Snaklog

I had an appointment to go for a CT scan of my stomach, this involved having to drink a flavoured drink then waiting for some time before going into the main room and asked to lie on a couch. I was then positioned and moved around in a doughnut shaped piece of machinery that actually did the scan. After a while I was injected with iodine and warned that I would get a warm feeling and it would feel as if I had wet myself. We it certainly did.

The whole procedure took about 20 mins and I was free to go home afterwards. The results came back perfectly normal.

The dreaded barium enema, having heard horrendous stories about the indignity’s and tribulations of the barium enema it was my turn, following a few days of a low residue diet and having to take the dreaded Picolax again I turned up at Aberdeen Royal Infirmary with some trepidation.

I was taken to a small cubicle where the procedure was explained and I changed into a hospital gown, then after a short delay it was through into the main room where I had to lie down on a tilt-able bed. The barium was introduced and the table was then moved into lots of positions to fully coat the colon with barium at one point the table was tilted to such an extent that I thought I was going to fall off. Xrays were taken and then it was off the table into a side room with a toilet where I spent the next twenty minutes or so trying to get rid of the remnants of the enema, it’s a bit like sh**tting chalk.

The results of the enema were all negative apart from one small diverticula that was found. This meant the diagnosis of diverticular disease was incorrect.