i just had mine removed a week ago and after talking to the surgeon, the gastroentologist, my regular doctor, and my mother who had hers removed @ 25 ( she is 62) this is what I found out: for the first year stick to a low fat and low grease diet. I found this website that helped a lot: http://www.gallbladderattack.com it tells you everything you need and honestly works. I too couldnt use the bathroom without having pain so i used prescribed colax tablets but you can get them over the counter as ducolax. The website workd great but even my mom said that for the first 5 years she had problems learning which helped and hurt but then once that was figured out everything went away, the pain, constipation/ diarehha, heartburn etc. its something to look into.