Had trouble with the enema applicators being painful to insert but I found a trick!

My rectal area is very inflamed and sore so the first couple of nights I tried to use the enemas it was seriously painful and had a lot of trouble just inserting the applicator. It felt like it was scratching me once it was inside if that makes any sense.
In case anyone else has trouble inserting the enema cause of soreness here is something my nurse told me yesterday and it worked really well.

She looked at the Rowasa enema bottle and felt the applicator and noticed it was sort of stiff. She told me to go buy a fleet enema and the applicator would be a lot more pliable and softer. I went to Dollar General and got a 2 pack of Fleet enemas for $2.34 and came home and emptied one and washed it out real good. She was absolutely correct in that is was a lot more flexible and the applicator felt softer. I let it air dry and then I took one of my Rowasa enemas last night and I poured it into the fleet bottle.
I put a little vaseline on the applicator like she told me and then I lay on my left side. I dabbed a little pain numbing cream on my rectal area and let it sit for a couple minutes to soak into the skin. I then had no problems with the fleet enema going in and it didn't hurt at all. I was finally able to hold in my first enema!!

So, the combination of the more flexible fleet applicator and the use of the numbing cream really worked wonders. I know not everyone has problems with the inserting of the enema itself but I also have read of others with very sensitive and sore bums and I know from experience it can be very painful just to insert it in there.

Only weird thing is that I slept for 8 hours and when I woke up I thought I'd have this big bowel movement but I didn't. I felt the urge to go and I just had some gas with a little bloody mucus but the enema or liquid did not come out like I thought it would. I'm wondering if my body absorbed the liquid while I slept? lol I have no idea

Curious... what kind of pain numbing cream did you use?