Had mine out when I was 20...
I used to get random pains in my abdomen and they would come and go. Well one night after going out to dinner with some friends my stomach started to hurt. I took some antacids at their house and laid down on their couch. A few hours later I was still in horrible pain.
It was around 1:00 AM and I decided to drive home to at least lay down in my bed, well, I made it about 4 blocks and decided I couldn't drive home, so I drove to my parent's house about a block away at that point. They were at camp that weekend so, I crashed on their couch. Still couldn't stand the pain and about an hour later drove myself hunched over my steering wheel trying to shift the car in horrible pain.
The Urgent Care place did all sorts of tests and kept assuring me it was an ulcer. I drank a ton of PeptoBismo and some other odds and ends of stuff and finally they said they needed to send me to get an ultrasound.
I called my friend's mom and she brought me up to the hospital. Got there, got sick and started feeling a little better. Well then came the ultrasound. The individual was called in at 4:30 AM to do this for me and she put the gel on my abdomen and ran the ultrasound on my stomach, within about 2 seconds she found my gall bladder and started pointing out the solid masses you could see clearly on the ultrasound inside my gall bladder.
About an hour later met with my surgeon who looked over everything and put me on a fluid diet. Based on the shock my body went through with the pain, she decided it would be best to wait a week before doing surgery and kept me on a liquid diet for the remaining week.
The week went by with no issues, went to the hospital the day for surgery and checked in. They knocked me out and I woke up a few hours later. They were successful in doing my laproscopically (sp?), but the anethesia did a number on me and they kept having to keep me drugged to prevent me from having dry heaves. I do have four small scars, one just below my sternum, one at the top of my belly button, and two small ones on the right side of my stomach area. These are the typical placement areas for the laproscopic. One note, my step sister had hers out and she is much heavier then me (she is not my half sister, she is completely unrelated just to clarify this is not a heriditary thing in my family), and she had to have open surgery to remove hers. The heavier you are, there tends to be greater risk that laproscopic won't work.
About a week later I was feeling fine (they wouldn't release me back to work for 2 full weeks though) and ever since it has been great. I do notice that I tend to be more fat sensitive then before the surgery and the greasy foods go right through me more so. Otherwise, no real change in my diet or anything else.
For reference I was 20, I'm 5'10" and at the time around 155 - 160 lbs (and I'm male). They told me they really don't understand what causes some people to have issues with their gall bladder or not. There are some scenarios that put you more at risk like pregnancy and being heavy and then losing weight, but neither applied to me. Men are also less likely to have issues with their gall bladder, and it is fairly uncommon for someone at my age at the time to have issues.
If you have any questions, just let me know, PM is fine too.
I am glad that it's not the gallbladder, but what the heck?
