how do they leak test you and does it hurt?

[ALHOAGIRL 0]

can anyone tell me how they leak test you and how long does that take?

[JackieOMonroe 123]

The leak test is just a barium swallow. It's a little gross, but not painful in the least and it takes 5 minutes. You swallow the barium and they watch it move through your esophagus, tummy, etc. Then they have you do it again, they watch again, and that's it.

[KristeyK 3]

And if you're lucky, they'll have the screen turned toward you a little where you can see it. It's REALLY cool!

[Rainydayz 27]

Here's a tip: Take some nausea meds before the test. That stuff is gross! But no pain whatsoever.

[my_year2011 0]

The leak test is just a barium swallow. It's a little gross, but not painful in the least and it takes 5 minutes. You swallow the barium and they watch it move through your esophagus, tummy, etc. Then they have you do it again, they watch again, and that's it.

I asked my dr when i would get a leak test done and he told me he did it already in the operating room, no leaks! So i think it is different for everyone how they do this. Today is my first day home.

[lunarose 97]

They did my test the day after surgery. I had a hard time keeping it down in the end they only got a single pass.

[Oregondaisy 2,021]

Dr Aceves does 3 leak tests. The first one is done during surgery and you don' t even know it's being done. The second one is done in your room. You drink some apple juice with blue dye in it and then they watch your drain for the next couple of hours to see what color all the fluids being drained out of you are.

The 3rd one is the nasty one. You drink some nasty tasting stuff and watch it go down on the screen. I spit in the garbage can as fast as I could afterwards and then ran back to my room and brushed my teeth.

[lily'ssleeve 0]

I had mine 12 hours after surgery..the barium is awful i couldnt keep it down after the test..but i was glad that it was over..there is NO PAIN at all..

[Nancy Rivers 24]

I had 2 leak tests done - one was during surgery and didn't even know it happened. The second one was the next day and I had to drink a solution while they watched it on x-ray. I didn't think the solution tasted all that bad - but it was the aftertaste that I didn't like. There was no pain involved and it took less than 5 minutes (it took them longer to get "transportation" to wheelchair me from the room to radiology and back than it did for the test!)

[MsDownToMe 2]

My surgeon did 2 leak tests-one during surgery and then the barium swallow the next day. (That's where they had me take 2 sips of barium while they watched it on xray as it made it's way down). The barium solution was pretty gross and I had a very hard time keeping it down, but they were able to see what they needed before it made it's way back out. The test didn't take long at all! (Transportation to and from xray is a totally different story, though-can you say FOREVER.....

[emsnewlife 0]

My leak test was done during surgery. I did not have to have an additional one.