I don't know if I am qualified to give you the right answer. All I can do is tell you my experience.

I had my gall bladder surgery in 1992. This was after years of sever esophageal spasms. I had no choice because my gall bladder actually collapsed. I was suppose to have a simple loproscopic procedure. Surgery is no simple matter. If your Dr. uses words like routine, I would be scared. I have found out the hard way that routine really means...." I have done so many of these I don't even have to pay attention to what I'm doing." My Dr. cut into my gallbladder causing hundreds of stones to spill out into my body. I had to under go emergency surgery to remove the stones. Will this happen to you? Probably not. I do, however, know for a fact that your pain will not end with the removal of your gal bladder. Several times a year I still have the same attacks of pain I did prior to my surgery. I even have a stone attack plan. It includes a heating pad, Motrin (If I could get my hands on stronger pain meds. I would), Benedryl (to knock me out) and usually lot of bargaining with God. Thanks to the wonderful experiences shared on this forum, I now know that a good dose of Epsom Salt really helps to ease the pain. This is why I am going to go the Liver Flush route. Looking at it with good ole common sense, There is nothing in the Liver Flush that can really hurt you. Yes the Epsom Salt is Yucky, and no I am not looking forward to Olive-Oil burps, but if you have ever felt the grip of throat spasms, or had your spouse rubbing the center of your back for hours ... I say pass the oil and make it a double.

At the end of the day, you have to be comfortable with your decision. Just be aware my friend.... Surgery will not stop the pain.

Best Wishes to you and all of us who seek a healthier existence,

JAOVA

I had my gb removed in 2002 prior to knowing better. I felt great for a few weeks and the same old symptoms crept back...the pain, nausea, severe heartburn, diarrhea and dumping syndrome, irritable bowel..........I really didn't have prior to surgery that bad. It got much worse over the next few months. I started reading on alternative health and discovered this site. I read for weeks, maybe more before I starting flushing. I got out thousands of stones over the next three years and about 19 flushes.
I wish I would have saved my gb. My doctor failed to mention that I would have diarrhea up to 6 times a day forever. I would have tried flushing and would have tried anything other than the side effects of my surgery.
If you look on the Image Gallery under Liver Flushes you will see pics of my stones from my second flush. The are large and my liver was so congested.
My cholesterol and TG have come down to near normal levels with flushing and that is also without statin meds that I was on since 1990.
There are many benefits to flushing. Read up on more of my information on the gallbladder surgery forum. I am sort of the resident poster around here that has had my gb removed. I would recommend to you to try to save your gb at all cost. You have a 50-50 chance of having the same symptoms after surgery as before, or in my case, worse than before.
My symptoms that I described have finally ceased with routine flushing about 4 times a year as maintenance flushes. The only problem I still experience is the damn diarrhea that won't go away.
It took many flushes, more than 9 in my case, to finally say, "it is all worth it". Don't give up and provide your doctor with his house payment.
Feel free to ask questions and for advice. We are here to support you.

Like every GP yours can only provide you medically approved treatment for the symptoms you display. Even GPs will vary quite considerably in their response to gallbladder pain. My GP would wait until I was being sick and passing white stools before he recommended an operation.

I don't think 9 is a particularly large number of flushes. I was suffering from biliary colic so intense that I passed out. My ultra-sound showed that my gall bladder was so congested with biliary sludge that they could not determine if I had stones or not. It wasn't until flush number eleven that I managed to get some real improvement and since then I haven't looked back. The pain is a distant memory.

The official statistics on gall bladder removal show a 20% failure rate where the patient doesn't show an improvement or actually gets worse. Since keyhole surgery was introduced the number of operation has increase by about 30%. The overall gallbladder removal mortality rate was 0.56% in 1992.

http://www.jr2.ox.ac.uk/bandolier/band38/b38-7.html

I would urge you to reconsider what the doctor has recommended and give yourself more time to see if you can shift the congestion.

Telman