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As if it weren't enough that my desktop machine chose this week to die, esrblog spent a large chunk of Sunday afternoon in the emergency room of our local hospital.

On Saturday, he was fine. Better than fine, in fact, having accomplished a long, fruitful hacking run and having seen "Iron Man" with me and several friends. But on Sunday morning, he awoke with lower back pain that quickly transformed into a repeat of a malady he has suffered from several times over the past two years or so--severe stomach pains that go on for hours, accompanied by nausea and vomiting, that are alleviated only by burping. This time, a low-grade fever and chills were added to the mix.

The long-suffering medical staff at Paoli Hospital hooked him up to a heart monitor, x-rayed his abdomen to check for obstructions, and took 5 or 6 vials of his blood for lab tests. All came back perfectly normal. Finally, after about three and a half hours, he begged them for some pain killers and nausea medicine he could take by mouth (he'd refused to let them put in an IV drip) and to let him go home. Having no better ideas, they gave him a prescription for Percoset and for an anti-nausea medication and discharged him.

At home, the medicine at least allowed him to get some rest until the pain actually subsided late last night. A visit to his MD got us another prescription for nausea but no further clues.

He spent most of today resting, and finally got back enough appetite for chicken soup and crackers about an hour ago. Now he's in bed, getting further, desperately needed rest.

If only we could figure out what causes these episodes. Since they've started after he'd eaten different foods at different restaurants, food poisoning is beginning to seem unlikely. His doctor thinks it might be caused by a virus. None of this guarantees freedom from future episodes.