Re: I have a problem with some claims of stone size...

Hi, Mark,

I don't routinely measure the size of my stones, but, except for last year when I was passing the big ones, they've all been pretty small so far. (I'm doing another flush tonight; if anything truly large comes out tomorrow, I'll be sure to let you know.)

The stones that came out last year were probably in the 2cm range. It's difficult to say, because they were also in feces, and I didn't tear apart the feces to find out exactly how large they were. The parts I could see were in excess of 1cm (and quite scratchy on the way out...). But it hurt A LOT when they were being pushed down the bile duct. My doctor told me that this is probably the closest I would come to understanding what giving birth is like.

Ladies, you have nothing but my respect...

Anyway, that leads me to my major point: as for physical dimensions, I'd like to direct your attention to the human reproductive system. Tissues can be a lot stretchier than you might ordinarily expect them to be.

I suspect the pain we experience from passing stones (when we aren't doing a flush) is, in fact, the stretching of those tissues as they attempt to accomodate an object which is larger than that to which they are accustomed. Ever watched a woman give birth? That stretching hurts like hell, too.

That we don't experience pain during a flush thanks to the Epsom Salt or magnesium citrate or whatever is wonderful. But I haven't passed any stones yet that would have caused me that kind of pain (they've been pea-sized or Tic-Tac-sized [and -shaped]) so far. But tonight is my third flush; I'm hoping to see the larger ones tonight.

In any case, I've passed Gallstones both with and without flushes, and, believe me, anything that hurts THAT BAD, you tend to take a notice of.

I've eaten plenty of greasy food, and I've even been on regimens which included drinking all blend oil -- tablespoons of it a day. I never, not once, noticed stones before I had my gallbladder attack last year.

Admittedly, I could easily have missed them before, but I didn't miss them at all during my gallbladder attack last year, and it required nothing more than a cursory glance to notice them embedded in my feces.

BUT... given that my feces used to float constantly, and now it sinks... perhaps I have been passing stones. I don't know how many stones it would take to make feces buoyant, but I can't rule out the possibility that I've been passing small stones (or perhaps some of the elements of stones -- say, cholesterol chaffe...) for years and never noticed.

If you're really concerned about it, do a flush and collect the stones. Analyze them yourself, and then send 'em off to a lab to test the contents. Or, if you're really bold and haven't done many, if any, flushes, do a flush but don't include the Epsom Salts (or magnesium citrate). I'm guessing the pain should pretty much tell you where the stones are coming from.

BTW -- when doing a flush, my wife and I feel a tingling sensation for a minute or two about a few minutes after ingesting the oil. It's kinda like the feel of the itchiness of a wound healing. We can also feel the spasms of the liver and/or gallbladder (it's hard to tell which -- it's just spasms...). We suspect the "itchiness" is the actual stones being flushed out.

=-John-=