Rectal Temp as Second check

@RTneo I was probably 8. I was told to keep it under my tongue but I started rolling it, sucking it lol. My doctor tried to be nice but I was not listening so he asked mom and then flipped me to my tummy, taking it rectally. I was pouting, whining and squirming but well, he got it done.

@bloom565 was that your first ever rectal temp? Maybe I should've tried that as a kid....lol

She stopped taking RTs when I was around 12 or so but that didn't prevent me from getting one at other times. As a rule, it was always done as part of my physical exam growing up and sure to be a "second check" if mom took me to the doctor complaining of some malady. I continued with our family doctor even when I went to college and would return home during vacation periods. I guess you could say, it has been a standard so to speak!

@RTneo no, not first rectal temperature but the first one I didn't think I need. Was just being bratty. Lol.

I don't understand why your mother would first take it under the arm, then rectally. Under the arm is even less accurate than oral in my book. Why take it twice, when you can get an accurate rectal reading the first time?

The discussion got me to think of times growing up when my mother first switched me to the oral thermometer. Most times, the procedure went off without a hitch. Other times, Mom would come into my room with the oral thermometer soon after I had some hot tea for my cold. Not realizing this, the thermometer would register abnormally high. Or in the case of Orange Juice, too low. Most times mom waited for the mouth to return to normal. This time she said, "The doctor's nurse is going to call me shortly for your temperature. I told you not to drink anything!" Like she was accusing me of trying to deceive her.

She went into the bathroom and returned with the family rectal thermometer and Vaseline. "Roll over for me, I need your real temperature for the nurse" she ordered and pulled down my pajama bottoms and underpants. I felt my buttocks being spread apart and the cool, slick thermometer push gently up my rectum for two inches and mom released my buttocks and sat next to me on the bed. The three minutes passed and it was withdrawn and wiped down just before the phone rang- . "Yes- I was expecting your call, he has a rectal temperature of 101.2- I would like to bring him into the office this afternoon." Mom hung up and I was told to take a bath and wash well for the doctor's visit.

If I was alone was axillary or inguinal. If he did so Mom could vary between armpit, groin or rectal. If it was Grandma was always rectally. E 'success that in a few minutes was measured by me axillary and rectal shortly after by her grandmother. Mom rather not repeat the temperature taking in the good that I said. Happened 15 to 16 years, I can not remember exactly.

When I was in college, I went to the student health center, with the flu. All temps. were taken orally. (1970's). One girl told the nurse that she had never had an oral temp. taken before, and the nurse just explained the procedure, before placing the thermometer under her tongue. Afterward, the girl asked about the accuracy of an oral temp., and the nurse

stated that rectal is for babies, small children, and invalids.

As a teen I once told my father after staying home from school sick and preparing for a dr s appt that the clinic had called and asked for my rectal temperature. I had him bring home a baby thermometer and two fleet enemas that I was supposed to take before my appt. I was planning on having my friend come over and help me.

When he arrived I said that I wasn't supposed to do it myself and wanted Kevin to help. He wouldn't let him and insisted on doing it himself. It wasn't as bad as I figured, so well into high school. When I was sick (or faking) when he wanted to check my temp, I'd let him do it orally, then when it was normal, I'd sigh and tell him that 'we'd' better check it the other way.

He'd soon return with the rectal thermometer and Vaseline to find me lying on stomach bottom bare. He often asked if I could do it, but I said it was easier to let him. I enjoyed each time.

After my rectal temperature days were history, my mom never took my temperature rectally for a second check. When I learn arm pit and if I had fever, my doctor was called. That was the same for oral temperatures too.

About a year ago I was in hospital because of appendicitis suspection. They measured 3 times a day, in my bum and elsewhere (every nurse did it different, don't know why)

The rectal thermometer was used as a second check during a period when my mom had gone to mostly axillary temps. I can remember getting it taken under the arm and mom being concerned. That would usually lead to her saying something like " after lunch I'm going to take it rectally." This would leave me with incredible anxiety and butterflies in my stomach and always made the rectal temp seem like a big deal.

I took my son to the children's clinic once for an ear infection, I think he was 4 or 5. I took his rectal temperature before leaving home, and it was over 101F. The young girl working triage tried taking his temperature twice with a tympanic thermometer in his good ear. She got one reading 97.8 and the other attempt didn't register at all. She went and got another nurse, who was a little older and more experienced. The first thing she told the girl was "dear, he's got an ear infection, you need to take his rectal temperature." The girl looked dumbstruck, like the nurse just asked her to perform open heart surgery. That's when I spoke up and asked her if she'd ever been trained to take rectal temperatures. She said she thought so, but clearly she just didn't want to. The other nurse said "honey, it's the easiest thing. It only takes about a minute." She actually had to show the girl by taking my son's rectal temperature herself. He didn't so much as even whimper she was so gentle. The girl said " I thought that taking his temperature in his butt would hurt him, and he'd start crying." I reminded her that the only way I took my son's temperature was rectally, because it's more accurate. I don't know if she ever learned to do it, but I never saw her working triage after that day.

I had a bad respiratory infection in my teens, in the late 1970s. Was having trouble breathing. Mom took my rectal temperature at home in the middle of the night. I had a high fever. She took me to the ER. The nurse also took it rectally. At first I was embarrassed, but two hours later when she took it again, I hardly thought about it.

I only remember my temp being taken once rectally

My parents always took it rectally , this was quite usual those times I guess

My wife was pretty rundown having helped her father through surgery over the last couple of weeks. He was moved to a rehab center and she was going to visit, but did not feel 100%. She took her temperature orally and it came up 99.5, slightly elevated. She was worried about getting her dad sick and decided to verify her temperature rectally, knowing it is the most accurate. Soon afterward she was standing there with a thermometer protruding from her rear end. Three minutes later her temperature came up as 101.3. Needless to say she spent the next couple of days in bed taking her temperature both orally and rectally as a secondary check. Her temperature spiked to 103 at one point. Once her fever subsided and she was fever free for 24 hrs she finally went to visit, but only after she took her temperature rectally one last time to ensure that she did not have a fever.

My parents took my temp rectally up to about 12 years old, then they ended up buying an oral thermometer, at last! However when I was 16 I was really sick in bed. At some point my dad came and took my oral temp, but it gave a really borderline reading (37,5) while I was fairly hot and shivering. He left my room and came back with the case of the old glass rectal thermometer and a jar of Vaseline and told me to tune around and drop my briefs. I was so humiliated but to weak to protest. I ended up having a rectal temp of 39,5 and we later found out I had a bad pneumonia. My oral temp was probably lower due to my then fast breathing.

In my case, a rectal temp was only taken after the oral thermometer broke, when I was around 8. My sadistic, male-hating grandmother was babysitting me at the time. She stuck it up my ass without any lubricant. It was painful beyond imagination. You would think that I wouldn't want a rectal temp. taken ever again...but you would be wrong. Many years later, a sweet and gentle girlfriend, who was a nursing student, coaxed me into it, when I was staying with her, and came down with the flu. Had it not been for that, I probably would have never developed this fetish. Kind of a bittersweet memory.

As a child, they immediately went for my bottom. Only as a man in my early 50s, and as an emergency room patient, has a RT been secondary. I recently had it taken in my armpit, and I’m not sure why, but a secondary oral proved it to be very inaccurate. By the way, receiving a real medical related rectal temp is still humiliating, especially when the ER team is discussing it while a teen girl with her mother separated from me only by a curtain was next to me with an “appendicitis” who was really only constipated.

A nurse friend of mine checks her daughter’s temperature in her ear first. If it’s high or she’s concerned, she follows up with a rectal temperature.

Always rectal at our house growing up never a second check.

A rectal temperature is always a good double check or in some cases the best first choice.

No, for me it has always been rectal

At home, I only take my temp. rectally. If I had to do it in front of visiting guests, it would be oral. The only person who is aware that I take rectal temps., is my wife. Sometimes, I'll use two rectal thermometers, and if the first seems to be off, then I take it again with the second one, just to confirm that I do have a fever. The way I see it, it's double the pleasure.....and you know exactly what your true core temp. is.

Always rectal at our house growing up never a second check.

When I went in to have my Gall Bladder removed, they took my temp with an aural thermometer. It showed that I had a low grade fever that would prevent the surgery. Since I felt fine, and so much had gone into the prep, I asked if they could double check it. They told me the only way to be certain was to take a RT. I tried my best to hide my excitement. Since I had just gone through the pre-admission testing, the Dr. was pissed. I was pissed that he didn't have the nurse redo the RT.

I have a female friend who is an EMT and I chatted with her the other night and I asked her if she wanted me to take my rectal temperature and she did and I got a reading of 100. It was not fever but I chatted with her for awhile and before calling a night, I asked her if she wanted me to take my rectal temperature and to see if it had came down and it was then 98.8.

When I took my rectal temperature 4 times today, I was chatting with my EMT friend and did a second check twice by using different thermometers.

If you take your temp. rectally in the first place, then you won't need to take it another way. The thermometer doesn't lie. It isn't like a politician or a rogue nation.