Three Tests in One Day

 Hi,ive seen a new surgeon after alot of problems after a nissen fundoplication which was carried out on Feb.last year and he was fantastic.The surgeon spent over an hour with me discussing my whole history of reflux and surgery.Nice, friendly and most of all interested in the whole thing and keen to help. He is arranging for me to have all the testing done as if i was a new patient,so Endoscopy then Barium and Manometry which was not carried out before my surgery.He said the manometry is extremely important and a must and that my previous surgeon was wrong not to do it!

 All these tests are going to be carried out in one day as im traveling from Ireland to the UK mainland with an overnight stay to remove the manometry equipment. Has anyone ever done three tests in one day? Endoscopy in the morning then barium swallow and manometry in the afternoon! Phew! Barry

That's quite intense. I had all these tests separately but I suppose they can all be done in a day, at least you get them done all in one go! The endoscopy made me feel tired and woozy afterwards and I just wanted to go home and rest. I would say the time between going in for an endo to being released from the recovery ward is about 3-4 hours if they're running on schedule. The barium test takes 2.5 hours because they have to see how your body digests food and liquid from start to finish. Some people have posted nightmare stories about this but mine was painless and easy, and I have a weak stomach! If you're used to drinking water fast you will have no problems - the sooner you chug, the sooner you're out. You must stay awake for the full 2.5 hours, which in your situation might be hard if you're still groggy from the endo, so ask them to put on your favourite radio station to keep you awake or bring in a iPod with music that will wake you up. I did two manometries - one where they inserted a nasal tube and I had to do ten perfect swallows, it took about 30 minutes, and the other was the nasal tube being hooked up to a machine for 24 hours that measures your ph levels. Both of these were a bit uncomfortable because obviously there's a tube up your nose, but tolerable and not as scary or painful as I thought they'd be. The only complication I could see in doing all this in a day is if the anesthetic from the endo makes you nauseous, you might not be able to do the barium test or manometry swallow, but they might give you some anti-nausea pills for that. If I were you I'd take in a book, iPad or mp3 player to keep yourself amused. It sounds like your surgeon is very thorough. Good luck with your tests!