Enemas with hemmies (plus a postpartum question) *updated*

UC wise I'm doing well, though pregnancy adds some interesting bowel issues at times.
I'm doing the mesalamine enemas once a week but am planning to increase to once every 4 or 5 days. The reason for this is just some odd BMs (kind of a sluggish bowel, smallish BMs but only one a day, and they're mushy) and I just don't know if it is from pregnancy, from eating beans one day and lentils the next, or if I just need to up the enemas. So I'm upping the enemas to be on the safe side.

Anyway, got a painful hemmie the other day from overdoing things a little bit instead of taking breaks during a big cleaning project. It's going down and is much less painful, but stick an enema in there and it sure hurts. I know to add extra lubricant to the tip... anything else I can do other than just go slow?


And I'll be giving birth in about 5 weeks or so. For the ladies who have done enemas after childbirth... How the heck?! I'm thinking of the postpartum hemmies of course and just overall soreness of everything down south. I'll likely have a few stitches again, since I tore a bit with my first 2 births. I have a sitz bath, a peri bottle (so I don't have to wipe every time I pee), and a sprayer by the toilet to make BM cleanup easier. Were you able to do enemas pretty soon after birth? Any tips?

Gosh darn it! I had typed out a whole post, went to submit and HW logged me out before it went thru! Ggrrr

But basically what I was going to say is, see if your doctor will prescribe you a lidocaine cream or suppository to numb the area up if you have to do have to do an enema.

Thanks for the replies.
Yeah, wasn't thinking of attempting one right after the birth, but just thinking if it had been a few days since I'd done one, then have the baby, then wait at least a few days to attempt one... That could potentially be more than a week between doses.
I guess I'll just have to wait and see.

My concern with lidocaine or anything that numbs is potentially causing more damage if I can't feel that I'm pushing at a tender spot.

I have external and internal hemmies. The only time I can't use an enema is if I have had a day where I have been to the bathroom a lot and the hemmies hurt. You will probably be able to do an enema two to three days after giving birth I would think. If it hurts too much when trying to insert just wait another day and see how you feel.

Just wanted to post an update to this with my experience in case anyone is searching for postpartum info in the future.

Hemmies were bad this time and took about 2 weeks to start healing. The reason for this seemed to be because of the uterine afterpains. As anyone with more than one birth under her belt knows, the afterpains get worse with each additional birth. This being my third, they were bad and were felt not only in my uterus but in my rectum as well. So despite treating the hemmies with creams, suppositories and ice packs, they would get pushed back out with the afterpains. Fun times.

Once the afterpains quit the hemmies healed up fine with my above methods plus not standing too long.

Oh and I didn't have any stitches this time.

I did an enema after about one week postpartum but my difficulty wasn't with the hemmies. My difficulty was with the fact that I couldn't stay lying down for any predictable length of time because of my newborn.
Yes, a partner can help with diapers or burping during the night but I had to sit up to nurse (rather than nurse lying down) because my newborn had LOTS of spit up and lying down to nurse made it worse.

So I ended up just doing an enema during the day on a weekend while someone else could take her and I laid down for at least an hour and just hoped for the best. The first time was a success and even after getting up I kept it in. Second time wasn't so great but at least it was in there for a couple hours. And then each time after that has been okay.
Better than nothing until she gets to a better sleeping habit at night and I can get back to doing them before bed. As it is now I have no way of knowing if I'll be staying in bed or up very soon after with her.

Anyway, that's my update. Doing well UC-wise and doing the rowasa weekly.