No Symptoms

I had no symptoms at all apart from a brief bout of cholecystitis which prompted an ultrasound showing a large gallstone. During surgery a few months later, it was found that my gallbladder was severely infected and if left could have caused serious problems, potentially fatally. I would recommend you get it taken out. 

Hi Linda,  I was told that there are literally thousands and thousands of people walking around with gallstones that don't cause them any problems.  It's only when they start causing you any pain or discomfort that you need to do something about it.  Once I had my first attack, the next one didn't occur for another 4 months.  After that it was every three weeks.  I was told that things were only going to get worse for me.

So, I guess in answer to your original question, I would leave things alone unless you start getting any symptoms.  

Apparently up to 20% of people have gallstones but they just don’t know about it as it doesn’t cause any issues. I’d leave well alone! If they start to cause issues then yeah I’d get it out but until then I wouldn’t do anything. Was this just an incidental finding when being scanned for something else? xx

Hi Linda as someone else has already said alot of people have gallstones and they never cause any problems and its only when they start to cause problems is it necessary to have the gallbladder removed. My mum has gallstones and has never had any problems and she's in her 80's, I'm in my 40's and unfortunately my gallbladder wasn't functioning properly so I had to have it taken out..

If its not causing you problems then leave it in as there isn't a reason to take it out as its not causing any problems. Some people do put it off until they start to get worse symptoms on here and then its normally because the pain becomes unbearable.

At the end of the day its your decision and no one can make that for you, I'm afraid.

Let me know what you decide x

You need to discuss this with mr. Garcea, Linda, or one of his team. There must be a reason they want you to have the surgery. NHS doesn't usually fund unnecessary surgery.

As someone has said, leaving it in can be risky. 

I know the though of surgery is very scary but sometimes you just have to take the plunge.

If no symptoms , better not to take it out.

Hi. Different scans for another matter showed multiple gallstones but they didn't cause a problem. Until one night I had violent indigestion which lasted until the next afternoon. Dr sent me for blood tests and the liver results were 'deranged!' Into hospital and the symptoms disappeared. Of course. But the surgeon said it would probably happen again, so out it came. So you could go for ages with no symptoms, but if they occur you might have to have it out. This probably doesn't help you much, but it's just my experience. I have the stones in a jar on display at home. Good luck.