Foley Balloon Enema Setup

For those who are interested in just what our new enema equipment is I have taken a few pictures.  Be sure to peek at this post to see our past setup with the cone enema if you want to compare the two.

This is the bag, already hanging up on a nail.  You may be able to see the white funnel with a lid that is built into the bag.  That is where you pour in your liquid.  In my hand near the bottom of the photo is the end of the thin tube coming out of that bag, with a white cone shaped end.  I'll show you where it goes in a moment.  One thing not pictured is a slide lock on the tube for stopping the flow of liquid.  It's like the one on the cone enema in the post I linked above, just smaller.

Here is the foley balloon catheter.  Mason has the larger size, with a balloon that inflates with up to 90mL of air.  The smaller size only goes up to 30mL. 

That white cone end from the bag goes right into the blue silicone end of the foley.   It fits nice and snug so no fluid leaks at this joint.

You probably noticed there were TWO ports at the top of the blue foley catheter.  One is for the fluid to go in.  The other is for a special syringe to push air into the balloon of the foley catheter.  You see, one of Mason's challenges is that the lack of feeling and muscle use in his bottom means he can't hold the enema fluid in without help.  Prior to this we held a cone in place, the tip inside his bottom blocking the fluid from leaking back out.  Why?  Because we need that fluid to have time to make it up into his colon and reach the poop we hope to flush out.

Here is a picture of that syringe full of air being pushed in through it's port.  This happens once the blue foley end is already in Mason's bottom and the result is this:

See the balloon?  We have a specific amount of air we inflate the balloon with and when we remove the syringe there is a one way valve and the balloon stays inflated. 

At that point we begin allowing the liquid to flow into Mason's colon.  When it has been in his body for the correct amount of time we use the empty syringe to remove the air from the balloon using the correct port of the foley.  Once all the air is removed the catheter slides out and the poop and liquid have a clear path into the toilet.

Ahem.