Stomach Testing
On Friday I went for one of the non-invasive stomach tests that the GI wanted. It only has a 10% change of giving me the results we were looking for, but since it was non-invasive the GI thought it was worth a try. I was expecting a few month wait for the test, so I surprised when it was booked so quickly. But hey, I’ll take it!
The test I had was called a Small Bowel Follow Through with Abdominal X-Rays Wrapper.
The test its self was painless. It was just x-rays. The fact that it was X-Rays meant I had to continually confirm that I’m not pregnant. But oddly, even knowing that the vasectomy was recent, they didn’t make me take a pregnancy test to confirm.
It seems as though with every single GI test, the prep was horrible. I had to drink 2 big glasses of a barium drink in 15 minutes which would make my small bowel appear in the x-rays. The drink looked like chalk and tasted like chalk. Needless to say by the end of 15 minutes I was ready to vomit. Fun times.
The test could take up to 4 hours depending on how quickly your body processes the drink, with x-rays ever 15 minutes. I was told to walk and to go to the bathroom as much as possible to help speed up the process. I walked the hallway over and over again, all 46 steps. And it turns out I was the quickest ever to digest the barium concoction, so the test took less then 1 hour total.
At the end of the test, I was told by the radiologist that my small bowel looks fine and that DO NOT have small bowel disease. Which I was also told is a good thing because according to the radiologist it is the worst disease you could ever imagine in life. (Oddly enough, this isn’t what my GI was looking for, but I figure having confirmation that I don’t have the worst disease you could ever imagine in life, is a good thing). So, I guess I’m in the 90% of people who don’t get any sort of diagnostic confirmation from this test.
The only negative of the experience was that apparently the barium completely dehydrates most people and causes white diarrhea immediately, and sever constipation over the next few days.
So I ended up with a wicked headache all day Friday presumably from dehydration. And, I spent the day sleeping only to be woken up to the desperate need to go the bathroom. Once I got past the feeling of vomiting, I loaded up on liquids to try to help prevent the sever constipation from happening. I’ll just say, it’s been an uncomfortable weekend!
Today I’m off to have more blood work done. Which thankfully I know will not have any long lasting side effects.
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Sounds like an uncomfortable weekend – but at least you were able to rule out somethings.
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Uncomfortable weekend is a good way to describe it! 🙂
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Hi. This is Allison Beitel, a pediatrician at http://www.abcparenting.blog. Incidentally, I also have bad reflux and am going to see a GI. But I’m writing to mention one important piece of information. An Upper GI series isn’t invasive, as you said, but it does expose people to a lot of radiation—not so different, in fact, from a CT scan. Over time, limiting cumulative exposure to radiation is a good idea. I’ll try to post info about this on my blog this week. Thanks, and hope you feel better!
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Thanks for stopping by and sharing!
The tentative plan with the GI right now is to do a CT scan next time I’m actually symptomatic, He doesn’t see the point on doing a CT scan without any symptoms present as the chances of finding the problem are so slim without the symptoms actually being there.
But, what’s more fascinating is my most recent appointment with my immunologist. I’m trying to find a bit of time to write about that…
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If possible, I would avoid the CT scan—abdominal CT scans have a huge amount of radiation. There may be a better way to figure out what is going on with you. If you don’t mind me asking, what are your symptoms?
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Ugh. I’m happy for you that you got negative results, AND that it’s over!
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Thank you! I too am happy about both of these things! 🙂
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BLECH! Barium is THE worst! But the techs are correct–having small bowel disease is THE worst because you can literally starve to death when you cannot absorb nutrients but instead of starving to death you’ll get nutrition via TPN, involving a tube stuck in your nose, and small bowel disease is incredibly painful. So you are lucky! XOXO
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Eughhhh yikes you poor thing! You really have been through the rough and back with all this 😔 as always hoping for you that you get some answers sooner
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Hi, I may have to have this test myself, but I’m a little worried, I already have a lot of stomach problems as it is and I swallowing problems. Is it easy to swallow and how long did it take for you to feel better? I also have fibromyalgia, depression and severe anxiety, so I’m a tad worried about the whole thing. Thanks in advance.
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