Today’s Procedure

Hey!  I got to do something new today!!  I had an esophagram to see why I’ve been having problems swallowing.  I’ve had several incidents when I’ve choked on food….scrambled eggs, refried beans, salad.  The food gets partially down my throat and gets stuck, or, if it does continue down, it can be painful.  This usually happens as I begin a meal and it’s happened with soft foods and with vitamins.

I had to get a little pushy to get the orders for this procedure.  Difficulty swallowing is not unheard of after what I’ve been through but I didn’t think that I should be having the problems that I’ve been having.  So, today we did the tests….

I got to wear a hospital gown again….OH Boy!  After changing, I was taken to a room where I stood on a platform on the fluoroscopy machine.  I was given something fizzy to make be burp (”but please try to keep it down”) then a series of pictures was taken, from various angles, as I sipped barium sulfate suspension…..YUM!  Then, I got to ride the machine as it moved into a horizontal position.  Lying almost on my tummy, I sipped barium sulfate through a straw as more pictures were taken.  This was really cool ‘cuz I got  to watch the pictures on the machine as they were doing the test.  With all of the other tests that I’ve had (CT scans, PET scans and ultrasound), the pictures have been out of my view…..so today’s test was very interesting.  They stood me back up and asked me some questions that indicated to me that they did see what the problem was.  Then, more barium, really thick, HEAVY, milkshake-like barium this time, and finally a barium tablet.  Again I watched as the pictures were taken, this time in a reflection on the machine.

I don’t have the results, of course…..I’ll have to wait for Dr. Burke to tell me what they found.  My job, for now, is to drink lots of fluid.  Barium tends to cause constipation…..and I had an awful lot of  it today!