Abdominal pains suck.

Especially when you don't know specifically what causes them. I've got a long history of digestive track problems, going back to stomach ulcers when I was 8 years old. What hit me Monday was something I haven't had happen before, which is why I went to the doctor first thing Tuesday. Fortunately, she got me through to a specialist this afternoon, and I now have an upper endoscopy scheduled for Monday.

I'll post the pictures. It will be fun.

Fortunately, I did get some medication that is helping, so I'm not in as much pain as I was earlier today.

This will be my third upper endoscopy. I've also had a colonoscopy, a flexible sigmoidoscopy, and an esophageal manometry in the last 6 years. For my money, esophageal manometry the one I most significantly don't want to repeat. The others I've been unconscious when I had them performed on me. The esophageal manometry, well, *shudder*.

As we get older, we get to go through more and more procedures that are more and more exciting and informative. And go places no object was really ever intended to go. I feel the same way about needles - *shudder*. If God had intended us to give blood, we'd have little valves on our arms that we could just squeeze open in time of need. One arm would have an input valve for getting shots and other injections, the other would be an output valve for donations and tests.

But that's just me...