He caught my eye the minute he strolled into the emergency room, just before midnight. He had wrapped both hands around his lower back and kept straightening up, as if to work out a kink. The resident examined him first.
"Seventy-one-year-old man with back pain," he reported. "Began six hours ago, and it's getting worse. Funny thing is, he didn't lift anything heavy, or fall. Should I give him something for the pain?"
"Can you find where it hurts?" I asked.
"I checked along his back. Nothing."
"Pulses?" I continued.
He frowned. "I forgot to check."
"Maybe," I said, "it isn't his back."
I went over to say hi. The patient had the weathered mien of a smoker.
"Hello, doctor," he said in a gravelly voice. "I need something for this pain."
I pressed up and down his back: no sore muscles or tender vertebrae. His belly hurt a little ...
