Gallbladders and Children

[Trekhawk]

Hello, I need some advice please.
My daughter who is 11 years old has been having stomach pain off and on for about a year. We tried eliminating nuts, milk products, and treating her as if she had an ulcer. Finally, we relented and went to the pediatrician.
DD had an upper GI - negative, an ultrasound - negative (NO gallstones), and a chem 14 - perfect.
A little over a week ago she had a gallbladder scan. Her gallbladder is not emptying. Any empty rate of 35% or less is an indication for surgery, her empty rate was 0%.
Since the scan we have eliminated fat entirely from her diet which has helped immensely. She still has an episode of pain nightly around 11:00, but other than that has been doing well. (She was in so much pain before this that she was throwing up occasionally and has missed about 12 days of school; the pain so bad she couldn't get to sleep).
She is not obese by any stretch of the imagination - in fact she is in the 110th percentile on height and 40th percentile for weight. I consider us pretty healthy eaters compared to the general population. None of us are above our BMI range.
We have a surgical consult on Monday at 3:45. I have so many questions before we proceed with surgery.
Herein lies where I would like some advice -
Have any of you been diagnosed by a physician with a gallbladder that is not functioning and tried remedies other than surgery? Cleanses, etc. How successful or unsuccessful? Any other advice?
I absolutely hate the thought of putting her through surgery if there is another remedy. I also am not optimistic that if her gallbladder is not functioning that it can start working again. She is in so much pain.

Thanks for your input.

Flybye I hope your daughter will be feeling better soon. Two of my sons had surgery for Hernias (apparently boys can be born with them) at the end of last year and it was a scary thing for us all. What I did notice was that children seem to bounce back quickly from operations and my boys were no different. The hardest part was keeping them from doing too much for the required time after the operations. My boys were 11 and 9 years of age when they had their surgery. Sending healthy vibes your way.