I had mine out in September of 2005.
It's not bad. If your mother had a full blown gall bladder attack, the surgery and recovery will be like a dream by comparison.
This way my experience from start to finish. (your results may vary)
Walk into the operating room under my own power, lay down on operating table, something connected to my finger, a nurse messing around over on that side, about one minute of small talk with the nurses and the next thing I know the nurse in the recovery area is telling me I can't lie on my side
Laproscopic surgery - 4 SMALL cuts, 3 visible, 1 in the belly button.
There is pain - but it's nothing compared to the actual full blown gallbladder attacks. Plus they are pretty good about dishing out the pain killers in the recovery area - the first 3 times they asked about my pain the answers 7 out of 10, 7 out of 10 and 5 out of 10 got me pain killers each time.
They kept me until I ate, drank and got up to go to the bathroom by myself. Then I was able to go home. Same day... my wife said she was in the waiting room a couple hours and it was probably a couple more until I went to the bathroom.. So maybe 5 or so hours from sign in to wheelchair ride to the car - of course I was knocked out and then high for it all, didn't seem like very long to me...
Prescription is given for pain at home, I took 1/2 doses of the pain meds, mainly because I had them.. I only wanted them the first two days, I don't recall "needing" them. Your mom will have to take it a little slow for a few days and they'll probably recommend she doesn't drive or lift stuff for like a week just to be safe.
If all is well, she'll go for a follow-up appointment - they'll ask her questions and a quick visual inspection and then they'll send her on her way. It will be (or should be) recommended to her that she follow a low fat diet for 6 months after and ease back into fats after that to allow her body time to readjust to processing fats again. To be completely honest, I didn't follow the diet, pretty much at all.
IF for any reasons they have complications during the surgery, they'll have to do the old school operation which means a bigger incision and longer, tougher recovery. They'll tell her roughly the odds of that when she goes in. There are chances with everything and the chances are slim here.
There is also potential (though small) that she'll have digestive problems afterward, the runs and all that.. initially is part of normal and longer term if her body doesn't care for it... I've read various problems from various people over time... But the bottom line is it is a VERY, VERY common procedure that puts a lot of physician's kids through college.
A year and a month have gone by for me and I'm fairly "normal" whatever that means. So I guess I was a typical case.
Hope it helps. Just have her go slow (if her pain that evening isn't telling her that already) and she should do fine. Get her a little stuffed animal or something to present her for when she wakes up - she'll be a little dopey and it could make her laugh.. I liked the one my wife got me.. being high on pain killers and stuffed animals are a good combination.
