Can hardly eat or drink - UGI x-ray scheduled

[LAJ23 70]

Well, it's been a rough few days. Since last Friday evening, I've felt like an overstuffed turkey. My sleeve has felt like an overinflated beach ball (as I previously posted). I messaged my doctor's office and they think I might be having an allergic reaction to whey Protein, so I've stopped that and need to start on soy-based Protein Drinks (not a fan of those either). What worries me is that they also asked me to schedule a UGI x-ray "ASAP", so I'm going Friday morning. I'm eating/drinking less & less every day, but not really losing weight (1lb. since Friday). I can hardly get down 15oz water/drink per day, and if I have more than a couple forkfuls/spoonfuls of an "approved" food each day, I feel like I just ate a massive dinner. I bet I'm not getting more than 100-150 calories a day in, and probably not more than 10g of protein. Takes me two hours to get all my pills/vitamins in. I'm extremely weak, my muscles hurt, my gut hurts, nonstop diarrhea, headaches GI system is constantly gurgling...ugh. Have any of you experienced this?

Edited September 9, 2020 by LAJ23

[tarotcardreader 196]

hi. i was pretty il in the hospital and had that nasty test done. lol. Including pic for exact wording of test i had. you drink really putrid cup of yuck. They have you standing against this thing which turns out that it lifts you in air and goes in different laying positions etc. then when its done it returns you to standing, It was very unpleasant. Very. On mine it said i had an ileus which meant something was still sleeping or something like that. I had my surgery on aug 28. I was in hospital for 4 days and the nurse wanted to stay longer because of ileus. but the surgeon said it was cool to go home so i went with that and am sleeping in my own bed. I did alot of regurging shakes and weird noises were coming from my pouch while trying shakes. once on puree this got so much better mainly because right now i am not drinking shakes. i know i am below all my Protein and Water goal but i try everyday as a new day. i plan to try to get my protein mostly from foods. i am hoping my pouch will get up to 3 oz so i can eat 3 eggs which is 21g protein and that would help. i thought about getting some unflavored protein (genepro etc) and using it. If it is a shake allergy of whey try Premier Protein its milk protein. There are other options out there. good luck at the test it made me so much more nauseas. just try to hang in there and dont give up 👯‍♂️

Edited September 9, 2020 by tarotcardreader
Edited to show what test i had

[LAJ23 70]

7 minutes ago, tarotcardreader said:

hi. i was pretty il in the hospital and had that nasty test done. lol. you drink really putrid cup of yuck. They have you standing against this thing which turns out that it lifts you in air and goes in different laying positions etc. then when its done it returns you to standing, It was very unpleasant. Very. On mine it said i had an ileus which meant something was still sleeping or something like that. I had my surgery on aug 28. I was in hospital for 4 days and the nurse wanted to stay longer because of ileus. but the surgeon said it was cool to go home so i went with that and am sleeping in my own bed. I did alot of regurging shakes and weird noises were coming from my pouch while trying shakes. once on puree this got so much better mainly because right now i am not drinking shakes. i know i am below all my Protein and Water goal but i try everyday as a new day. i plan to try to get my Protein mostly from foods. i am hoping my pouch will get up to 3 oz so i can eat 3 eggs which is 21g protein and that would help. i thought about getting some unflavored protein (genepro etc) and using it. If it is a shake allergy of whey try Premier Protein its milk protein. There are other options out there. good luck at the test it made me so much more nauseas. just try to hang in there and dont give up 👯‍♂️

OMG! I had no idea what was all involved with this test! No one has mentioned that. They just told me it was 30 mins, and I had to have an empty stomach. I have terrible vertigo, so this might be a problem, but thanks for the warning! I'm sorry you had to go thru all that. 😞
Funny you mention Premier Protein. When I first started this journey, I was planning to have the surgery done at hospital "A". They were all for me drinking PP shakes (basically let patients choose what they wanted). Then, I switched to hospital "B" as it was much closer to home and I decided I didn't want to get pushed into GB, and opted for the sleeve instead. Hosp. "B" is absolutely, 100% against Premier Protein! They won't allow it for the pre-op or post-op diet - although I've been drinking it anyway - until they made me switch to Unjury whey isolate powder last Friday. Now I'm back to PP until I can get to the store to try soy stuff - which I really don't like. It'll be interesting to see what this xray turns up.

[tarotcardreader 196]

6 minutes ago, LAJ23 said:

OMG! I had no idea what was all involved with this test! No one has mentioned that. They just told me it was 30 mins, and I had to have an empty stomach. I have terrible vertigo, so this might be a problem, but thanks for the warning! I'm sorry you had to go thru all that. 😞
Funny you mention Premier Protein. When I first started this journey, I was planning to have the surgery done at hospital "A". They were all for me drinking PP shakes (basically let patients choose what they wanted). Then, I switched to hospital "B" as it was much closer to home and I decided I didn't want to get pushed into GB, and opted for the sleeve instead. Hosp. "B" is absolutely, 100% against Premier Protein! They won't allow it for the pre-op or post-op diet - although I've been drinking it anyway - until they made me switch to Unjury whey isolate powder last Friday. Now I'm back to PP until I can get to the store to try soy stuff - which I really don't like. It'll be interesting to see what this xray turns up.

I posted a pic of my appointment so u can see exactly which ugi i had incase they are different but yeah wasn't pleasant. I also was told Bariatric Advantage shakes only post op but went with pp and both made me il so thats that lol. Hopefully everything is okay and its just a food intolerance and sometimes food intolerances are only temporary. The post surgery has definitely been more complex than advertised ☺️. Let us know how it goes!

[BigSue 1,413]

I had to get a UGI x-ray (a.k.a. barium swallow test) before my surgery, and it wasn't bad. The hospital where I went wasn't fancy enough to have a machine that lifts you in the air. I just had to lie on a table and tilt my body in various positions. There was also a portion where I just had to stand in front of the x-ray machine. I had to drink sips of the barium liquid while they took the x-rays. It didn't taste good, but it wasn't horrible. It was pretty quick and painless. Once they started, I think it only took about 15 minutes. I didn't even have to take off my clothes. Yours might take longer since you might have a GI problem (mine was just to make sure I didn't have a GI problem before I got surgery), but the upside is that if they find the problem, they can fix it and you'll feel better.

[BayougirlMrsS 3,935]

if its the same as the test they do before you can leave, i didn't think it was that bad. I stood up and drank the liquid while the machine watched it go down.

[LAJ23 70]

2 hours ago, BayougirlMrsS said:

if its the same as the test they do before you can leave, i didn't think it was that bad. I stood up and drank the liquid while the machine watched it go down.

Thankfully, I didn't have to do any kind of "test" before leaving the hospital. I was able to drink, go to the bathroom and the pain was mostly manageable (with meds), so I was released. Glad to know it's not that bad though! 🙂

[Starwarsandcupcakes 2,091]

I’ve had 4 of the FL UGIs this year. They aren’t terrible but the gastrografin is worse tasting than the barium although neither one is particularly great tasting. If you have issues with vertigo then I would let them know before you begin the testing. They may have you do all the moving yourself instead of using the table options.

Good luck. Hopefully they find out what’s going on so you can feel better.

[tarotcardreader 196]

On 9/10/2020 at 5:30 AM, Starwarsandcupcakes said:

I’ve had 4 of the FL UGIs this year. They aren’t terrible but the gastrografin is worse tasting than the barium although neither one is particularly great tasting. If you have issues with vertigo then I would let them know before you begin the testing. They may have you do all the moving yourself instead of using the table options.

Good luck. Hopefully they find out what’s going on so you can feel better.

It truly was a nasty drink