Well, last week wasn't so hot health wise. I had two gallbladder attacks in one week. The last time that happened was probably close to a year and a half ago. Seriously. A LONG time ago.
I'm jumping to action.
Diet is being refocused on, sugar is being severely limited. I am happy to say I'm doing surprisingly well on the limited sugar. Still craving things from time to time, but keeping it under control. And, I'm sucking it up, putting on my big girl panties, and have started to do a gallbladder flush.
Yikes!
Now, I'm not doing the full blown single night of downing an ungodly amount of olive oil and lemon juice in one sitting and hoping you don't yack it back up or die from discomfort as it goes through your system during the night. Nope, wasn't quite ready for that- nor does my schedule permit the necessary "Day of rest" afterwards. I found a variation of the flush that isn't quite as intense, and is much better suited to the lifestyle I live.
Here's how it works. Last thing at night and first thing in the morning everyday for a week (or so) you drink a mixture of 3tbsp olive oil and the juice of one lemon. That's it. According to my book I should start to pass stones after several days. Sounds easy enough!
I started last night and just did a half dose to ease myself in to it. First, I was surprised that the olive oil and lemon juice combination wasn't quite as wretched as I had imagined. It's kind of like drinking salad dressing- can't say that I mind it. To be on the safe side (especially after coming off of two attacks in one week) I did a serving of my Super Phos (phosphoric acid) immediately afterwards. In the traditional flush, you drink a large amount of Phos during the flush. I figured it sounded like a good idea and it seemed to work. Better yet, I actually felt some mild relief after the first serving of my "easy" flush. I didn't have any more gallbladder pain than I had experienced earlier in the day or the prior days and it seemed to relax a bit, if anything.
This morning I did the full serving of the "easy" flush. Went over just fine. I waited about thirty minutes before eating my breakfast to be safe and I didn't experience any gallbladder problems. Again, it felt as though my gallbladder thanked me for it and it relaxed even more than the night before. At about 10pm tonight I did another serving of the olive oil and lemon juice, and I'm experiencing that same sense of relief. It seems as though each time my gallbladder feels "softer" in a way. I can't really explain it, but in comparison to the sharp pain I feel when it is flaring up, this feels gentler, softer. Probably has something to do with all the lubrication I just threw at it!
Plan is to continue this for the next week or so and see what happens. I would ultimately like to work up to a full flush sometime later this summer, and I think this is a good way to ease myself in to it. Heck, if this does enough flush on it's own, I might not need to do the full flush! That would be awesome!
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3 comments:
WoW! Fingers crossed that this works out for you. Ron had to have his gallbladder removed several years ago. After years of chronic pain, by the time he did anything about it, it had given up & had atrophied, it's only purpose reduced to causing pain.
I know what you mean about the sugar monster and cravings! I'm still trying to figure out why I get get incredibly ravenous & have intense cravings at times - at first I thought it was maybe from eating yeast, egg, or cow products (I have varying stages of intolerances to the 1st 2 and allergy to the 3rd), so kept a diary - what I've noticed is that these show up if I've been on the scale. So, for the last several months I won't get on the scale. Yesterday at the Docs they wanted to weigh me and I covered my eyes and told her not to tell me what it said. Will be interesting to see if that works :-)
Sounds like your sugar cravings are "trained" just like mine. I haven't looked on the scale in forever, definitely helps. Because when I know the number I'm either eating sugar because I'm upset by it (sugar calms those stress areas in our brains) or I'm eating it because I tell me self I can because the number is good (reward habit). Did you read End of Overeating? I can send you a copy of my lecture if you want.
Also, if you need help with sugar cravings, I swear by any supplement the owner of GallBladderAttack.com is selling. Here is her sugar cravings kit: http://www.gallbladderattack.com/products_sugarcravingkit.shtml
PS I'm forever grateful that I caught my gallbladder problem before atrophy or the need for emergency surgery. I'm sure I was getting close when I did though...
How can you tell if your gall bladder atrophy has set in? I had three gall bladder attacks this week. I think I've had about 10 in my life, so this was really scary.
I'm of course looking all over the web, and found the gallbladderattack.com site. I'm always worried about "magic snake oil" formulas. I just made a beet-lemon-oil mix to try and relieve some of these acute symptoms.
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