Okay, I'm goin down your list of suggestions. :)

For the castor oil pack, do you suggest that I just put it over my liver or over my entire stomach? I suggest you put it over the part that's symptomatic...so first your stomach/esophagus, and alternate to your liver (since that's likely part of the cause).  

"Entire stomach"? yes but not necessarily your entire torso.  See images below for the stomach I'm speaking of :::grin:::

Stomach is #4 in image below:

And just lookee how tight everything is packed in there...and how gas/swelling in the transverse colon can/does push UP on your stomach...and of course, that means gas out of your mouth.  And look at that poor lil' gallbladder squeezed up in all that...if the transverse AND the liver are swollen/engorged, how is that poor lil' galllbladder ever going to be healthy?  But all of the bile from the liver has to somehow get through that poor lil' squished gallbladder :(

I've done one castor oil pack so far and I didn't continue because it seemed to make my poop go from being a good girth to being pencil thin. One castor oil pack doesn't even make a theory, let alone a factual conclusion.  (you know this, right?)  You're body is in a state of "chemically forced balance" from the supplements (unless you weren't taking them then), so with the various levels of liver/kidney clearance of the supplements, food, fluid and the various variables of that particular day, whatever you assume is a goodly portion an assumption.  Castor oil packs are extremely beneficial for soothing and decongesting - they've been used safely and effectively for thousands of years.  Perhaps your stools were thinner because more bile was mixed in with them.  But 'pencil thin' typically means (logically) that the walls of the intestines/colon were narrowed (possibly by inflammation/swelling).  Perhaps the castor oil pack had something to do with it; perhaps not...but whatever the castor oil pack did, it was a healing action.  Castor oil pack are a goodness (Palma di Christi...the hand of Christ), wherever they touch, they heal.  Everybody that's compromised should do at least one daily.   I was using a heating pack which got very hot and I did it for a few hours. I thought that maybe my colon was sensitive to that much heat. I haven't looked into using a hot water bottle, but maybe that would be a better idea. It seems that would only work for a small area though. Your thoughts?  I've used a heating pad set on high all night when my liver was aching - I didn't sense any harm, but I'm not your body...you may have been sensitive and had swelling.  This hot water bottle is totaly awesome - check out the reviews: Amazon.com: Transparent Classic Hot Water Bottle - Made in Germany: Health & Personal Care   (get two...one for hot, one for cold...and it'll always be a walk in the park to do hot/cold therapy :)

You can warm the castor oil cloth by sticking it in a plastic bag and putting in a pan/sink of hot water...that's a great lil' 'jump start'; you can turn a heating pad on & off to regulate the temperature.  Most times I just slap the hot water bottle next to it, get it nice and warm, go to sleep and don't worry about it.  It always works just fine (but I think it works a smidgeon better when I do the heating pad on low, because I just can't figger out a way to keep a hot water bottle attached to me, and sleep at the same time).

Thank you!  You are welcome!  Uny