Gallstones and about to have surgery!?

  I started having chest pains and heartburn that elevated into vomiting.  I went to the emergency room and they did an ultrasound and diagnosed me with gallstones.  On the same day they did blood tests and said my white blood cell count was not high so there was no infection so I could go home and I should call a surgeon to have the gallblater taken out. ( they also gave me Keflex to take for a week)  Three days later I went to a surgeon who (without seeing the ultrasound results) said we should take it out.  So we scheduled the surgery.  Since then (It has only been a week) I have had two attacks of the same intensity that only go away after taking two vicodin and waiting an hour or two.  My questions are ... If the attacks are so severe should we be waiting so long to have it taken out?   Can the surgeon be sure of what he has to do without even seeing the ultrasound?  What if a gallstone is lodged in a duct already and the surgeon doesn't know before he goes in?  
  The reason I am so concerned is all the literature I have been reading on this says that my symptoms should mean that there is some sort of infection or something lodged in a duct.??
  Any help would ease my mind.
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Dear Marigold,
As you realize from reading the other postings to this Forum, not all abdominal pains are due to gall bladder disease, even in patients with gall stones.  Sometimes, when the physician examines the abdomen, he can detect evidence for gallbladder inflammation based on tenderness to palpation, fullness under the right ribs etc.  
A one wek delay is not excessive for people who do not have acute cholecystitis.  You are correct, however, that during the wate, you could have a severew attack of cholecysttitis and even  pass a stone into the common bile duct.
It is not necessary for the surgeon to examine the study with his eyes.  More important is the time taken interviewing yoy, to be certain that the pains are indeeed related to the gall bladder.
Stones lodging in the common bile duct is a problem.  Surgeons can do an X-ray during the surgery to verify that the duct is free of stones.  In some cases the common duct stones are only found after the cholecystectomy.  In these cases an ERCP (endoscopy study) can be done to open the duct and to remove the stones.
This information is presented for educational purposes only.  Always consult your personal physician for specific medical questions.
HFHSM.D.-rf
*keywords: cholecystitis, biliary colic, cholecystectomy, ERCP
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