UPPER GI

[Anonymous]

Hi,

my daughter Audrey just had her upper gi/barium swallow today, and Im wondering is how they did it is standard…

They took x-rays prior of her abdomen, then she drank barium and they took more pictures, and we watched in on a screen, then the doctor and nurse left and had us feed her the rest of the barium, well she finished, and then she spit up, and then hiccuped a bunch and spit up more, the dr and nurse finally came back, they laid her back on the table took another picture and that was it….they only watched her for a minute after…arent/werent they supposed to be looking for her to reflux after? He said she was normal and hopes she feels better soon….umm….what? Obviously I will be asking our dr about all this…but it seemed wierd that they literally only watched her for maybe a full 60 seconds after, and also waited long to see he from when she finished drinking….

or is that all normal and nothing wrong…Im so confused….we have an endo soon too….

Thanks

[Anonymous]

Shannon,

That sounds somewhat similar to how ours was done. Except they laid her on the table, looked at everything on the screen, had her drink the barium, looked at it as it moved through her system. Then they starting rotating the table in all kinds of directions. All the while they were also taking some pictures, I believe.

The Upper GI is not intended to look for reflux, but to look for structural abnormalities. (Sometimes they can see the reflux in that they see the barium come back up, but that’s not the purpose of the test.) So when they said “it’s normal”, they were probably talking about her anatomy.

I believe the only real way to diagnose reflux is with the PH probe.

Good luck with the scope.

s&h’s mum2006-10-12 14:43:23

[Anonymous]

Thanks for the quick reply..Oh she too watch watched while she drank the first part, and was on the table, with the nurse and dr moving her around, but I wasnt sure about the end…but I guess they arent looking for reflux..

It just seemed so fast…and I guess I wanted answers, but hey at least she is normal on the inside then…..now on to the next step….

ugh

THanks again

[Anonymous]

Yes, I know… it’s a wierd thing. You want answers, but you don’t want anything to be wrong at the same time.

[Anonymous]

That’s what they did with Myles, too. They left the room for 5 or 10 minutes and then came back and took one more picture, or just looked to see if the contents were still in his stomach.

Like Lori said, if the Upper GI is normal it does not mean the child does not have reflux because she just may not have refluxed at that particular time.

Good luck with her next test.

[Author]

Posts