... I was having severe (read awful) stomach pains... First time it happened I was having a cataract operation in my left eye the next morning at 7am... That first episode had subsided by 10am and I felt fine. After that I had 4 more episodes but by this time I had seen my doctor and he had prescribed some tests for me. Last Tuesday during my last attack (a mild one) the emergency department called from the hospital telling me they had a cancellation the next morning at 9:30am. So Wednesday morning I left for what I thought was only an ultrasound... I had to wait for the results and then I was immediately admitted to the hospital and put on an IV to get anti-biotics in me. The next morning (Thursday) I was given a dye test CT scan and next would be an MRI... Apparently all these machines see things that the other machines don't but the MRI machine must have been booked heavily so change of plan... Early the next morning (Friday) they taxied me (no siren) by ambulance to another hospital an hour and a half away for a procedure via my esophagus to my duodenum (look it up)... That procedure took all of 15-20 minutes, don't remember exactly as they knocked me out as soon as this apparatus was passed my teeth... Long story short (too late for that I know) they removed an obstruction in my duodenum and I've been feeling great since...

Prior to this I was afraid to eat anything for fear of causing the next attack...

Sooo... I'll be 77 years old in June and I have never been hospitalized, never had an IV, an ultrasound, a dye text CT scan, an ambulance ride, nor that procedure (it's a long name and I didn't jot it down) so I haven't abused our Medicare system but I can only wonder how much all of this would have cost instead of zero below the 49th parallel...

Raymond Gallant

p.s.: My poor wife who doesn't take stress well had never seen me sick like this and told me the morning after my first attack that she was writing my eulogy... I laughed and I told her to save it as I wanted her to read it out loud to me the next time she'd get mad at me...