Small Bowel Follow Through
Often after an Upper GI Series, your doctor will order a test called a Small Bowel Follow-Through. You don’t really have to do anything extra to take this test except wait.
The waiting period is required so that the barium contrast you drank during the Upper GI has a chance to continue traveling through your gastrointestinal tract. It may take a couple of hours for it to fully coat the small bowel, and you’ll be called in periodically for test x-rays so they can gauge how far it has gone.
While I’m waiting, I find it’s better to walk around - or at least stand - than to sit still. I don’t know if it helps, but sometimes I jump up and down in place because I think the gravitational force may help get things moving along down there. That’s not educated medical advice, but having gone through enough of these tests I’m ready to offer any tip I can to help out others having to undergo them.
When the contrast has made it to a point where the test x-ray reveals is sufficient, the doctor will call you back in and proceed taking x-ray images of your abdomen. You may be asked to turn from side to side and angle your body in different ways so that images can be captured.
One final word of advice: barium can tend to be constipating, and if you’re living with crohns disease you know how quickly you can be surprised with bowel… er… “conditions”… from one end of the spectrum to the other - so after you undergo this test make sure to drink lots of fluids to keep things moving inside. I know I sound like your mommy, but I’m just trying to be helpful and give you fair warning.