I'm wondering if my post-op upper GI/leak test was done correctly.
Hi. I'm 5 weeks post-op (open distal RNY) and something has been bothering me. Thinking back, the next morning after my surgery, they took me down to radiology to have the upper GI/barium X-ray/leak test (or whatever it was called) to test for leaks at the new intestine-connection to the pouch. I was given this liquid to drink that tasted like plain water (in fact, I remember the guy telling me to "drink the WATER"), and then I layed under an x-ray for an hour. What I'm concerned about is, if I was actually given barrium, wouldn't it have tasted horrible or is barrium tasteless like water? I thought I read about many of you folks who were given terrible tasting stuff for this test. If I wasn't given barrium and I was indeed given water, would water have shown up on the x-ray? Something tells me I DON'T THINK SO! Correct me if I'm wrong but I don't think surgeons actually see the x-rays for themselves, but rather they go by a REPORT from the radiologist stating that things were normal or abnormal, right? So this radiologist could have just decided to take a shortcut (maybe they ran out of barrium or something) and then just reported to my surgeon that everything was normal. Am I sounding paranoid? Ha! I've never heard of people developing paranoia right after WLS!
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