Stomach Ulcer (Day 4424 - 1/4/22)

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After visiting the doctor, Stephen and Mallory return to their car. Stephen says he went to the doctor as he's been having stomach issues for the past 2 months and it's been getting worse, especially in the last 2 weeks. Based on his symptoms, the doctor thinks that Stephen most likely has a stomach ulcer. The doctor prescribed some medicine to see if that would help and scheduled an appointment after 3 weeks as a follow-up. Debra thought that Stephen's pain may have been the result of a hernia as Steve has had them before. Stephen says that he'll have to stick to bland food until he gets the medicine.

Back at home, Stephen and Mal have some of the leftover pizza from yesterday. Stephen mentions that the tomato is a little acidic, but won't be too bad for his stomach. Stephen mentions that he ran into a medicine issue at the pharmacy. The doctor prescribed 2 different medications, one of which Stephen was able to get relatively quickly, but was unable to get the other due to the doctor prescribing a dosage that is too high for their insurance to cover. The pharmacists says that the dosage is twice the amount that insurance will cover resulting in the price being roughly $190. While the pharmacy was still open by the time Stephen and Mal had reached out, the doctor was gone for the day and they will have to follow up with the doctor tomorrow. In the meantime, Stephen had some TUMS, an antacid, to help relieve some pain.

Stephen says that the stomach ulcer makes sense and believes that the pain is stress related due to it starting around the time between Extra Life and Mal's Surgery. Once Stephen starts the medicine, he should feel better within a week, but he needs to keep taking it for a few months to see if it works.