Don't be afraid of the surgery. If you have it done before the gallbladder ruptures or becomes necrotic, it's not a big deal (and this is from someone with the worst white coat phobia you've ever seen ). When I had my mine, I had them do a tubal ligation at the same time--they didn't even have to make any extra incisions. I was in the hospital for about 1.5 days, but it would have been shorter if I hadn't had a bad reaction to the general anesthetic. Unfortunately, I'm one of those people who just don't tolerate anesthetics well.

Afterward I kicked myself for not having done it sooner.

My brother had only one gallbladder attack. When they did surgery, it was gangrenous and ready to rupture. He had to have an open gallbladder removal, not the laparoscopy surgery. Not something to mess around with.

Towards the end, when I still had my galbladder, EVERYTHING set it off. I was down to eating nothing but raw vegetables, and even then I would get severe pain. The first time I had a galbladder attack was after drinking coffee. At the time I didn't know what it was. The pain felt like it was radiating across and around my entire mid-section. It's definitely not something to mess around with. My surgery was simple and I was out of the hospital the same day. I was back to work/school in about a week.