Stomach pains

His girlfriend knocked on my door and asked for the telephone number of the family doctor.
Concerned, I asked what was wrong with her. And it turned out that it wasn't her, but my brother.

Apparently he's been having stomach pains for the last couple of weeks, pains that come and go, come and go, and come again. And now he's decided to go see the doctor. I left what I was doing and went to his room. He was lying in bed, covered over with blankets.

I asked him what's wrong, and sounding worried I told him he shouldn't 'bear' the pain and let it drag on for so long. The doctor has open-door hours every morning, and you should go see him, I said. He replied that he'll go see the doctor first thing in the morning.

That was the first time we talked.
In over a month.