Has anyone on here had an upper GI test?

[Smartie_Pants]

I've been having a lot of acid reflux, nausea, etc and they are doing one tomorrow. They are also doing the small bowel follow through.

From what I understand, you drink the mix and then stand in front of a, ex-ray screen which shows the mix traveling through your system to make sure everything works correctly. I'm just scared for some reason. So has anyone else had one they can tell me about?

 

[Rare Feathers Farm]

Mine consisted of being knocked out through an IV and an endoscope inserted down my throat to look for ulcers. It turned out to be intestinal uclers...which they diagnosed & treated with medication and thankfully, did not have to the colon scope!

My hubby had to drink barium and he said that was the worst part (the taste!) But he's a wuss with a bad gag-reflex.

 

[rooster-red]

Quote:
Been there, done that.

It is basicaly as you described, drink the barrium milkshake and have xrays taken.

Nothing to worry about, biggest worry is the milkshake may be a little chalky tasting.

 

[Darin115]

I have had every GI x-ray that you could think of. And then I had them all again. I have Chrones Disease.

The first part of the upper GI x-ray is the worst part. You just have to drink a cup full of barium. Then they give you these non flavored poprocks. They instruct you not to burp or you will have to take another small cup. You stand in front of this cool x-ray machine. You can see everything going down all the way to your stomach. When the pop rocks reach the stomach it blows up to full size.

Then more barium. And then more barium. You get to rest a few minutes until the barium starts to go into your small intestine. They watch it travel all the way through your small intestine. They use this big paddle with a squishy thing to mash your stomach to get a better picture. It moves your intestines around so the x-ray can see the barium travel through. When it reaches your illium (where you small and large intestine connect) they are finished.

You should be instructed to drink plenty of water afterwards. They told me it was because barium could give you loose stool. I had the opposite effect. It turned rock hard in my intestine and would not pass.

It really is nothing to it. Just drinking the barium is no fun.

Good luck!!

Darin

 

[Smartie_Pants]

Thanks everyone. I feel better about it now. I had an ultrasound of my gallbladder, liver, kidneys and everything today. The tech. that did it said I didn't have gall stones and my liver and kidneys looked normal. I just hope they figure out what is wrong tomorrow, because I don't want anymore tests! LOL.

Darin, how long did it take for your test to be done? The doctor said it could be anywhere from an hour to several hours, and I really hope it doesn't take several hours.

 

[Darin115]

Well, it took me less than 1 hour. It all depends on how fast your body digest food. The Dr. said some people take hours for the barium to pass thru their small intestine. As soon as it reaches the end of the small bowel you are finished.

Lets hope it passes thru you quickly!!! If it does not you will just have to lay there for longer. You should experience no pain at all.

Just drink the barium. Oh yeah, the barium weighs a lot. When they hand you the cup be prepared. I almost dropped it. It weighed more than I was prepared for.

You can watch the screen and watch it pass all the way thru you. They had a video of mine. I asked the Dr if he saw any problems and he said he only saw a narrowing in my illium. I knew that was there so that was no big deal. I was fine.

Darin

 

[CATRAY44]

My daughter had a real ibig ssue with GERD. It made her asthma worse and caused almost constant coughing. The upper GI was pretty easy. There were a whole battory of tests done, one under anesthesia, which looked for ulcers and looked for reflux going into her lungs, one with a spaghetti noodle looking tube down her nose into her throat to measure reflux incidence. Easy Peasy... They endedu up using the Divinci Machine to do a Fundalplication, which fixed her problem. That was a really good solution and very managable.... just so you know, if it comes to that. She is a very healthy and happy young woman now.

 

[Catalina]

I've never had one, but I've done a lot of them.
I'm a radiologic technologist.

Just to warn you (we have a lot of pts show up unprepared for this) the small bowel follow through can take from 45mins to 4 hours. It all depends on how fast the oral contrast moves through your small bowel.
Some people are faster and some are slower.

After you have your upper GI (depending on the radiologists orders, every facility is different) the technologist will have you drink another glass of oral contrast and then sit in the waiting room (or somewhere else) every 15 to 30 min. they will take an x-ray of your abdomen.
The radiologist will look a the x-ray and when the contrast goes all the way through your small bowel and reaches your large bowel they will take you back into the exam room and the radiologist will look at you underneath the "live" camera.

I won't worry about anything - your technologist should explain everything before the exam and if you have any questions ask them. I love patients that are interested and ask questions.