My gallbladder was removed in the early 90's. Before having the surgery, I went to 2 gastroenterologists and had 2 sonograms. I wanted an unbiased 2nd opinion so I didn't tell the 2nd doctor that I had gallstones. The bad thing was the 2nd sonogram showed no stones. When I told the doctor that I had already had a sonogram and it had showed stones, he consulted with the radiologist and they redid the sonogram. It turned out that even though I had gone to a different radiology location, it was the same radiologist who read the scans. It seems the 2nd sonogram tech didn't do a very good job and the 3rd sono, done personally by the radiologist, showed stones definitively.
That wasn't good enough for me though. I was still hesitant so I put it off dealing with the flare ups as much as possible, until one night I had an attack that was so bad, my husband had to rush me to the hospital. I presented with severe chest pains and really thought I was having a heart attack. They did a number of other tests, including another sono, and concluded it was my gallbladder. They ended up doing an emergency surgery to remove it about 4 or 5 hours after I got to the emergency room. Funny thing was that all the sonos (4 at this point) before the surgery showed 2 to 3 larger size stones, but when the surgeon removed it, she said it was completely filled with little bitty stones. So, if nothing else, that's proof that those sonogram machines don't always show the true picture, unfortunately.
They were able to do the surgery laproscopically, so recovery (time off from work) was only about a week, but I did have to stay in the hospital for 2 nights (the night we went to the emergency room and then the next night). That was probably because they did the surgery on an emergency basis rather than pre-scheduled though.
I had heard there are other ways to treat stones, but only if they know what type of stones they are, meaning what they are made of (calcium, or other mineral deposits). There's supposedly some way they can break up the stones if they are a particular type, but all the doctors I talked to said since they can't tell what type of stones they are, it's usually a waste of time and money and that the only other option is surgery.
It is true that if you avoid fats and greasy foods, you should be able to help control the attacks somewhat, but once you have stones, they will always be there so I wouldn't think that's a very viable solution.
In hindsight, I would have saved myself a lot of pain, and money, if I had just gone ahead with the surgery after the 2nd, or rather 3rd, diagnosis. The surgery and recovery wasn't very painful and it definitely made the gallbladder attacks go away, which had been excrutiating at times. I cannot tell you that I noticed any other differences either after they removed my gallbladder, besides no more pain.
I know it's scary and obviously, based on my experience, I can totally relate to wanting to avoid surgery at all costs. Unfortunately, I think gallbladder disease is one of those you can only cure through surgery. The good news is it's probably one of the most common surgeries, they can usually do it with only a few small incisions, and I believe that most people have no complications afterwards.
Good luck to you! I hope you are able to find some relief soon!
Blessings,
N.