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Subject: Re: Waiting for the Doctor Author: Ed [ Next Thread | Previous Thread | Next Message | Previous Message ] Date Posted: Thursday, May 13, 2010, 08:05: am In reply to: Becky 's message, "Waiting for the Doctor" on Tuesday, September 29, 2009, 08:04: pm Like many who have written before, Vick's, baby aspirin and powerful Cheracol (?) cherry cough syrup were my Doctor Mom's usual remedies. Of course, "good" enemas were added to the list if there was no BM more than a day after onset of an illness. Only once that I know of did our family doctor order an enema, and my mom had already used the white can and Ivory on me. She gave me another enema the next day just for good measure and could always say that the doctor approved of them. A friend's mom also always did this, and was that experience similar to yours? [ Next Thread | Previous Thread | Next Message | Previous Message ]

Replies:

[> [> Subject: Re: Waiting for the Doctor Author: Sharon [ Edit | View ] Date Posted: Saturday, May 15, 2010, 07:36: pm I don't ever remember a doctor making house calls, but do remember my mother giving me an enema before we went to the doctor's office. It was always the same sequence where she would take my temperature, decide that she should take me to the doctor, call for an appointment, and give me an enema. I never liked them but can still remember sitting there feeling like I was going to never stop pooping. It was only later that I decided that I sort of liked getting one, but by then I was in my late teens. [ Post a Reply to This Message ]

[> [> [> Subject: Re: Waiting for the Doctor Author: Mike [ Edit | View ] Date Posted: Tuesday, May 18, 2010, 10:20: pm Sharon I always wondered about that. My mom did the same thing, for what reason was an enema necessary? Except to make me more miserable than I already felt. [ Post a Reply to This Message ]

[> [> [> [> Subject: Re: Waiting for the Doctor Author: Ed [ Edit | View ] Date Posted: Wednesday, May 19, 2010, 08:07: am The pre-appointment enemas may have been given to show that our moms already had begun treating whatever ailed us, figuring that enemas would be prescribed in any case. It was thought just another routine treatment in home nursing care, whether we liked or hated it. [ Post a Reply to This Message ]

[> [> [> [> [> Subject: Re: Waiting for the Doctor Author: Elllent [ Edit | View ] Date Posted: Saturday, May 22, 2010, 08:21: am I don't think I agree with the beginning treatment notion. Instead I know that many believed that even if an enema did not help a good occasional cleaning out could never hurt. Growing up I know I got a few enemas just because my mother thought that it was a good idea at the time. [ Post a Reply to This Message ]

[> [> [> [> [> [> Subject: Re: Waiting for the Doctor Author: Lucky boyfrined [ Edit | View ] Date Posted: Monday, May 24, 2010, 10:18: pm I took my girlfriend to her doctor after she had been up all night vomiting. We had eaten some shrimp and I think it might have been bad. She just had the dry heaves when we arrived at the office. She was lying on the exam table in her PJ's. The nurse comes in and gets her vitals and then she pulls down her PJ bottoms and says this is going to be cold as she sticks the temp probe up her bottom. Her butt cheeks tensed up at first. The doctor comes in and exams her and leaves and the same nurse comes back in this time carrying a syringe. She pulls down her PJ's again and takes swabs her butt and sticks this needle into her butt and says this is going to burn a little as she pushes down the plunger. She yells out and then I see the tears in her eyes. It was over just that quick. I am looking at her little butt which has a small trickle of blood running down her cheek. I helped her pull up her PJ's. As we are driving home I asked if she was embarrased by me seeing her bare bottom. She said at first she was , but she was happy I was there when she got the injection. [ Post a Reply to This Message ]

[> [> [> Subject: Re: Waiting for the Doctor Author: Becky [ Edit | View ] Date Posted: Tuesday, May 25, 2010, 03:22: pm I think getting an enema before going to the doctor back then was pretty common. I don't think people realize how uninformed people were back then. Many thought an aspirin cured many things. I too think it was moms trying to prove to the doctor they did all they could first. Doctors were really put up on a pedestal, and if you went to the doctor's office and didn't reek with the smell of Vicks, your mom wasn't doing her job. I know there was a lot of concern for having clean panties and that only reminded me that they might be taken down and all these strangers would be looking at them, most likely while they were down at my knees and me bawling like a baby after I got a shot. They did like to take rectal temps at a much older age than let's say in the 1970's when my kids were born. However, I don't remember many suppositories but it my kids got them a lot. [ Post a Reply to This Message ]

[> [> [> [> Subject: Re: Waiting for the Doctor Author: Ellen [ Edit | View ] Date Posted: Wednesday, May 26, 2010, 08:58: am In all fairness, most childhood ailments were pretty simple and not all that many required either a doctor or for that matter a doctor giving an injection. Coughs, colds, and short term viruses could be dealt with at home and most remedies only served to relieve the symptoms. Usually if you gave it a couple of days the body's immune system would take care of things. Vicks helped make breathing easier, cough syrup eased the hacking, aspirin soothed pain even if it never cured anything, and an enema made sure that the bowels were functioning to rid the body of any waste. The thermometer told weather the patient was making progress and also how severe the problem was. While home nursing was pretty simplistic, but most of the time was pretty good, too. [ Post a Reply to This Message ]

[> [> [> [> Subject: Re: Waiting for the Doctor Author: Tim [ Edit | View ] Date Posted: Monday, May 31, 2010, 04:38: am Ellen you're right except that way back when, parents were always worried when a kid got sick because they knew very little about illnesses. So a big deal was made of any illness. Since a doctor only had a few healing medicines, the kid almost always got a shot of Penicillin.....I think it traumatized many kids......Tim [ Post a Reply to This Message ]

[> [> [> [> [> Subject: Re: Waiting for the Doctor Author: Ed [ Edit | View ] Date Posted: Tuesday, June 01, 2010, 07:13: am I do think shots can be traumatizing, but the much more frequent sight of the enema bag or can headed your way could be equally or more so. [ Post a Reply to This Message ]

[> [> [> [> [> Subject: Re: Waiting for the Doctor Author: Ellen [ Edit | View ] Date Posted: Saturday, June 05, 2010, 11:40: am I think if I had been given a choice between getting an enema or getting a shot I would have chosen the enema every time. It must be the smell of the antiseptic that they wipe on your skin before the needle goes in, but I start to breathe faster and feel light headed every time I get a whiff of it. By comparison an enema does not evoke all that bad of feelings. [ Post a Reply to This Message ]