexier when the results really count. Just sayin'.

I agree with you vidan. I like more when I have to take one of my subs temp, to actually see if they are sick or not.

But I also like just playing, but it's better when you have to do it 😃

Ever since we bought the Welch-Allyn thermometer for my household, the temperature taking method of choice is now mostly rectal. When my husband had the flu last time, I insisted on taking his rectal temperature to keep from bothering him from sleep. Just a matter up slipping the probe up his rear, and letting him fall back to sleep. And if my two boys get sick, I take theirs rectally because they drink cold drinks and eat ice cream. That would throw off an oral reading, and I prefer gold standard accuracy. It really shouldn't be such a passé ordeal to have your temperature taken in the butt. It doesn't hurt....it's definitely the most accurate.....and I'm sure most family members in any given home has seen each other's butts at one time or another. I take at least one rectal temperature everyday at work as a nurse. Some hate it, others don't mind it as much. But it's the method that gets the best results.

Nurse Nikki makes a good case that taking a family member's temperature rectally may be the least disruptive to his or her sleep. Earlier this month when I was hit with a migraine I also ran a low grade fever. While sleeping off the migraine for several hours, I sort of remember being turned on my side and hearing my husband whispering that he was going to take my temperature. I felt the chilly K-Y and the thermometer being inserted in my bottom, but within a few moments I was back to sleep.

When I was a kid I would get rectal temps when I was very congested. When taken orally it would be a false reading because I would be trying to breathe through my mouth. I still take my temp rectally on the rare occasion I am sick.

I actually have to take mine rectally. I only have two thermometers, one glass and one digital, that I put up my butt for fun. When I'm sick, as I am now, I have to use one of the two.

When i'm sick or think i'm coming down with something i take my temp rectally .. always have and always will. Hey .. i'm into enemas and ass play and it's just they way i like doing things. 😃