My surgery is Nov 17th. Today I went for my chest x-ray and upper GI. I was wondering if the barium has made anyone else sick. I spent more of my work day in the ladies room on the toilet then I did at my desk LOL. Also how often if ever after surgery do you have to do this test. The test didn’t take long but yuck on the taste, not sure if it’s the taste or the thickness of what I had to drink.

I always get sick off of the barium too. It's awful, usually throw up from it. I'm not sure if you have to do it after surgery, i've seen some people do and some don't. So, not sure about that.

If your doctor uses fluoroscopy for fills, you will have to swallow barium. But in MUCH MUCH MUCH smaller quantity--not enough to affect the bowels (thankfully)! Just a little mouthful.

Upper GI amounts really do cause a lot of people to have really gross aftereffects. You won't have to endure the same routinely postop.

I had to drink 4 oz of the stuff twice (stupid xray tech didn't have a clue where my stomach was) before they would release me from the hospital after surgery. Other than that, it is like BetsyB said, only when I have my fills done under fluoro.