I am 51 and had my gall bladder removed a year ago this past May. The surgery was a breeze, I felt great for three days and then, bam, I woke up to the most incredible of what I thought was heartburn. I went back to the surgeon who advised giving it more time and samples of Prevacid. No relief, more samples of Proton Pump Inhibitors. Long story short, after an endoscopy, I was found to have bile reflux. A nasty little side effect that apparently 25% of post gall bladder surgery patients experience and something no one warns you about nor has any idea of how to fix. Acid reducers have no effect and the only drug that gives any relief is Carafate which binds to bile. It is related to the unlucky patients who experience chronic D after the surgery. The bile coming directly from your liver now that has no storage, can go up into your stomach or down into your intestines. My gastroenterologist said that 3-6 months is the typical time for this to clear up but it could take up to a year. It was almost to the day, after a year I was almost back to normal. I lost a ton of weight because I could eat practically nothing. All I can say is that this surgery as with any surgery, was not the piece of cake it is purported to be.