Anyone have a normal Barium small bowel follow through?

[bny806]

I am going through the diagnostic process - had my scopes, and then the barium small bowel follow through this past week - my Sister has crohns- a pretty severe case, and we have the same symptoms.. she has mostly small bowel involvement..

ANyhow, THere were a few small "filling defects" on my small bowel follow through - they said possible polyps.. but otherwise normal.. THey only did about 5 or 6 pictures of my belly for this test and almost all of those were the right lower quadrant.. Anyhow, we were hoping for some answers, so maybe I could get started on meds.. but now have to wait to do the pill cam - that thing getting stuck worries me!

 

[Orchid]

It can easily miss small, subtle patches of inflammation and the pill cam will actually let them see if there are any smaller ones Don't worry too much about it getting stuck, since they showed there's no serious blockage in your small bowel it's very unlikely to cause complications.

 

[CrohnsChicago]

I have had a SBFT (small bowel follow through) before.

I agree it is not a 100% perfect detector if you only show very minute signs in the area searched. Especially because our small intestine is about 20 ft. long and crammed up to fit inside our body.

A pill cam is another common way to get more in depth information in this complicated, hard to observe area. What other scopes have you had done so far? What are your symptoms?

 

[bny806]

THank yall both so much!

So, they called and said there were "lucencies" in the small bowel on the barium follow through... anyone know what that could mean?? we are waiting on insurance to approve the pill cam and will do that next


chicago- I have had colonoscopy/endoscopy - showed gastritis, esophagitis, and pretty much the entire colon was friable (aka easily bled, irritated).. but biopsies normal of it. the blood work shows that I am anemic (for the first time ever.. though I do have blood in my stool, so that's understandable).... My B1, B6, B12, folate, zinc (and more can't remember) were all really low -my b1 was undetectable low!
my symptoms have been massive weight loss, up to 20+ bowel movements a day, blood in my stool, stomach pain, neuro issues, muscle weakness, nausea... I will have to do a liquid diet or hardly eat anything for a couple of days for my stomach to feel decent.. then I will feel semi normal... I'll eat for about half a day and then be in misery for days- almost seems like I am miserable until my system is all cleared out... Also, I have times of intense hunger - usually immediately folllowing a big meal.. so strange!

 

[Essieluv]

When I was at the Mayo Clinic a few months ago, my GI there said that docs are trying to phase out SBFTs as they are very inaccurate and miss quite a lot.

 

[bny806]

Essieluv- thank you! That's good to know! I know my dr's office didn't seem to hold the SBFT up really high in standards, they seemed to more treat it like a hoop to jump through for insurance approval to do the pill cam.. but when I got online and read about the SBFT they talk about it like it should show any abnormalities! I just wanna feel better, and get on the right path to eat and gain weight/absorb nutrients again... My sister is doing pretty well on Humira