2
• Do not eat or drink anything, including water, after midnight before the
test.
• Ask your doctor if you should take your medicines the morning of the
test. If so, take with sips of water only.
• Tell your doctor if you have had any barium x-rays in the past week.
Barium may affect this test.
• Before your test, tell the staff about:
─ Your medicines (herbals, over-the-counter, vitamins, and
prescriptions)
─ Allergies
─ Other health problems and surgeries
─ Pregnancy
During the Test
• You will wear a hospital gown.
• You lie on your left side or stomach.
• An IV (intravenous) is put in a vein in your arm. Medicine is given
through the IV to make you sleepy.
• Numbing medicine may be sprayed into your throat to keep you from
coughing or gagging.
• The doctor passes the tube through your mouth. You can breathe around
the tube.
• Your doctor looks through the tube at the inside of the parts of your
digestive tract.
• Dye is put in. You may feel some pain.
• X-rays are taken.
• The tube is removed.