Mysterious dull pain stewing in my "LLQ." That is the lower left quadrant, in medical abdominal pain speak.

I like speculating about what organs, exactly, are in that zone of tenderness. Perhaps my liver is protesting, belatedly, the holiday decadence. Perhaps I have been invaded by a thousand dead birds or two dozen fretful mice, or every political sadness felt in the state of Wisconsin this afternoon.

Thanks to my job, I know it's not my appendix (that's RLQ), and since it's not terrible, just weird, I can leave it for tomorrow. In my head, I am already signing in as a fake nurse and documenting the duration and intensity and characteristics (dull? sharp? throbbing? mostly not) of the sensation. If I remember right, there about two dozen adjectives we allow for describing the shape of a pain. The rest is location and intensity. It seems inadequate.