Gallbladder Surgery

I first noticed pain near the top of my abdomen, right below my rib cage and in the center, and then radiating to my back, when I was pregnant with Clara in 2011.  I thought it was an intestinal blockage as the pain had subsided by the next morning...it often happened at night.  The next time I noticed it was a year or so later when I had pancakes.  Then this year, I was starting to notice it when I was eating donuts, greasy foods, etc.  I still thought trapped gas and intestinal issues were the culprit, so I made an appointment with a gastroenterologist.  I couldn't get in until December 16th as I wanted to see one of only two females in the practice.  This was ok, because the pain was still sporadic and not extremely painful that I needed to rush in.  I had a yearly physical on November 2nd with my general practitioner and casually mentioned the symptoms I was having and that I had made a GI appointment.  He said that he was 98% sure it was my gallbladder that was the culprit, he'd write me up an order for an ultrasound, and if it came back as the gallbladder, I could cancel my GI appointment because they would just refer me to a surgeon.  He could do the same thing.  I scheduled the ultrasound for that Friday, the 6th.  The results came back on Monday as positive for gallstones.  The next day, I was meeting with the surgeon, who said the only treatment is to remove the gallbladder.  Surgery was then scheduled for Monday, the 16th.  It was quick and successful, but a little more painful than I thought it would be.  I think this was mostly due to the gas and bloating.  Each day something would hurt a little less, but Friday night at 2 am brought an unexpected episode of extreme pain (crawling on the floor panting type pain).  It was like I was having another gallbladder attack but 100 times worse.  The on-call surgeon said that this does happen to some people and that it should pass by morning.  If it didn't, I was supposed to come to the ER and they'd give me some strong pain meds.  After about 45 minutes (it seemed like an eternity!), the pain started to subside and thankfully never returned.  Also after that, the gas and bloating stopped as well.  I had a follow-up appointment with the surgeon on Tuesday, the 24th and he said that I likely had a residual stone in the bile duct that was trying to pass.  I took it easy with eating over Thanksgiving as I wasn't sure if certain foods or eating too much would give me any problems.  I'm happy to say that I had no issues and I really feel so much better than I did before the surgery!  I'm back to normal activities, although if I overdo it a little I still get some tenderness at the incision sites.  I have a feeling that will subside soon, though.