I had to have mine removed too a few years ago. I kept getting pain waves (when the abdominal pain I’d been feeling for almost a year got worse and worse but it would come and go) When I finally went to my doctor (I thought it was stress or muscle spasms) he asked me a really bizzare question: did I have any pain in my right shoulder as well? I did. I thought I just kept pulling the muscle but he told me that gallstones can cause shoulder pain (I can’t remember why though) so sent me to a specialist and to confirm it was gallstones they did an ultra-sound. I had so many gallstones that it had started to swell. It was packed! It got stuck removing it laparoscoplically and they had to cut it open so they could finish pulling it through the incision. I had so many gallstones that they documented it. They gave me one of the pictures to keep, I should post it-it’s pretty cool, but my stones were cream colored, and there was no dark bile (no room with all the stones in there) and they were sooooo many different sizes! It kind of reminds you of white corn (I know, gross)