Thanks Sue for that info and for your research.

Yes, I do forget to drink water most days. As an older guy, MDs and RNs have told me that many older people just don't feel thirsty so they don't drink water. I'm that way: I just don't ever feel thirsty. Also, for physical exercise, I only make a 1.5 mile neighborhood walk once a day and usually on most but not all days. Therefore, I'm not so physically active that I'd become thirsty. Not long ago I did some quick Internet research on this and learned that a part of the brain that registers thirst just doesn't work well anymore in older people.

This upper LEFT side physical pain often begins so rapidly late in an eating session-- other times it takes longer to start, but as I wrote before here, the tenderness and the physical pain can sometimes be absent for some consecutive days. I asked a young, inexperienced GI MD if I could have a stomach ulcer where I have so much horrible tenderness. He said that a stomach ulcer would not cause physically painful tenderness where I have it in that golf ball sized area in the upper LEFT ab a bit down from the lowest rib.

I love medical mysteries but not my own!