Hi Cat,

No - I don't regret my cleansing or change in lifestyle a bit. I lost 42 pounds and only have 21.5 more to go! I just wasn't aware of how cleansing can really stir up the stones and wasn't aware of what was going on in my body until it was too late. Yah, I ignored the symptoms instead of listening until I landed in the ER on morphine! In my case a large stone got stuck in my bile duct and it wasn't budging. Perhaps a Liver Flush or something else would have helped - I don't know. But it sounds like you're doing all of that. I had a couple of risk factors going for me though:

QUOTE:

Obesity. Obesity is a major risk factor for gallstones, especially in women. A large clinical study showed that being even moderately overweight increases the risk for developing gallstones. The most likely reason is that obesity tends to reduce the amount of bile salts in bile, resulting in more cholesterol. Obesity also decreases gallbladder emptying.

Gender. Women between 20 and 60 years of age are twice as likely to develop Gallstones as men. I'm 41.

Rapid weight loss. As the body metabolizes fat during rapid weight loss, it causes the liver to secrete extra cholesterol into bile, which can cause gallstones.

Fasting. Fasting decreases gallbladder movement, causing the bile to become overconcentrated with cholesterol, which can lead to gallstones.

END QUOTE

So inevitably, I was setting myself up for surgery without even realizing it. I had burning for months and though it was just "digestive" and that fasting and dieting was going to do the trick. It was the exact opposite -- I was making it worse! And when it got bad, it was like BAM I was on the floor (there's no other way to explain it).

The only recommendation I have is to get a GB ultrasound. Did you know you can see all the stones in your GB with one of those things. That was pretty cool -- though in my case there was way too many. Early enough I'm sure you can get rid of them with flushing, etc.

Best of luck!

Melanie