GES Testing

Zach has had some medical tests scheduled and one of them we have already done, it is called a Gastric Emptying Scan or GES and it is a test that measures how the stomach is working at the time of the test. I tried to find pictures of this online to show Aden and I couldn’t find anything that a 3 year old would understand.

The GES takes about an hour for the 1st part, if the numbers are at a certain level then they ask you to stay for an hour and then they take another 20 sec picture. Since the 1st part of the test is an hour and he has to stay still the whole time they asked if I wanted him to have a low dose of versed. I said yes and we went off to get it. The nurse asked me if he would take it orally or if they had to put it through the G-Tube, I told them that he would take it orally; he was ready to have something wet in his mouth. She warned me that it tasted horrible and that he would have to take it all… I told her don’t worry about it, just hand him the syringe, so she did and sure enough he took it. She was amazed that he did without making a face and even more amazed that he asked for more. Yes, my son knows how to take medications.





We went back to the room where they were going to do the test and they gave him 6 ozs of formula with a radioactive agent in it. I asked them to get me a small syringe so I could put some in there for him to drink/suck on while they were bolusing him. It went well and they were amazed





Then they went to lay him on the table and to put him under a camera for an hour; yes he had to stay still the whole time. I warned them that he was strong and they didn’t think that he was until they went to put the thing on him to help keep him still. I was able to stay there and sing and talk to him the whole time. It was hard but Zach did well. There was a screen that I was able to see that had a pic of his stomach, it is the white blob looking thing (the black box to the left) and how much time had elapsed and how much time was remaining (the green bar).

After the first hour, they got him up off the table and then we had to wait for an hour and come back to do a 20 sec picture to see how full the stomach was. While we were waiting we went and saw the fish, saw the puppies that were visiting, walked, looked at the TV, and colored. The hour went by pretty quickly.

As a treat we went and had lunch with Daddy, Zach was delighted to see him.

I got a phone call back that told me that it was normal… so that is good. I don’t have any more explanation than it was normal.