2017-07-09 Hi Rod! A little education, as I promised in my comment from a few minutes ago. Here's an illustration of the upper abdomen. Bile is produced in the liver. It is made up of 3 components - 1/3 cholesterol, 1/3 bile pigments, 1/3 bile salts. Their concentration must be evenly balanced, or one gets cholesterol stones, or bile salt stones. The bile produced in the liver passes through the right and left hepatic ducts. From here, it passes through the common hepatic duct and into the cystic duct to the gall bladder. The gall bladder extracts water, concentrating the bile. This is where it can go wrong, if there's an imbalance in the bile components. A stone can easily get stuck at the narrow neck of the bladder, labelled OUCH! The usual operation removes the bladder and part of the cystic duct. A far worse situation arises if a stone passes down the common bile duct and lodges in the greater duodenal papilla (OUCH!!!). This blocks bile and pancreatic juice (with all the enzymes which break down the food) from entering the duodenum for mixing with the food. So, the enzymes start breaking down the pancreas instead! This is pancreatitis and can be quickly fatal. Such a stone is usually rather easily removed by endoscopy (Wee! No cutting!). But why bile? -It eliminates extra cholesterol from the body. Cholesterol sticks to fiber and passes out with the poo! We often stuff more cholesterol into the body than is needed (ice cream, McDonald's grease burgers, T-bone steaks, pork chops, sausages - you know the floor sweepings from the butcher shop, etc., etc., etc., ...) and not enough fiber! -It eliminates bile pigments (left overs from recycling iron from hemoglobin from dead red blood cells). -It eliminates bile salts. End of sermon. So now you know a bit more about why bile, why stones and what can be done to remove them. Good luck with the surgery! We're rootin' for ya'! Michael T.Rex Summer and a whole gang of characters who are too shy or prudent to show up in a Rendo post!