Anyone here without a gallbladder??

The vast majority of people who have them out live a perfectly normal life.

If your HIDA is positive, you can always wait until after your race to have it removed if your symptoms are too bad.

I got mine taken out in October 2009.  I was in pretty bad pain for the first week, but it got better after that.  I probably started back running about 3 weeks after surgery.  Adjusting my diet at first was the hardest part.  Now, I can eat pretty much the way I did before the surgery (for the most part, anyway). 

FWIW, about 6 months before surgery my HIDA was negative and I didn't have gallstones either.  I eventually had an attack so bad that I wound up in the ER doubled over in pain that would not go away.  Surgery was a relief after that.  The surgeon said my gallbladder was pretty scarred and was not contracting by the time they took it out.

I had mine removed last year (June 2010).  I was sick, too, and was passing stones left and right.  It was an easy surgery, but I did have some complications.  Got home from the hospital and ended up getting violently ill.  Had to be admitted and doctor thinks he knicked my liver during surgery.  LOL  Stayed in the hospital an extra 4 days.  I started the Couch to 5k program 3 weeks after that, ran my first 5k in Sept., then started training for tris. 

Nope.

I have all my parts........

had mine removed about 5 years ago. first few months were a little rough and i spent a lot of time getting to know bathrooms in various stores around the city, but now i have no trouble at all. 

recovery was minimal. had it out on a friday and back to work that monday. 

Thanks for all the responses! I'm feeling somewhat comforted that I will still be able to do the HIM in April..Hopefully I won't have 'months' of diarreah..would not want that on race day!!!

You'll learn really quickly what you can and cannot eat.  If you're worried about it, simpler is always better.  I started out really slowly after surgery - plain noodles or rice, plain baked chicken, applesauce, etc.  I'd add foods in slowly until I learned how my digestive system reacted. Now, I'm almost back to eating everything I did pre-surgery - spicy foods still cause a problem, so I mostly avoid them now.