# Upper GI Series/Small Bowel Follow-Thru



## MariaM (Jan 19, 2003)

I just had an Upper GI Series/Small Bowel follow-thru test two weeks ago and I thought others facing this test might be interested to know what it involved. I was asked not to eat or drink anything after midnight the night before. The actual test involved first drinking a fizzy drink (kind of like Alka-Seltzer) which the doctor said helped to open the passageways. For the UPper GI x-rays, I had to sip on barium at various points while they moved me around in different positions on the table and took x-rays. Then I had to drink more barium for the small bowel x-rays. They took some overall x-rays of the small bowel while I was lying flat on the table. Then they came in with a paddle that they pushed gently on different parts of the abdomen. A monitor next to the table showed what was happening during this process. They pointed some things out to me on the monitor but it was hard for me to make head or tails of what I was seeing! The whole test took about two hours. As usual, my anticipatory anxiety about it was worse than the actual test itself!


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## BQ (May 22, 2000)

Maria Great idea to post this!







And yep, I had one too and it was exactly as Maria described. And true, this was waaaaay easier than I expected it to be too.BQ


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## Guest (Mar 16, 2003)

thanks for posting this


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