I thought I would post my experience of having a defacating proctogram... As I had no feed back from my question about it.. I thought I would share what happened to me and reassure anyone who has to have one that its not as bad as it sounds!
I was not aloud to eat or drink for 6 hrs prior, and 2 hrs before I had to drink a chalky barium drink (which was a struggle to get down as it was YUK!)
The jist of the proctogram is to have a barium substance ... It was the consistency of thick hand cream....inserted into the rectum, you then sit on a commode that has X-ray machines around it, and are asked to hold... Strain.... Bare down and then try to evacuate your bowels.
Well.... Not that I am particular about the way I have to open my bowels.. ... But I bought my Vaseline and insisted on coating the syringes of barium with it... And my butt..... Then I said I usually have a stool, I need to raise my knees.... So they got me one... It wasn't high enough so they got me a pillow on top.... And as I was making my toileting demands I decided to go the whole hog and ask if I could apply some support to my pelvic floor with my hand and some tissue. They said yes that was fine, it wouldn't interfere with the X-ray.
The doctor, nurse and radiologist were sat looking at the monitors behind a screen, so it was as private as you could get... No one was directly looking at me.
I must say that my bowels did get a bit of stage fright and I couldn't properly open them, but they said that was very common as its such an unnatural thing to do. They still managed to see what they needed to though, so that's a relief.
The good news is I don't have any prolapse where stools can gather, but he did say it was all very tight down there....... I KNOW!!!
So there you go..... A defacating proctogram in a nut shell. If you find yourself needing one don't worry, they are not as bad as they sound.
Just hope I can pass out the barium I drank earlier with as little trouble as poss.... It says it can cause constipation
OMB x