# prep for small bowel follow through



## 21776

just wondering if anyone has has this test i am waiting for an appointment for mine but just wondered do you have to take laxatives before it or just fast ? Im praying you're gonna say just fast !! Thanks


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## kitkat17 Lady of the Loo

Your prayers are answered. No I DID NOT have to take laxatives. I had upper GI with follow threw though. I would think just fast and then drink the #### they give you. Bad enough.Good LuckKat


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## 21776

i just really hope they dont flavour the barium with something gross ! I hate artificial tastes id rather just swallow the stuff quick !


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## Guest

I recently had a small bowel x-ray and being NPO, help with the thirst issue. It was not difficult to swallow the unflavored Barium. I was very thirsty; it is getting rid of the stuff after the x-ray that is most important. Then drink lots of water.chr


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## kitkat17 Lady of the Loo

Yeah I forgot, I figured I could work the next day. WRONG I was on the toilet all day.Good Luck


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## 21776

to be honest for me it cant be worse than a colonoscopy ! hoping to get some answers from it although im very skeptical !


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## Guest

Hiya grr - I had a colonoscopy and then a CT scan last week (cos I've got a dead wierd colon with an extra loop so they couldn't get up all the way). I had a fleet enema for the colonscopy and apart from ****ting for England it really wasn't too bad at all. The iodine stuff I had to take for the CT was horrendous with horrible, horrible side effects, extreme weepyness, anxiety and a wierd cough. These symptoms did subside but probbo not for about 3/4 days. You should be fine if you are just having the colonoscopy.Good luckSue


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## 21776

well i have an appoitnment for my barium xray in two weeks..apparently it will take 4 hours.. oh joy.


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## SpAsMaN*

> quote:i just really hope they dont flavour the barium with something gross ! I hate artificial tastes id rather just swallow the stuff quick !


synthetic flavor sucks!Grr,you're so hot with your name.I'm sure your over 60.Young guys are not that funny.


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## Kellyintenn

Let me tell you about my horror...lol.I had a GI series done not too long ago. I couldn't eat after 12 pm the night before and that was all. I had the appt. that morning at 9:30. I had to drink TWO barium shakes cause they couldn't get it to move thru me fast enough. It was bad for me because before I went in, I got a migraine while driving to the hospital. Thank the good lord the aura wasn't bad to the point that I didn't wreck but by the time I go to the hospital I couldn't see the elevator buttons or read signs. This nice lady that worked there showed me where to go. After that went away the pain really hit, but I had to deal. At the start of the test they had me drink "pop rocks" then drink barium. I call it pop rocks because its this little measured dose of white crystals you toss to the back of your mouth and then swallow them down quickly with water. This immediately swells your stomach up and you are NOT allowed to burp..then they made me start gulping the barium..I felt soo bloated! My head was pounding and I wanted to vomit so bad. They where having me toss and turn and roll side to side and all sorts of positions. The doctor would press on my BLOATED belly with this paddle thing and then they had me drink another barium. They forgot to tell me I could burp...so I was swallowing this air back down!! I told the dr I was really starting to hurt and he said "Oh I'm sorry!!! You can burp! You coulda done that before the second barium." So all that air got trapped in my gut and caused pain. After all of it they made me drink two big cups of water, then I had to go get dressed. After it was over I had to go down the hall to see my GI doc for a follow-up appointment. The waiting area was full of people and I felt so sick. I went up to the window and told the lady that if they called me and I wasn't in the waiting area I was in the bathroom. She gave a sad face and said "Okay honey, i'll hold your chart by me until you feel like you can go back." After that I sat down and my gut started rolling..and OMG I got up and took off down the hall to the bathroom...and there went all that barium!!! I sat on the toliet terrified to get up..lol. My belly wasn't cramping, I just had a feeling of a ton of pressure. LOL..It was like I passed milk. (THANK GOD FOR CHARMIN FRESHMATES.) After that I started back towards the waiting area and my head was miserably pounding..and I ran back to the bathroom and starting throwing up (How attractive!). By this point I was MAD ( i don't know why) and was about to cry. I rinsed my mouth and popped about 4 mints and walked back to the waiting area and told the lady I was back and she had them pull me on back. When I sat in the exam room I had to go one more time...thankfully my dr. was a little behind on patients so I had time. The nurse was right outside the door and I looked at her and said "Bathroom??!?? Please!" and she pointed and smiled and I darted for it. OMG...I found out later they put a mild laxative in the barium I had and when they made me drink the two cups of water...that was actually to flush out the barium! I just hope my GI doc didn't think I was being unsocial or rude. I didn't want to talk or move. That was such a bad day..I felt horrid. I get a migraine maybe twice a year..and of ALL DAYS to get one...sheesh....


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## 21776

spasman.. im not over 60 im 21 actually







kelly.. maybe i thinking of someone else but didnt you think you had crohn's ? hows it going ?


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## SpAsMaN*




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## 17176




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## Kellyintenn

Grr..It was suspected with a lot of other things. I was tested for everything. In the long run it came out to just really bad IBS possibly made worse by s stomach bug I probably caught twice in a row. I am on Levsin now..and as bad as I hate to say it it was working great the frist couple of weeks I took it..not i'm not getting much relief anymore. D###mnit.


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## 21776

hi guys,well i had the barium and have been diagnosed with crohn's. bit scared but also relieved i have a solid diagnosis ! i had two colonoscopys before the barium which were clear why didnt they just barium me first ! ah well


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## 16935

I am waiting to have the same thing done. No real pain just some discomfort but I can't get my mind around it not being chrons. I'm constipated, small BM's, 1 time with mucus all others looked normal but small. Colonoscopy was clear and now I'm just scared, looking forward to April 11th so I can get this over with. I have never had blood or been woken up with any type of pain or anything just anxiety.


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## 15748

Kelly! You were so lucky that they put a laxative in your barium. I had this test done because the doctor suspected that I had gastroparesis, though I had been in and out of the hospital w/intestinal obstructions and basically was a mystery case. Therefore he wanted to find the stricture, and see how badly damaged my intestines were. Little did they know I was having a flair (with my Crohnâ€™s â€“ this was before they even knew I had Crohnâ€™s Disease they just thought I had gastroparesis and a stricture â€“ they didnâ€™t put two and two together until about 5 months later.) when they did my small bowel test, and things went down hill rapidly after the pop rocks as you called them. I could only get one and a half cups of that barium stuff down, the bloating was horrible! They knew I had gastric emptying problems (waaaay delayed like an hr n a half when I was really sick) and yet didnâ€™t tell me that I could take anything to help push it through. After the test they told me that I needed to drink a lot of water and that I should be fine. I drank at least 32 + oz water and started having shooting pains in my side. Weird I though so I called the test center back and told them what was happening. After being tossed from one department to another the nurse said I was obviously lying about drinking that much water because if I had this wouldnâ€™t have happened. She said that I should start or else I would feel really punky the next few days. A lot of help they were. Well the pain got worse - to the point if I bent over at the waist I would start screaming in pain. I felt like something was bloating inside and called my doctor because the pain kept getting worse. He told me to go strait to the hospital and that I probably had a barium block in my intestines. The doc then asked me why they hadnâ€™t given me something to help it through my system, because at that time I was diagnosed with gastroparesis and the office knew this. So off to the hospital I went and sure enough when the X-rays came back it showed that the barium got stuck in one of the 90 degree turns the small intestine makes. The ER doc gave me a large dose of reglan and morphine, and had me stay for 8 hrs just in case anything ruptured. Lucky I was able to go home that night but all this could have been avoided if they had just put something in the barium or told me to take Milk of Mag. When I got home. ïŒ I wish I had a nice testing place like yours â€“ these not a lot of choices around here and the place I went to was highly recommended. The kicker of this whole situation was that the test came back abnormal â€“ it looked like I swallowed a sting of pearls â€“ and that area had lost the little ribbing that the small intestines are supposed to have. Yet no one knew what to make of that test result. What did your problem area look like? Did the small intestines loose their ribbing too? Best of luck everyone!Moine


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## 22800

I know exactly what your feeling. I am currently going through a barium floroscopy and this is my second time doing it this week. I am soo frustrated and tired or all the running around, but we found the problem. I am soo happy about that







but now we have to find out what the next step is. The barium wasnt that bad becuase i had to drink it with food. I had to do it this past monday and then again yesterday with my birthday cake. Happy birhtday to me, but now we know what all the pain is coming from.


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