Update on oggbashan's health

[Handley_Page]

My scan is clear again - now 15 months but it is too soon to drop from three-month intervals to six monthly.

Excellent news, Ogg

 

[SimonDoom]

My scan is clear again - now 15 months but it is too soon to drop from three-month intervals to six monthly.

This is great, great news, and I want to second your resolve to get tested after three months. I have a friend in an analogous situation who waited six months and they should have been tested after three. They're OK right now but probably would have been spared a lot of distress if they'd been tested sooner.

Best wishes to you, always.

 

[KeithD]

My scan is clear again - now 15 months but it is too soon to drop from three-month intervals to six monthly.

Good news.

 

[missyunderstanding]

Very good news.

My scan is clear again - now 15 months but it is too soon to drop from three-month intervals to six monthly.

Since my views about some things seem divergent from yours you might imagine that I don't care about your health issues. But in truth I do care and I have been keeping an eye on this thread. Very happy to hear your cancer has retreated.

I think that regardless of views about how this, that or the other thing should be, we should all be able to see that many such issues are trivial compared to issues like cancer.

I do not believe that there is a political solution to human problems. One can not legislate righteousness. A law can not make lazy people become zealous. It can not make a fool become wise. The core problems facing all of us are inside of us.

We live in a world where people will fund sporting events with such zeal that people that play with balls for a living can earn millions. At the same time funding for cancer research often ends up on the back burner. The core problem in such a case rests within people and a tragically warped sense of priority.

I hope you continue to win this battle.

 

[oggbashan]

This is great, great news, and I want to second your resolve to get tested after three months. I have a friend in an analogous situation who waited six months and they should have been tested after three. They're OK right now but probably would have been spared a lot of distress if they'd been tested sooner.

Best wishes to you, always.

Thank you, and all the others, for your good wishes.

The particular form of small-cell lung cancer I had can go from no trace to death in six weeks so even three months is a long time. But - if I get any worsened symptoms I have an emergency number to ring. At the moment, in the oncologist's words - I am stupidly fit for someone who HAD lung cancer.

 

[SisterJezabel]

My scan is clear again - now 15 months but it is too soon to drop from three-month intervals to six monthly.

Best news!

 

[MColton84]

My scan is clear again - now 15 months but it is too soon to drop from three-month intervals to six monthly.

That's wonderful news. I'm glad to hear that you're living a success story. F#@% cancer!

 

[oggbashan]

Today was an MRI scan of my head to see if there are any changes that could account for my symptoms. It's b***** noisy. My ears are still ringing.

 

[Handley_Page]

Today was an MRI scan of my head to see if there are any changes that could account for my symptoms. It's b***** noisy. My ears are still ringing.

I got the impression that it was building site as heard from torpedo tube.

 

[SamScribble]

I got the impression that it was building site as heard from torpedo tube.

Good description, HP.

I got an inkling of what to expect when the smiling nurse gave me earplugs and then put noise-reducing earmuffs over the top of the earplugs.

 

[fifty5]

My scan is clear again - now 15 months but it is too soon to drop from three-month intervals to six monthly.

Hip Hip Hurray, Og!

 

[oggbashan]

I got the impression that it was building site as heard from torpedo tube.

It reminded me of my time in Devonport Dockyard. They were building a ship across the road with riveting hammers; a steam train passed within a foot of my office every quarter of an hour; the computer printers ran at four miles an hour and even inside an acoustic hood were over 100 db; and there was a three hundred ton steam-hammer fifty yards away that shook the building with every stroke...

 

[loquere]

I wish you all the best Ogg, I hope you remain well and strong. Stay safe and away from this awful Covid virus.

 

[SisterJezabel]

But did you think about how to have sex in there?

 

[oggbashan]

But did you think about how to have sex in there?

Of course. I was thinking of plot lines for LIT - But sex in an MRI machine? No? It took a quarter of an hour to ensure my head would fit in. I'm still a big lad...

There wouldn't be room.

The previous time they took even longer before deciding it wasn't possible and considered sending me to the local zoo that has an MRI machine that can take gorillas...

 

[JGittes]

Mary Roach, in her book 'Bonk,' describes having sex with her husband in some sort of internal imaging machine. I don't think it was an MRI, but I'm not able to look up the reference right now, and I can't be sure. Highly recommend all her books.

Ogg, best wishes for your continued better health. Have you always been so open in communicating the more difficult and sometimes unpleasant aspects of life? I've followed this thread since the beginning and have found it refreshing to have a clear, articulate and honest description of the health journeys most of us will travel in one way or another, if we live long enough. I've seen countless reported stories, especially this past year, of the catastrophes, misdiagnoses and admonitions to do or not do, this or that particular thing. What I find rare are the intimate descriptions of the daily challenges, decisions and results that would be helpful in guiding not just decisions, but the attitude necessary to make the best decisions possible under a clear understanding of the circumstances. Thank you.

 

[oggbashan]

I have had good treatment BUT they don't know - apart from the lung cancer in remission - what is wrong.

I have had contradictory statements from consultants:

"You won't live until Easter (2019)."

"You're the fittest person I have ever seen in my clinic - just dying."

"You haven't got Lambert-Eaton"

"O yes you have."

Latest - "Oh no you haven't but I don't know what you do have."

One consultant took a blood test form and ticked every box on it - except pregnancy. He then added six more tests not allowed on the form. My wife was waiting for me when I had the blood taken. I went into one cubicle of two. Eight people had gone in and out of the other cubicle before I emerged, They had taken eight separate phials of blood. When The results came back they were colour-coded green, orange or red. Apart from diabetes, Type II which I already knew about that were faint orange, every other test was green = no problem.

Those results confused the consultants even more...

 

[Handley_Page]

I have had good treatment BUT they don't know - apart from the lung cancer in remission - what is wrong.

I have had contradictory statements from consultants:

"You won't live until Easter (2019)."
"You're the fittest person I have ever seen in my clinic - just dying."
"You haven't got Lambert-Eaton"
"O yes you have."
Latest - "Oh no you haven't but I don't know what you do have."

Those results confused the consultants even more...

I can see a statue of you being erected in the entrance of the medical school. . . . .

 

[TarnishedPenny]

There's one test on every major exam, one designed to be the spirit-breaker, the question to hammer into even the best student's brain You too are mortal! British medical students for generations to come will be seeing Ogg's symptoms...

 

[oggbashan]

There's one test on every major exam, one designed to be the spirit-breaker, the question to hammer into even the best student's brain You too are mortal! British medical students for generations to come will be seeing Ogg's symptoms...

My personal file of my medical correspondence has now filled four A4 folders...

...and that's just since January 2019.

 

[jehoram]

Mary Roach, in her book 'Bonk,' describes having sex with her husband in some sort of internal imaging machine. I don't think it was an MRI, but I'm not able to look up the reference right now, and I can't be sure. Highly recommend all her books.

I read that book, and had to laugh when, at the end of the scan, the technician said something like "You may ejaculate now."

I'm a big fan of all her books. Can't name a favorite, but "Bonk" and "Stiff" are near the top.

 

[JamesMiehoff]

Keep confounding the bastards Ogg.

I went in to a local urgent care since my primary doctor blew me off until March 1. The doctor there decided that I probably had a sinus infection and bronchitis. I had to wait and get chest x-rays. Just for good measure I got a Covid (scrape your brain up the nostril) test.

I also got a shot of antibiotic and a shot of a steroid to help my breathing. One in each cheek. I reacted badly to one of them and found myself on the floor, bleeding. I got myself up and back up on the examination table which is where they found me with blood dripping down my face.

That led to a flurry of activity. An IV. Blood tests. Concussion tests. Urine test ("Please pee in the cup while we all watch to make sure you don't get dizzy and pass out on us") and adding insult to injury a rapid Covid test (back up the nostrils again). It was negative.

As we were finally getting back on the road, my wife asks me "What is wrong with your shoulder?"

"I probably dislocated it when I passed out," I said. She freaked out and screamed at me for 5 minutes about why I didn't tell them about it. I just looked at her and said, "It took 3 hours to get out of there for a simple cut on my forehead. How long do you think we would be there if I let on about my shoulder?"

So I don't have anything exotic like you, but even a simple chest cold and sinus infection can be exciting sometimes.

James

 

[ChloeTzang]

Of course. I was thinking of plot lines for LIT - But sex in an MRI machine? No? It took a quarter of an hour to ensure my head would fit in. I'm still a big lad...

There wouldn't be room.

The previous time they took even longer before deciding it wasn't possible and considered sending me to the local zoo that has an MRI machine that can take gorillas...

Love it! Big hug, Ogg

 

[Handley_Page]

Fingers crossed, Ogg.

Nice one, James !

 

[oggbashan]

I had two appointment letters in yesterday's post:

The first, mid-March, with a senior neurologist I haven't seen before but fifty miles away!

The second? In May, back to the oncologist after my next CT scan - if that is on time.