Drinking barium as we speak for yet another abdominal CT scan. Man this stuff SUCKS!! Also starting to get worried about the amount of radiation my poor belly area has had in the last few years. Four CT scans, a few x-rays....is there a point at which I should say no more? I guess I need them but can it cause cancer, etc.?

Thanks for letting me rant!

Erin

I really don't know which is worse...drinking the barium or having it pumped in the other end...I just had that done this morning.
Actually, maybe drinking it IS worse...I guess by now most of us are pretty used to things going in the wrong end!

How much radiation does a normal CT scan give you. How about a small bowel series?

I've had 2 chest X-rays, 5 CTs and an SBS in the last month.

I can't believe more hospitals don't flavor the barium for you. Yuk! My hospital mixes it with Crystal Lite - and it goes down okay so long as it's really cold. The hospital uses lemonade flavor (not the best) and the outpatient imaging office offers berry too (which is by far the best).

How about the fun with having that stuff come out in an ostomy bag??? I was shocked with how fast my bag filled up with that stuff. I emptied before I left (it was really full) and then 20-30 minutes later it was full again! I was worried about making it home.

As for the radiation - what you gonna' do? Just let it add to your "glowing" personality You would need a lot of rads to put you at risk. A CT abdominal series costs you about 2-5 rads. I read this:

"...present evidence suggests a shortening of human life of 11% per 1,000 rads for an entire lifetime." The average dose received in a lifetime is "12 rads." "This translates to 2.69 days off your life per rad." So, I suppose we shorten our lives by a week or so every CT scan.

I'm not sure of the direct relationship to cancer risk.