Esophagram with barium swallow test

[stessier]

Anyone have any experience? Any way to make it less unpleasant? My kiddo is going to need one and just wondering what to expect.

[Isgrimnur]

Have you seen The Exorcist?

[ImLawBoy]

My oldest has had them before. It's been a while, but I don't recall it being horrifying for him. He does have a pretty high tolerance for medical procedures, though, so my response probably isn't very helpful.

[naednek]

I had it done when I was a kid. It wasn't bad. I was more worried about being able to swallow it, which leads to my story I tell everyone at some point.

I was in Junior High. The night before school I was eating dinner before going to piano lessons. We had Turkey A La King, poor mans food, but I loved it. We were in a rush so I woofed it down and managed to get a chunk of turkey lodged in my throat. I could breathe, but I couldn't swallow. We didn't end up going to the piano lessons due to it, but my parents thought I was faking. They sent me to bed. I couldn't swallow my own spit. Woke up the next day and had the same issue. They send me to school. My english class I had an oral report and it was almost my turn. I'm sitting at my desk waiting to be called in between spitting in wads of tissue paper.

I tell me teacher what happened and he sends me to the nurses office. They call my dad who finally takes me seriously and we head to the doctors. Doctor examines me, refers us to some place where I had to drink Barium so they can watch it move down my throat to see where it's stuck at. They find it, and then I'm off to the hospital to get a cable with claws and a camera shoved down my throat. They said they would either push it through, or pull it out depending how far it is. It was my first time being put under and I was more afraid of that than the procedure. They had to get a few nurses to hold me down.

I wake up and it's gone. The next week of so I'm eating soft foods like jello. I had a history of where my throat would seize up involuntarily. Doctor said if it happened again they were going to put a balloon down my throat and stretch my throat out. That wasn't going to happen. The day my dad calls and reports that I'm all good, it happens again when I'm eating mac and cheese while he's on the phone. I quietly leave the table and was able to unlodge it and not telling my parents. Because like I said, I'm not having a balloon down my throat. That was the last time I had any issues.

So to answer your question Stessier, it was fine.

[stessier]

Thanks for the anecdotes! They are calling us today to schedule it.

She has been battling pretty significant acid reflux for the last 18 months, so it might be related. She said she's been having trouble swallowing off and on for a while, but never brought it up until this weekend when she swallowing any solid food became an ordeal. Between Sunday and Monday night, she only at half a donut, a handful of peanuts, and a smoothie (liquids don't seem to be an issue). The solid food she was taking like pills - take a bite, chew to paste, then a big gulp of water to get it to go down. Hopefully they can help us figure this out because she's already tiny and really can't afford to lose any weight.