gall stones- remove or try to flush?

[chimomma]

My husband had two gall bladder attacks. The ultrasound revealed a 9.9mm gall stone at the neck of his gall bladder. We are seriously considering the surgery but want to explore other options first. Has any one had experience with this? Has any one done the liver/gall bladder flushes having known gall stones or a previous attack? Is that at all safe? The website I saw about it said that the salt you drink would relax your organs so the stones could pass painlessly. To be it seems risky, but that's the only other thing I can think of beside surgery. I would love to hear from any one who has experience or stories about gall stones, surgery, or any one who has removed them doing flushes.

[tylerdylan]

I am an ultrasound technologist and talk with doctors and surgeons daily. I have never heard of liver/GB flushes. I can't begin to imagine how they would work (and highly doubt that they do). Also I would be concerned of how they would affect the body and other organs. A 1cm stone is pretty big and I don't think it will be able to pass out of the neck of the gallbladder anyways. The neck contains little valves in it. Some people have stones that are just millimeters big and these can pass out of the gallbladder into the bile ducts, but it doesn't feel good. The surgery these days is pretty minor as they do it all laparoscopic these days and there is no big incision to heal from. Some people have gallstones all their lives and are never bothered by them. Other people have their gallbladder removed thinking that was the cause of their problems only to learn that they still have the problems after the surgery. If your husband is hesitant to have the surgery he may want to alter his diet instead - often that helps a lot. Stick to a low fat diet. There are some other rules too which I can't recall at the moment.

[sh118]

I had the surgery a couple months ago. It wasn't a big deal in terms of recovery...pain pills and staying in bed/chair for a couple days. After three attacks, even with eliminating fat from my diet, I was ready to TAKE IT OUT. I didn't even have stones, just "sludge" that showed up on a CT scan.