I haven't begun any testing yet but I'm sure they'll want me to undergo the upper plumbing torture.

For people who have been through it, which is worse - upper GI barrium swallow or endoscopy? Either procedure scares the crap out of me :sad:

I have never had an endoscopy but the barium swallow was so easy and I was also scared before it. The just made me lie down on the table and drink some liquid while thye filmed. The only thing hard about it was it is just not natural to drink on your back. The one I had for post op was actually standing and was as simple as drinking a glass of chalky water. It is really no big deal.

The barium swallow is not a big deal. You take a swallow of barium while either standing up or laying down and they take pictures using xray. I've had quite a few, the worst part being sometimes the barium is chalky nasty tasting, but I've also had some where it didn't taste half bad.

I've never had an endoscopy myself, but I've prepped enough patients for them. They are a more indepth than a barium swallow. You are given drugs to make you loopy so you'll hopefully forget what's going on, but not to where you need a breathing tube or anything. They pass a tube/scope through your mouth into your stomach, it has a camera type of thing at the end so that the doc can see what's going on down there. Sometimes they take samples and sometimes they don't. A lot of times when people 'wake up' after the procedure, they don't remember it ever having started. I'd say the worst part about an endoscopy is having to have an IV started.

Good luck! Just remember this is all part of the process to get to your ultimate goal