Yeah, the gallbladder removal part seems odd to me as well. I had gallbladder trouble a few years back and an ultrasound showed that I had a stone. Surgeon wanted to remove my gallbladder, but I found that moving to a vegan diet completely ameliorated the symptoms so I did not have the surgery done. When researching this I found that many people are found to have gallstones in the course of imaging for other issues and they often never have had any gallbladder pain or issues. The conclusion was that the presence of gallstones does not in itself indicate gallbladder removal. As you're saying, I suspect that the docs were having trouble figuring out what was wrong, noticed there were gallstones present and decided to remove the gallbladder to see if that would help.

This is a possibility. The mere existence of gallstones does not necessitate the removal of gallstones[1]. In this case, it is likely the pain, because it was similar to the one experienced with those having gallstone issues, was wrongly linked to the presence of gallstones.

[1] https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/gallstones/sy...