So I'm a month away from flying to turkey for GS and was wondering how they check your stomach before surgery ?

Some surgeons/insurance require an endoscopy as part of your pre surgery health checks. But because you’re having your surgery overseas best would be to contact your surgeon in Turkey.

I had to have an endoscopy and an upper GI done to check my stomach pre-surgery.

I had my surgery on the states but they didn’t do anything to check my stomach. All I had was bloodwork and psyc exam. Then morning of the surgery I told them I had heart murmur as a child and they did A quick EKG.

Edited July 24, 20224 yr by ShoppGirl

They did not check my actual stomach. The testing i had to get done were

EKG, Blood work, Chest X-ray, Psychological exam and that was it.

My EKG did come back abnormal so i was required to get a Nuclear Stress Test done.

For clearance I had an upper endoscopy along with labs and other tests.

My program also will scope you the day of surgery to verify the stomach is empty.

I guess Upper GI ex-rays with barium swallows are out of vogue. Here is my journal entry:

Then the Upper GI; now this was not fun. I have never had one of these, so here is what happened: The Tech stands me in the proper position, tells me what is going to happen, and then fetches the Dr. The Dr. arrives, and I quickly drink some “fizzy powder” as instructed. “Don’t burp!” Then I drank the FIRST cup of Barium. The Barium was chalky, slightly lemon, and (unfortunately) a little chunky in places. I told myself it was a lemon shake… a chalky lemon shake… a warm chalky lemon shake... a warm chalky chunky lemon shake. The Dr. took a bunch of quick pictures… “Breath”… “Hold”… “Breath”… etc. Next, they set the table to horizontal (Oops, I burped while waiting, shhhh) then I lay on my stomach and had to drink the SECOND cup of warm Barium lemon shake through a straw. Then the THIRD. After that, they rolled me around and took pictures, and voila! It was done. It certainly wasn’t an ‘E-Ticket’ attraction, but I have been thru much worse.

Good luck,

Tek

Edited July 24, 20224 yr by The Greater Fool

2 hours ago, The Greater Fool said:

I guess Upper GI ex-rays with barium swallows are out of vogue. Here is my journal entry:

Then the Upper GI; now this was not fun. I have never had one of these, so here is what happened: The Tech stands me in the proper position, tells me what is going to happen, and then fetches the Dr. The Dr. arrives, and I quickly drink some “fizzy powder” as instructed. “Don’t burp!” Then I drank the FIRST cup of Barium. The Barium was chalky, slightly lemon, and (unfortunately) a little chunky in places. I told myself it was a lemon shake… a chalky lemon shake… a warm chalky lemon shake... a warm chalky chunky lemon shake. The Dr. took a bunch of quick pictures… “Breath”… “Hold”… “Breath”… etc. Next, they set the table to horizontal (Oops, I burped while waiting, shhhh) then I lay on my stomach and had to drink the SECOND cup of warm Barium lemon shake through a straw. Then the THIRD. After that, they rolled me around and took pictures, and voila! It was done. It certainly wasn’t an ‘E-Ticket’ attraction, but I have been thru much worse.

Good luck,

Tek

Almost identical experience. After surviving this test I was fully committed to getting the procedure.

I didn't have any GI testing prior to surgery. Its really up to the Dr. and whether or not it is part of their protocol - some will do an endoscopy, xrays, or other testing, some do none at all. Unless you have reason to believe or have been diagnosed with something that may impact your surgical outcome, then its really not necessary. The primary thing they look for is hiatal hernias, which if found, can be fixed during the bariatric procedure, but it typically doesn't impact eligibility or surgical process.

I would've had to get an endoscopy but I had one in their network less then a year before. I had bloodwork, EKG, and a chest x-ray. I already had a Psychologist that I saw regularly that was ready and willing to write me a letter and my doctor accepted that and my Cardiologist had to sign off. That one had me sweating because he was a skinny little man that was always after me about losing weight but was NOT supportive about WLS. He actually told me to just stop eating. He did write the letter but he took his time. ? I have a new, more supportive Cardiologist now.