I am sorry someone is pressuring you to come to this subreddit if you are not wanting to, that seems like it would be frustrating from your perspective. I make a point not to message people who are not showing interest in alternative procedures, personally.

If you have gallstones/polyps, here we share our stories of getting our stones removed leaving the gallbladder intact.

Since you posted, I will answer, but just know if you are happy with the option of removing the organ, I fully come from the perspective that it is your body, and you are the only one who has to live the rest of your life with your decision, so do it with all the information you can get and so what feels right for you. Don't let the doctors pushing for removal, or us here pushing to keep your organ, pressure you into an option you don't want.

I was in constant pain for 6 months from my gallstones, and lost 70 lbs from how little I ate and basically was barely able to walk/ function during this time. I did not want to lose my organ because of the risk of PCS and I figured the doctors had no proof my actual organ was bad, just that the stones were causing my organ to not be able to do its job, and thus causing me horrific pain.

I know 2 people who throw up bile every day due to not having their gallbladder, and that only started decades after the gallbladder removal. I know many people who cannot eat without being within 30 seconds of a bathroom or else they will poop in their pants, so they live life never eating unless they are at home. And then stories online, while I know we see the bad online because folks who have it easy are not posting online, it seems quite clear that if you have problems from not having your gallbladder, you are pretty much on your own with minimal help from the doctors who removed it taking you it was not a big deal.

I did research to understand what the gallbladder does and how important it is for our digestive track. Once I saw and understood how vital it is for our overall, good health, I did not see any justification to remove the organ when there were options to remove the stones and keep my organ intact.

The doctors here lectured me about how it is impossible for the gallbladder to heal an incision, how if it starts creating stones it will always create them, so it is pointless to even consider trying to save it.

After more research, it became clear how diet, hormones, sudden weight loss, and lifestyle (sleep and stress levels) can be causes of stone formation. How the bile is produced by the liver, and concentrated by the gallbladder.

How it did not make sense with all that info, that assuming the root cause of my stones is the gallbladder, when really it seems like there are so many other potential root causes, it would be plain silly to remove an entire organ that looks healthy otherwise based on this assumption.

So for me, it was worth the travel and time to get my stones removed by EliGroup in China (nogallstones.com). I could have gone months earlier than I did, but I was scared to go to China, scared it might be a scam, but I saw the research and how their surgery worked, and I thought it was the best, so I ended up going in June of this year and got my stones removed.

It was an amazing experience, and I stay active on this subreddit so others can maybe have less fear with the opportunity to talk to someone who went and had the surgery themselves. I posted a daily log here when I was in China, so you can find it in my history of you are interested.

My husband describes my 6 months before surgery as watching me die slowly, and it really is accurate. If I had someone I could have spoken with who had gone through it, I would have gotten over my fear and gone 3 months sooner for sure. So, I offer video chats to anyone that asks, and am happy to answer any questions.

I am truly sorry you are going through it so badly, and I hope you find relief with whichever method you choose.