Enema Again and Again

I was unable to empty my bowels after I suffered a serious spinal ailment, years ago. I was bed-bound and had to lie totally flat on a plaster-of-Paris bed which was placed on a wooden frame. I just couldn't move my bowels with the bedpan, placed under my bottom, below the plaster-of-Paris bed.

The surgeon first, asked the hospital dietician to put me on a diet of lots of fruit and fruit juices but that did not help to stimulate the evacuation of my bowels. Then he prescribed an aperient  -  a mild laxative  -  but the medicine had no effect. Stronger laxatives were not effective, either. 

Finally, the surgeon had to resort to having the nurses give me enemas. I wonder whether this practice is still being used today in modern medicine. A liquid, (soapy, I think) was poured, via a funnel connected to a tube with its nozzle stuck deeply in my anus, into my rectum to irritate or stimulate my bowels to empty.

A foldaway screen was placed around my bed when the enema was given. I was quite embarrassed when the enema started working as the sound of breaking wind, the sound of the spurts of liquid together with the faeces and the stench would fill the whole ward.

I had to be given an enema once a week. Every Wednesday was enema-day! I dreaded that very much. Can you imagine the embarrassingly horrible smell and sound stimulated by the enema when I was emptying my bowels? I was continuously being given the enemas for more than six months until I was allowed to walk with a heavy plaster-of-Paris casing around my upper torso to protect my spine. I was then able to easily empty my bowels sitting on the toilet bowl.

ltbs

Got no check books, got no banks,
Still I'd like to express my thanks  -
I got the sun in the mornin'
And the moon at night.
Irving Berlin

Tall No More

My father was rather tall for a Chinese. He was more than six foot tall. I guess I seemed to take after him when I was at primary and lower secondary schools. I was one of the tallest boys in class.

However, I suffered a serious spinal ailment after Form Two. When I was discharged from a nearly two-year stay at the hospital, I found that I had not grown in height. The ailment had stunted my growth especially my lower limbs. I had remained at about the same height as when I was first admitted as a patient. The boys who were shorter than I when we were in Form Two had all overshot me in height. I had become one of the shortest boys in class. Although I was tall no more, it did not affect me in the least.

I have never felt that I was short in all my life. I have never really thought about it, either.

ltbs

Every day, in every way, I'm getting better and better.
Emile Couè