and is there anywhere you can get a substance with a similar action from some sort of over the counter medication?
A few years ago my digestive system was mysteriously plugged up and whatever I ate just got stuck. I went to a doctor who ordered an upper GI, and I drank whatever it is they give you. Anyway, within minutes, before they even took the x-rays, whatever it is I drank almost instantly cleared out my system. I had a rather rapid bowel movement and I was fine after that - the GI didn’t turn up anything, possibly because whatever problem there was got cleared.
So anyway, I’m running into what seems to be the same issue, and I was thinking I could perhaps just drink whatever I drank before to clear it out. But I’m not sure what it is you drink, how it works, or if it’s available in some form I can find outside of a hospital.
Sorbitol can added to the barium meal to aid/speed passage. This may well be what had the effect you observed.
OTOH, you are stepping over the line in asking for medical advice, the above isn’t. It is just an observation about what had the effect. Go see a doctor.
I don’t think it constitutes medical advice; I’m not asking for a diagnosis, but just asking if something that already worked is available in an over the counter form.
What you drink for an Upper GI is Barium, sometimes mixed with other ingredients.
I’d be really surprised if Barium is available OTC.
Yeah, I knew it was barium to reflect the x-rays, I just figured there might be some sort of laxative or something similar with it to help it go down.
How does the barium flush out the system? High specific gravity working like Drano?
The added sorbitol is what makes it follow through fast. Your GI tract can’t absorb it, and the osmotic pressure therefore stops you absorbing the water, so it remains fluid and all flows.
Barium absorbs, not reflects X-Rays.
This is also why too much sugar-free hard candy makes you poop like a goose.
X-ray Tech here. It is not uncommon for some Radiologists to want some Gastrograffin in the barium mix as well. 'Graffin can speed up the GI system (ime) so that may have been a factor. There are also two types of barium thickness used (at most clinics) with first one being VERY thick to paint the walls of stomach and then a rather thin mix for proximal small-intestine. Its this second mix that may have sweetener in it - the thick stuff is usually just barium powder with water added until pasty-thick.
Usually, barium slows things down, and if a person does not drink enough fluids after the exam, it turns to rock in colon (relatively speaking) and causes obstipation/constipation issues. I’ve x-rayed many a post-UGI folk that drank little water after an UGI and had gotten plugged-up. Nothing a Fleet enema won’t fix rapidly, though (ime).
I am gonna guess that the OP’s belly went ‘normal’ coincidentally and that the barium had nothing to do with improvement.