RTs: How were you told?

When I felt some of my parents hand across my forehead and was told "Go to your bed, lay down and have a rest for a while". At that pointen I knew that it would be impossible trying to escape from the dreaded and detasted rectal thermometer.

I remember being 3 years old on the hospital exam table. I was naked and lying on my stomach. The nurse told me she was going to take my temperature. I saw her bring the thermometer so I opened my mouth wide. She passes by and the next thing I feel is something extremely cold entering my anus!

Roll over so your tempature can be taken. And stay still like a good boy/big boy.

Growing up, I always had my temp taken rectally, especially before an enema.

Sometimes words aren't necessary. It didn't take much thought to figure out why my Mom was folding down the blankets of my bed with one hand while holding a thermometer and a tube of Vaseline.

My mother had an unusual phrase, instead of say let’s take your temp, or something like that, she would say “let’s check you out” which has always struck me as kind of funny. I mean at other times she would use the word temperature but not when she was going to take it. This was especially true when I was younger and she was taking my temperature exclusively rectally. She also used the phrase “roll over and pull down your pants” when she got into the room, even than never mentioning temperature taking.

My mother would typically put her hand to my forehead, then say something to the effect of, "D---, you feel warm to the touch. I'm going to take your temperature." Up until age 7 or so, that meant only one thing--a rectal temperature. By second grade, she might (though not always) start out by taking my temp orally. But she was quick to double check with a rectal temp if she had any doubts. At that point, she might say something like, "This seems low to me. You're not going to like this, but I think it would be a good idea for me to take your temperature in your tushie just to be sure." Then, she would either send me or take me to my bedroom or hers, tell me to lie down on the bed on my tummy and pull my pants and underwear down to my knees, sit down on the bed next to me with the red-tipped thermometer in the gray case and a jar of Vaseline in tow, spread my bottom cheeks with her left hand, and begin.

With my mom at early ages it was "Ok Sweetie, I need you to slide your undies down and roll over." And then I would get my rectal temp.

I recall my mother saying, "alright, let's check your average kinetic energy!"

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OK, I made that up. . . .

If there were ever some reason why I would need to take a rectal temp on my physicist-to-be 19 year old daughter, I would say that and I know she would respond with a chuckle.

With me getting my temperature taken from the time I was a toddler until I was almost 5; it is time to take your temperature. I knew what to do.

Nothing. Never had my temperature taken ?

My husband and I were on vacation when I was hit so bad with a migraine and throwing up that he took me to an urgent care. It was a small town in Minnesota. A female doctor and two female nurses. I was lying on my side and exam table and they had given me a plastic bucket to throw up into. One of the nurses asked if I could hold a thermometer under my tongue. I told her I was terribly nauseated. She asked if it was OK to take my rectal temperature. I think I said something like whatever she needed to do. She said I had a slightly elevated temperature. After the doctor examined me and saw the condition I was in, the second nurse gave me an injection in my bottom and they allowed me to stay for several hours and sleep. My husband said that the nurse took a second rectal temp while I was waking up and before they discharged me. I don't remember that at all. I learned a new phrase during that vacation, Minnesota Nice.

I don't remember the phrases exactly, but the routine was mostly the same each time.

I don't remember for sure, but I think something along the lines of, "roll onto your stomach for me, I'm going to take your temperature." Usually followed by cries, unless I was too sick to protest.

When my mom did it she would usually just say "sit still" or "be still" before putting it in, and she'd usually tell me something about how it won't be too long or it won't take much longer before taking it out.

When I had it done by a nurse she told me something like, "I'm going to take your temperature now, it will feel a little cold for a second but it will be over quick."

My Mom would put her hand on my forehead if I complained of "not feeling well" and then it would be "Go upstairs to your bedroom and I'll be right up, I want to take your temperature" or "I am going to take your temperature." I did not have long to ponder the situation as mom was soon walking into my bedroom with a tray containing the family rectal thermometer, bottle of alcohol , a box of tissues and a jar of petroleum jelly.

I watched as mom shook down the thermometer,dipped it into the thick lubricant. Then she would say "lift up for me" and pull both pajama bottoms and underpants down at the same time. Mom would sit down next to me on the bed. My bottom cheeks would be spread and moments later the cool, slick thermometer would slide slowly up my rectum. Mom would release my buttocks and check her watch. The she would always say "Now lay STILL while it's in - I don't want this thermometer to break in your backside." Mom was always fearful of a rectal thermometer breaking.

She needn't have worried, it never did and to this day she still has it on the top shelf of the medicine chest.

Usually I was sick in bed a or on an exam table at the doctor. I would see the jar of vaseline opened, the rectal thermometer being removed from its case, shook down then dipped in the vaseline, Once that happened, it was followed by "ok, turn over", I would feel the waistband of my underwear or pajamas on my rear end as they were being pulled down and shortly after the cold air on my freshly exposed rear end. I would feel the cool sensation of the thermometer as it was put inside me at which time I was told to "hold still like a good boy". I'd love to hear those words again from a play nurse.

From Grandma: "turn and lower the panties that I measure fever"

My mom would say, "It is time take your temperature." I would stop playing with my toys and with my mom to the living room sofa. I would drop my pants and underwear and lay across my mom's lap and would tell me to relaxe when she inserts the thermometer into my hiney.

Don't know, but in mos cases directly, like "Time for the thermometer up Ur bum" or "Ur warm, let's find out if U have a fever"

My mom always said something along the lines of let's measure you instead of let's measure your temperature.

I was told in a lot of different ways. My mom would see a look in my face and feel my forehead to see if I am hot and if I was, she would go and get the rectal thermometer and come back. That always gave me a clue sometimes that she was wanting to take my rectal temperature. Sometimes, she told me. It was just depending on what was going on.

Let's have your temp taken.

or

We have to check your temperature. I think you are running a fever...

Was never really told the only 2 times I can remember mine being taken.... was being in a hospital or somewhere... the first one I remember I was standing on a gurney and I looked behind me and a nurse was unwinding a red cord thermometer... my diaper was then pulled down and she inserted it into my butt... the second one I was standing and my parents pulled my pants down to my ankles after I pulled them back up the first time and then the rest is history

Vicky, at 16, I had a serious form of bacterial pneumonia that required a full faced oxygen mask for me. Like you I was asked to turn over on my side. I was glad that I had a private room, after I was moved from sub-acute care. In my room I could wear pajamas instead of that hospital gown in sub-acute ward.

At home, mom felt our foreheads, took us upstairs to our rooms, ordered us to take down our pants, and made us lie across our beds unless we were already in bed. I think that having your forehead felt and getting taken upstairs for temperature was more embarrassing for me than my 2 brothers and 2 other sisters. That's because I am the oldest one and they all knew was was in store for me!

It seems like every nurse who took my temp would say, “Let’s get a temp on you.” I remember one starting a dry thermometer, and saying, “Oh my! I need to put some goop on here!” “Goop” is a good thing to have when an object is entering a place that’s designed to be an exit.

I wasn't really told.

At home mom would feel my forehead and say she wanted to check my temperature.

At the doctors office nurses would say something like:

“Lie down on your tummy for me and slide your undies down so we can take your temperature”

“Let’s take your temperature...it goes in your bottom so pull your undies down for me.”

As they put the thermometer I was sometimes praised for being compliant with “that’s a good boy”

I would also be admonished to “lie still like a good boy” or “be still like a big boy” or something along those lines.

The term “good boy” and having my bare butt poked or prodded are fused together in my head as it seems this was the time I almost always got told that. When the thermometer registered I might even hear “good boy” again as it got withdrawn.

Gran would just say "Jump on the bench". I would climb up dressed only in my whitey fronts and lie facing the wall. She would go into the downstairs bathroom and return with the thermometer in its slender vase filled with antiseptic liquid.She would remove my whities then dip the thermometer in the Vaseline jar. I was between six and seven years old.

As a young girl, I was somehow fascinated by the big sundial at my grandparents house, by the outside thermometer and barometer. dont know why. but that was told me for ages ... and made as fun: let us see what your personal weather is today, or what your thermometer says, or what the different is between outside and your one. Then I knew, its time for a check.