Saturday, February 22, 2014

Upper GI & Chest Images

Yesterday I got to check off two more items from my long to do list.

I started with the chest x-rays.  I just had to lift my shirt up and she put some warm jelly on my abdomen.  She made me hold my breath a few times for 10-20 seconds at a time and move on my sides so she could get images captured of my kidney, spleen, gall bladder, liver etc.

Then I had the upper GI series.  For this I had to get into a gown and do shots of powder alka seltzer with a chaser of water.  :)  Once I did that to avoid upset stomach, I had to drink about 5 large sips/gulps of a barium sulfate compound which didn't taste as bad as I thought it would.  It was a bit chalky.  The two men that did the pictures made me turn over a couple times on the bed -- a full 360 degrees, so that the barium fully coated all sides of my stomach.

When I left I was advised to drink 6 to 8 glasses of water to flush out the barium and that my poop would be white/chalky for the next few days.

Later on in the afternoon around 3 PM I thought I had to pee really bad, so bad it hurt, but after I relieved myself, the pain still subsided for much of the evening.  I think it was just mild cramps related to the barium, but apparently cramps are a rare side effect.

I was fine this morning.

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