Questions about small bowel / barium meal

[Fairyclarey]

Hey all. I was sent a letter yesterday telling me I have been booked in for a small bowel meal / barium meal (since I failed to go through with an MRI scan - major claustrophobic panic attack!! :frown: ). They need to look at my small bowel as so far I have only had a colonoscopy. That concluded crohns, but they want to check out how the disease is looking in the small bowel too.

I'm just wondering what people have had to take in preparation for this. I ended up rescheduling to a Monday in a few weeks time, becuase I cannot take time off work atm, and I have been told I may be there for up to 4 hours, and that I have to take a laxative the night before. I'm thinking this might still be having effects the next day? They sent me a powder to mix up as a drink at 6pm the night before (appt at 9:30am). Is this the laxative?? Will I be up all night? And will I still be feeling the effects the next day?

Also, when at the hospital, I have been told I have to drink the barium stuff. Is that all I would need to take, or do they give you injections and stuff too? (for the MRI they had tubes in me ready to inject me with contrast or something. Will this be the same or not?).

After the xrays, does the barium, or the drink from the night before cause more bathroom issues throughout the day - ie. is going into the office a safe bet, or is this more of a day off thing?

Another thing is that for the last few weeks, since coming OFF my first try at medication - Octasa - I have been feeling pretty much 100% better. This is the first time in the last 3 years that I have felt back to normal with no crohn's symptoms. I started Octasa, tried it for 3 weeks, and my symptoms got a whole lot worse, plus headaches and nausea every day. So I took myself off them and immediately felt 100% fine! Bit of a miracle really! But I am now concerned that putting laxatives and barium through my system will nudge the symptoms back into action or something. Should I just think, great my symptoms are all gone, I know my body, and right now I feel great, and forget about the scan for now? Or should I still go through with the scan?

Thanks a lot for any advice
x Clare x

 

[UnXmas]

I think you should go through with the scan. The problem is that even if you've correctly identified what is helping your symptoms now, treatments can stop working or Crohn's can develop in different parts of the digestive tract, differ in severity, etc. If you find yourself having symptoms again, it might be that you'll be pleased to have gotten it out of the way. Even if it doesn't show much active disease or complications at present, it means you'll have something to compare future test results too. Also, you can have active disease even without symptoms, which might be doing silent damage to your digestive tract that could result in problems later. The barium and laxative will upset your system for a while, but usually only for a few days at most, they won't have long-lasting effects.

The powder they sent you very likely is the laxative. What's the powder called? Did you get an information sheet with it? All preps differ slightly, doctors differ in what they prefer to give patients, and everybody's system reacts a little differently too. I'm guessing you've been instructed to stick to a clear liquid diet for a day or two before also?

Unfortunately, you may well be up all night after the laxative. Make sure you have access to a bathroom and preferably be at home where you feel comfortable. You might want to get a barrier cream and some moist toilet paper as the diarrhoea can start to make the skin round the anus sore.

I've done similar tests, and the day following a barium test, I passed the barium - it makes your bowel movement look white/grey - but this might have been from a barium enema which is different. I don't recall having excessive toilet visits other than following the prep for either small or large bowel barium studies.

Injections I can't say for sure, as doctors have different requirements and tests differ from one hospital to the next, though I don't recall having any injections before barium tests myself.

 

[valleysangel92]

Hello, as UnXmas said, I would go through with the scan, even if you aren't having symptoms at the moment, you could still have some active inflammation, or there could be scarring which could cause problems with blockages at a later date.

I didn't have to use a laxative for my barium follow through, but I was only 15 at the time, so this might of been why they didn't ask me to use one. You might be up all night, but if its only one dose I don't think it would cause too many problems the next day. That being said, the barium can make you feel a little bloated and icky, so you might want to consider taking the rest of the day off to give yourself a break any way.

I didn't have to have any injections for mine, and I've not seen anyone talking about needing one for this test, normally any injections involved would be mentioned beforehand, if you are concerned about this you could always call the center that's doing the test and ask them about it, they should be able to answer your questions.

I know the idea of these things can be daunting and horrible and they are time consuming, but it is worth it to get a better picture of whats going on inside, it could save you a lot of trouble in the future, its much better to know what you're dealing with than to let it sneak up on you. Good luck! keep us informed.

 

[Fairyclarey]

Thanks a lot both of you. I will definitely get this done. Got it re-scheduled for the 2nd December. Im not sure what the powder drink is called that they sent me (it's at home atm - I will have a look later). And I don't think it tells me to fast until the night before. They have given me a low residue diet to follow for the day before. Tbh, I would rather fast for the day before and not need to take a laxative, if that's an option. Is that what you guys did? Might speak to the dr before hand to find out if I could do that.

Thanks for your help!! :ybiggrin:

 

[valleysangel92]

I don't think I actually fasted until 6 hours before the test, I had to be at the hospital for 8 am and I couldn't eat or drink for 6 hours before that, which didn't bother me since I've never been a keen breakfast eater any way. It could just be that it's your consultants policy to ask all his patients to take a laxative before the test so that the barium is the only thing that can be seen.

 

[SammyD]

Hi, I had a CT small bowel follow through last week. It took about 2 hours but they told me to leave 4 just in case. I had to drink 300ml of barium solution every 15 minutes for 45 minutes and then drink the final 300ml on the table laying down. They took some scans and then injected the contrast in my arm catheter. The contrast gives you a hot flush/odd sensation but it's momentary, they took more scans then that was it, scans took around 15 minutes in total.

I did have severe diarrohea afterwards however I am in the middle of a flare and everything is upsetting me, this is also apparently fairly uncommon so don't worry too much about that, and it passed in a couple of hours. The barium drink I had is a newer one, tastes/looks like water so was easy to take. I only fasted for 6 hours prior as well with no laxatives/bowel prep required, so can't help with that side of it.

HTH, good luck

 

[UnXmas]

Thanks a lot both of you. I will definitely get this done. Got it re-scheduled for the 2nd December. Im not sure what the powder drink is called that they sent me (it's at home atm - I will have a look later). And I don't think it tells me to fast until the night before. They have given me a low residue diet to follow for the day before. Tbh, I would rather fast for the day before and not need to take a laxative, if that's an option. Is that what you guys did? Might speak to the dr before hand to find out if I could do that.

Thanks for your help!! :ybiggrin:

On one occasion I did ring the hospital because I didn't want to take a laxative, and they were ok with that. However, I think this is quite unusual. Sometimes doing both will be required. Even if you fast for a while, it doesn't guarantee the intestine will be cleared out in the same way it would be by a laxative. It's worth asking, but I wouldn't count on it.