Hi,
Welcome to the Forum!
Will you have an upper GI or an EGD? With an upper GI you drink the barium and they take pictures, with an EGD they sedate you and the doc goes through your mouth with a small tube and camera to see if anything is going on in your stomach or with the esophagus and they can check for a multitude of things. Some docs insist on a stress test before they will do surgery especially depending on your age and any history of problems like an irregular heart rate, high blood pressure, or just depending on what they can hear like a murmur. Remember most murmurs are benign but it is good to get them checked out. They can do two types of stress tests, one where you get on a treadmill and they stress the heart out while checking on you every few minutes and the other where they administer a chemical to make your heart work harder and they still check you every few minutes. In some cases they can give you a small amount of radioactive material and then take pictures of how fast it goes through your heart, but they will no doubt do a normal stress test on you. I have had all three and they were not difficult at all. They should also do some preoperative classes to let you know what to expect before you have surgery. I can't remember how long before they allowed me to swim but I had my surgery in March and the pool was finally warm enough to swim the end of April but I think they would have let me start sooner. Just make sure the incision/s are healed and not draining but they should tell you that too. If there is one thing I have learned it is that each center is slightly different and it is always best to check with your center. Write all your questions down for the Doctor or staff and get the answers. Every time you think of a question, write it down. I still carry my little notebook back and forth to my appointments. Carry a list of your meds with you too so you can make adjustments as needed. Come back frequently, and ask those who have been there before you. Good luck. I hope this helps some, I can only speak for what my center does, yours may be somewhat different depending on the procedure you are having done. Joy
