I started having severe pain in March 1997 and went to the ER. They misdiagnosed me as having acid reflux, prescribed Prilosec and released me.
The pain would go away, only to come back every month or so for about 3 months. The ER doc probably saw the previous note, assumed it was acid reflux, would give me Phenergan (which completed knocked me out) and send me home.
Then I had no pain for about 4 months. Everything's great, right? Later that fall I started having it again and it became more or less constant whenever I ate anything with a lot of fat or cholesterol in it. Eventually it got to where if something had any fat or cholesterol in it it would light me up. By the time I actually went to see someone other than an ER doc, I could only tolerate fat-free muffins and water.
He diagnosed me in about 5 minutes, got me an ultrasound 2 days later that confirmed it, and I had it out 5 days after that. They said my gallbladder was so diseased that they almost couldn't take it out laporoscopically, and open surgery would've had a much more significant recovery time. As it was, I was laid up about 5 days and was back to work.
Long story short: I wish I hadn't fooled myself into ignoring it when the pain went away for 4 months. If I'd gone to that doctor earlier in the year I could've avoided so much pain and the risk of complications.