I'm glad to hear you've had a smooth recovery. What the gall bladder does is store up bile so that you can dump a bunch of it into the small intestine when you eat a fatty meal. So if you only have as much bile as the liver can produce at the time (no storage) then you can't emulsify and absorb as much fat from your intestine at one time, which will cause you to poop out more fat. Fatty poop will float and smell bad. Not absorbing as much isn't all bad, as you can imagine, but it isn't all good either. You need certain fats: make sure that you take in some good omega 3's and limit your omega 6's and you should be fine. Next time you see your doctor, ASK. Just because your mom's not on a low fat diet doesn't mean that there might be some dietary considerations that regular doctors aren't talking about. Consult a naturopathic physician or a dietician and they will tell you lots more than a surgeon will about how to maintain your health without your gall bladder.