Upper GI with smallbowel follow-through? Advice?
#68793 - 05/08/04 09:38 PM
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I have a new weird serious ouchy in my upper abdominal area (for the last couple weeks) and my doc wants me to spend a half day in the hospital Thursday on this. I'm more than a little nervous about it, which is probably sorta funny considering what I've done over the last couple months with Crohn's and what I've done in the hospital over the last 20 or so years with surgical and other hospital stuff -- this should probably be your basic piece of cake and I'm scared about it.
It's entirely possible that my 3 weeks in the hospital in February and all the stuff I had to do then has permanently scared the [censored] out of me.
One of the few things I have *not* done is the upper GI with small bowel follow-through, which near as I can figure could take as long as 6 hours on-and-off.
I'm trying not to panic. ............................
Anyone who's done this recently, you got any advice? Tips? I hate whiners and I sure feel like one right now. Tell me you got through this ok and tell me how, 'kay? ???
?? 
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Hey Kelly,
I just recently had the Upper GI and was scheduled for the small bowel follow-thru but haven't had it done yet. They are really not that big of a deal, and from what I've heard, you're not normally there more than 4 hours, a lot less if your system moves faster  They just have to make sure the barium makes it to the small bowel.
Basically, they just made me swallow some gas producing crystels and drink some barium, and honestly the gas producing crystals were the worse for me. The test itself is painless, and I didn't even find that the barium tasted that bad. The worse part for me was that I got really bad D after the test, less than two hours after I drank the barium, but from what I've heard, that's uncommon.
Barium usually causes bad constipation, so I would definately drink lots of water afterwards and talk to the doc ahead of time about what to do if you get bad C.
The only other thing I would recommend is to clarify the prep beforehand. For the Upper GI there isn't too much, it's usually just no food or drink 8 hours before the exam. However, what I've found is that for the small bowel one, the prep is different depending on where you have it done. Some places require a prep similar to the colonoscopy prep and others don't. I wasn't properly prepped for mine so it had to be rescheduled
Good luck, I'm sure everything will be ok! Bring a book and just take it easy!
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Hi Kelly,
I had this done and it was a piece of cake compared to all the other ones.
I went into the hospital in the morning and they had me undress for the x-ray and drink some gas producing stuff. This was probably the worst because they tell you not to burp or pass gas for a minute or two while they take a quick x-ray. Afterwards, though, I produced the loudest burp in my life (and would have made my 20-yr old brother proud!).
Afterwards, I drank the barium (even had a banana flavor one!) and they took some more x-rays. When that was done, they handed me more barium and told me to go sip on the barium and walk around outside to get my digestive system moving. Then every 30 mins or so, they'd take x-rays so they could see how the barium was going through my system.
Compared to all my other barium x-rays that involved objects up my butt, this was a breeze. Bring a lot of magazines and books, though, as it was quite boring and I'm sure I provided a lot of amusement for the other patients in the hallway since I was probably a little bit sillier than normal being bored (let's just say I thought maybe it I did the "imaginary hula hoop" that it would go faster in my system LOL). All in all, I think the test took me 2 1/2 to 3 hrs.
Hope this helps!
- Jennifer
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- Jennifer
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It's nothing compared to a colonoscopy if you have ever had that before. They just make you drink this white pasty substance and ex-ray the substance going through your upper GI tract. I was only there for about half an hour to forty-fice minutes. It depends how fast the substance goes through you. Don't worry you will be fine. It really isn't that bad. It will be over before you know it. Just be very careful what you eat afterwards for a couple of days the substance aggravates the GI tract. So only eat safe food and drinks lots of water so that the substance leaves your body quickly.
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I had the procedure done in early spring. I told the nurse straight off that they are testing me for IBS (I am a D) and that if I wasn't in the waiting room I would be in the bathroom. I recommend walking around. The nurse didn't tell me that right away which I feel made my stay longer. I was there for about 4 hours. Good luck!
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IBS-D
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