I'm still one of the enema-ites and for the most part it works well for me although I have had a few issues. Even with issues, using enemas gives me good quality of life. Most of the time, I can go through my day without worrying about the bathroom which is a big improvement over clustering for several hours at a time. I still need to watch what I eat so that I don't become constipated. I never dreamed there was such a thing as a constipated enema, but meat, too much dairy, refined foods don't want to come out even with water. The upside is that I get to eat healthy all the time, enjoying salads and fruit every day. Sometimes I'll skip the enema for a day and even at 48 hours, I'm not going. I thought about checking how long I would go without having a BM but with work don't want to try that experiment right now.
For cramping, like Tammylayne, using warmer water helps me as well as controlling the speed. Since I had surgery for a blockage over a year ago, I have pain sometimes when about to open the floodgates. I am going to check into this because however brief, it is pretty bad.
Ann, I don't have cramping with the enema but sometimes do about an hour after I eat lunch. It is a build up of gas that usually releases as one big fart and then it's over. Weird, kind of like my BMs, nothing wants to come out. When I do occasionally have a BM on my own, I have the same pain as I get before the enema floodgates but it goes on for a while. So no surprises for me, I know have to poop for about twenty minutes before I do.
Anyway, while I can't say I enjoy the enema or want to share the experience with someone like I read about when initially doing research
, I am glad that I have this as an option. One more thing I just thought of is that I started taking a strong probiotic a few months ago. I have had issues with blood counts going down since the blockage surgery and think adding the probiotics has helped my absorption since the counts are trending upward.