For general info—just quoting JMAC because he was similar to me..
You always want to get a second opinion before doing any surgery. For me, I have had stomach issues for years, nothing major at first, just a reduction in ability to tolerate certain things, especially fatty things, and constant heartburn. Over the course of probably about 10 years the symptoms I was experiencing gradually became worse—but no sharp pain. Only in the last year did I start to get a continual dull pain located where the gall bladder is which would intensify when I ate anything, and the more fatty the more it would ache, but still not any super sharp pain (I'm allergic to Aleve so even if I had the sharp pain, it wouldn't have mattered). I had blood tests done and I found out I had extremely high lipase, one of the pancreatic enzymes. Once my doc saw that, he had me go do the HIDA scan and ultrasound. Ultrasound showed no stones anywhere. The HIDA scan in their words was "inconclusive." This is an expensive and uncomfortable test, and they come back saying, "inconclusive?" I was pissed. At later doc appt, my doc told me that what had happened was that the gall bladder was being sporadic. It would contract somewhat then just sit there. I started to have really bad heartburn, and even Prilosec was not helping much. Had a case of vomiting, and this time some blood showed up. I went in for an endoscopy which showed Eosinophilic Esophagitis which is caused by an allergic reaction, and I was thinking, "what in the hell am I allergic to?" It had been so bad that I was bleeding from right under the valve to the stomach. Still, no one really related this to my gall bladder. My doc recommended we send the results from the HIDA scan to a specialist at another hospital to get his opinion. The specialist reviewed, and I went in to talk with him. I got the same spiel that it might fix the problem and it might not, but he recommended that I get it taken out. I chose to take it out just last June. For me, that was the right choice. The heartburn has stopped completely. I can't go overboard in eating greasy food, but I can tolerate it now. I FEEL so much better as well. My lipase values have come way, way down. It is still over the high limit but not by much. Once your GB is out, they say you either get the runs constantly or you're constipated more. I got the latter which I'll take over the other condition any day.
My own theory is that because my gall bladder stopped working correctly, I was unable to digest fats properly, and my body started to react to the raw fats as an allergen. My pancreas started producing more lipase in an attempt to digest the fat which caused pancreatitis. I had always thought in the past that somehow I wasn't digesting things right, and it turns out I was right. It has been about 6 months now, and I feel much, much better, and I feel I'm doing better in terms of my bb'ing goals. I had started to lose weight and size when my GB started to get bad which really sucked, but I'm finally starting to build up again slowly.