What are they thinking???

So my surgeon's office refuses to refill my nausea medicine unless I comply with their request to have a barium swallow test. 

I. told. them.

Liquids. do. not. give. me. nausea.

WTF?

I told them that it's any type of protein food that does this to me (and it's true) cheese, chicken, meats, etc.  I get nauseated.  My stomach just hates those foods.  I still can't eat eggs in any form.

If I take Zofran once a day in the morning, I'm fine.  Sometimes I have a little pain with certain foods (swiss cheese, crab, eggs - but I avoid eggs now I've given up on those) but with the Zofran, no nausea and I'm able to get my protein in for the day.

Why do they have to torture me with this test?  How is a person who is VERY prone to nausea going to drink that nasty stuff down?  I tried to get down some Milk of Mag earlier this week but I barfed it all up.  I just don't see how we're going to accomplish anything beyond them watching me gag and throw up.

There may be other reasons to have the barium swallow test.  I had a whole series of tests at 5-6 months out  because I was unable to tolerate most solid food.  Like you, I could drink anything just fine.  The docs may be looking for other sources of nausea (some of which can be serious)   I suggest that you ask your docs why they want to run the test, and what they are looking for. 

I still get stomach pains and nausea, and multiple docs are following that quite closely.

I assume they want to see if things are able to go through your pouch the way they should.  Whether liquids give you nausea or not, the barium swallow will show them if your pouch is working properly.  If you're having a lot of nausea, it's a reasonable recommendation to have that test. 

They don't want to just give you meds to try to mask a symptoms, they want to know what the problem is.  They want to diagnose the cause of your nausea so they can try to actually fix the problem, instead of just covering it up with meds.  That seems like a good idea to me and I think you're lucky to have  a surgeon that thinks like that.

I agree with Kelley , you need to have the test, it isn't bad at all and if you do not take it you will be considered a non compliant patient.
If it were me I would want to know what is going on
You could really be hurting yourself by continuing as you are.
Best wishes

Jen,

The barium is nasty but it's only a small amount!  You might have had a barium swallow before you left the hospital initially.  You will make it through the test, my advice is just to give in and go through with what "the doc. orders".  Good luck

I've never had one.  About how many ounces do you have to drink?

d my Upper GI series (aka Barium swallow, ) yesterday.
It was really painless. There were people who warned me that the
 Barium was so bad you had to choke on it. But I
found it to be like milk of magnesia. Do able. I was changed into a
gown but got to keep on my pants and shoes. Taken to the xray
room.

. Had the proceedure explained to me in minute detail. Time to
answer any questions I had. I was told it
would take 2 days to send the info to my doctor. I stood against
a table that was upright with a step for the feet. The radioligist
took what looked like a film of me while I took small drinks of
the Barium. It was really pretty cool watching
it run down my throat and into my pouch. Then into my intestines.
I was so focused on my pouch size that I neglected
to look at how fast the liquid ran down my stoma.  Then I was
lowered down while still lying on the table so that I was laying
on my back. Excatly like the Wallace and Gromit Bed. I actually
mentioned that to him and he quietly laughed. When the table was
being raised back up to the upright position I said "Oh No, the wrong trousers Gromit" This made him laugh out loud
and he says He and his young son love that show. Any way the whold process only took 10 minutes.