If you are having an air contrast study, the radiologist may even ask you to stand to mix up the barium and air. You can move as slowly as you'd like, and you should ask for help if you have difficulties. If you plant your feet on the platform at the bottom of the table, you will be standing on the platform when the table reaches its upright position. It can be a strange feeling, especially with everything else that is happening to you. If you feel unsteady, you can ask for a handgrip or ask not to be moved up any further.
Most patients are able to tolerate the upright position.
The upright position allows the heavy barium to coat the more dependent portions of the cecum, which is at the beginning of the large bowel, and allows for the best air-filled pictures of the uppermost parts of the colon, the splenic and hepatic flexures. In the upright position, it is not unusual to experience a little leaking around the rectal balloon. For this reason, it is wise for air contrast patients to remove their shoes. If you find yourself standing with an enema tip in your rectum and shoes on your feet, ask the radiologist or technologist for a towel to cover your shoes. Often the radiologist will want to have you expel the excess barium back into the tube while you are upright.