Og's Blog Pt. 01

Og's Blog Part 01 September to December 2019

Copyright oggbashan (and copyright for those I have quoted)

Apart from the Author's name this is supposed to be non-fiction.

A couple of people have asked me to make a permanent record of the real-life anecdotes I had posted in the Authors' Hangout and General Board so this is the first part.

+++

How I chose my user name:

Biography:

I don't expect anyone to like ALL of my stories. You might like some but be repelled/appalled by others. If you don't like one, try another. I write in British English and the stories are sometimes fairly long, if they are not fifty words. I try to have a plot. How far I succeed is up to you to say. Any comments even negative ones are welcome.

I also write under my other nom-de-plume Jeanne_d_artois and try to have a different slant on the stories when writing as her. I am (or was) Og, King of Bashan. You'll find me in the Bible (Num 21,33 & Deut 3,3 &11) but I've been dead a long, long time.

When I first started writing erotica for Yahoo Adult Groups, before I joined Literotica, I wanted a user name that was unique, easy for me to remember, and meant nothing much to anyone else. I remembered an ancient, short-lived nickname I had been given a long time ago when I was at a particular school for less than two years. My parents were abroad. I had been with them but once I was 11 years old there was no suitable school for me where we were living. I had to go to a boarding school in England. Once there, I found that mail from my parents was erratic and infrequent.

My fellow students were getting far more mail than I was. At the time, Royal Mail postage stamps were sold in books of 12 with advertisements in them. One of the advertisements was from the Catholic Church, offering, post-free, under plain cover, a course of weekly information about their Church. Where we had been living, and where my parents still were, the Catholic Church was significant. I thought I could get more mail, and find something out about the differences between the Catholic Church and the Church of England. I completed the form attached to the advertisement and sent it off.

But I made a significant mistake. The school insisted that all our belongings should be labelled with our names and our school number. Those numbers were recycled. When one year group left, the new entrants took that range of numbers. My number was 099. I thought that my school number was a part of my address at the school, so when I completed the form I added '099' after my real surname. The envelopes began to arrive. But they were addressed to: surname-Ogg The mail was distributed each evening by our form tutor, who was the Latin teacher. Once he noticed the odd address, he made a joke of it, and called me Rex Bashan (Og, King of Bashan). My fellow students changed that to oggbashan with two 'gg's because of my number 099. The joke lasted for the couple of months that the plain brown envelopes came, and then that nickname was forgotten - except by me. When I needed an anonymous user name for erotica, oggbashan was my choice.

+++

25 Sept 2019

Update on oggbashan's health (Start of thread)

Instead of posting in other places such as Blurt and Coffee Shop threads. I have decided to set up a thread just for this.

Today, Wednesday 25 September 2019 was crunch day. I had my initial discussion with oncology as opposed to all the other specialist consultants I have seen this year.

I have Lambert-Eaton myasthenic syndrome which is caused by small-cell lung cancer. My symptoms (of Lambert-Eaton) are increased unsteadiness meaning I fall over frequently and cannot walk without a four-wheeled walker; My speech is slurred and gets worse during the day; I have double vision and my taste is affected. I have NO symptoms and NO pain from the lung cancer -yet. My blood/oxygen level is about 100% and my lung function 93% both of which are ridiculously good for someone with lung cancer. But the Lambert-Eaton symptoms are worsening.

I saw the oncology specialist with my wife and youngest (medical) daughter. WE agreed that I should start chemotherapy soon even though that will NOT cure the small-cell cancer. It might reduce its spread and extend my life - maybe. It might stop the Lambert-Eaton getting worse or possibly reduce the symptoms - maybe. It will be unpleasant and there are risks from the chemotherapy itself but small-cell cancer is aggressive and if not treated could spread very rapidly making it untreatable.

If the chemotherapy is successful it might be followed by radiotherapy again to try to reduce the spread of the cancer. But neither treatment will stop it. They might buy me time, but not much more than that.

I start the chemotherapy on Monday 30 September and will be back at the hospital every Monday for five more weeks after that. If I don't react too badly, then there will be a reassessment followed by yet another five courses of chemotherapy before radiotherapy is considered - if I survive that long.

The specialist(s) have only agreed to try this because apart from the Lambert-Eaton I am surprisinmgly fit and active for my age. If I had not been they would have said - 'forget any treatment - make your will'. I am doing that anyway.

I will try to keep my friends on Literotica updated through this thread.

25 Sept 2019

Tomorrow, Thursday, I have a hospital visit for an update with a Speech and Language specialist. Last time (the first referral) that I saw her she concluded that there was nothing physically wrong with my mouth, throat, tongue or vocal chords. Lambert-Eaton was interfering with the messages between my brain and muscles used to produce speech. (as it is for my legs, balance and sight.)

She could not give me any exercises to improve my speech because the Lambert-Eaton symptoms become worse with tiredness. I think she will be surprised how much worse I have got since I last saw her. I am the first ever patient she has seen with Lambert-Eaton (as is virtually very other consultant I have seen). I am an 'interesting case'.

Later in the afternoon I go to another hospital for a pre-assessment including blood tests for my suitability to start chemotherapy on Monday. I don't expect any difficulties. Everything else is 'normal' or 'better than it should be'.

Sometime tomorrow I have to find a chemist who is doing a flu jab. I have to have that before I start chemotherapy on Monday and my doctor's surgery doesn't start their flu-jab sessions until Monday week.

25 Sept 2019

In my miss-spent youth I was a member of a cliff rescue team. I was unique in that team as being also qualified in surf rescue. If the rescue was on a sea cliff - it often was - with rough or stormy seas - I was considered the best qualified so I jumped off the cliff with a bare rope wrapped around me. In those days we had no harness, no safety helmets, no health and safety rules - just the friction of a bare rope to stop me.

I was banged against the cliff on the way down, battered against the rocks by the rough seas at the bottom, and banged against the cliff on the way back up as I protected whoever we had rescued. Apart from losing a few teeth I have left permanent marks of trauma on my spine. If my skeleton is ever examined by a future archaeologist they would never guess most of my working life was as an office-bound senior manager.

26 Sept 2019

Pre-Assessment

This afternoon I went to hospital for a pre-assessment before starting chemotherapy on Monday. They checked my height and weight - apparently I have shrunk by a centimetre in a week (I blame short nurses who can't reach high enough!) and gained a kilo (because I forgot to empty my pockets of loose change: £14 worth in coins of 20p or less).

My blood pressure and pulse rate are good. My blood/oxygen level is still ridiculously high for someone with lung cancer. It was 100% and has been at 100% for months.

Tomorrow I have booked to have a flu jab at a supermarket's chemist. My GP surgery isn't starting theirs until the weekend after next and it is recommended I have it before starting chemotherapy.

We had to sit through a video discussing all the possible side effects that could occur - apparently everything except the bubonic plague but if we came into contact with that we'd probably die, and all the things we should avoid eating. There were snorts from the men in the group at the statement we should avoid alcohol for three days after each chemotherapy session. One man who had chemotherapy twenty years ago said (in a whisper) 'Nonsense! - I was drunk as a skunk for the whole course last time and didn't notice anything except being drunk.'

Now I wait until Monday and in the meantime continue writing and submitting stories.

25 Sept 2019

If I had any teeth that might be useful advice, HP.

Playing rugby, crashing motorbikes, falling off cliffs, rocks, horses and mountains have left me with removable teeth.

25 Sept 2019

Originally Posted by jehoram View Post

My advice, my friend, is to make that year count.

In the US, there's an active hospice association to help us make that transition. I'd guess that you Brits have the same thing in one form or another. It's been a big help for those friends of mine in negotiating their final hours/months/years.

(And my advice is worth exactly what you pay for it, but there it is.)

I have already been given contacts for the local hospice but my medical daughter, who came with me today, is the lead palliative care doctor for one of the largest hospices in London. I have a family expert.

25 Sept 2019

Originally Posted by 8letters View Post

We all have a limited time on this earth. Enjoy the rest that you have.

I have already had a long innings, far more than three score years and ten. I have had stories published on Literotica for over 17 years - not a record but I have added some in every one of those years.

30 Sept 2019

Just back from first session of chemotherapy.

Overall impression - boring.

I had to be there at 2 pm. They didn't start attempting the procedure until 3.15 and then took until 3.45 to find a suitable vein. I have marks of four unsuccessful attempts.

Then I had to sit in a chair until 7pm when the procedure finished. I felt nothing and feel no after effects now. That may change and I have come away with a bundle of pills to take over the next couple of days, plus a self-administered injection from Wednesday onwards.

Next session is three weeks from today - the second of six in this cycle, followed by another five (six session) cycles - if I live that long.

30 Sept 2019

Quote:

Originally Posted by mynameisben View Post

Boring, eh? Next time, bring a book with you to read. Preferably a long one. Earlier this month I had to take my wife to the hospital for a heart ablation. The whole procedure took 40 minutes (as I was told it would), but the doctors kept her there for eleven hours for "observation" after the procedure was finished. I didn't think to bring a book or even my reading glasses. I couldn't even read the crappy magazines they had in the waiting room. I was never so bored in my life. The worst part of it all is that the procedure didn't even fix the atrial fibrillation . She has to go back for a second ablation to be performed on the other side of her heart. Needless to say, I'll have my book and glasses with me.

I'm glad to hear your first procedure went so painlessly. Hang in there, Ogg. Wishing you the best of luck.

I took my e-reader. Apart from all my published stories it has over 30,000 novels that have expired copyright because they are so old. I bought a DVD of them on eBay, uploaded them to my desktop and copied to the e-reader

I started to read a Victorian naval novel - a sort of precursor of Hornblower. It was very long winded - 2.5 pages or a thousand words to describe a calm sea. I had read 290 pages (about 600 screens) and still had another 350 pages to go. I don't think I'll bother.

1 Oct 2019

Side-effects? What side-effects?

I was sent home with two sets of pills to combat nausea and sickness - if required. On my pre-assessment I had to sit through a 30 minute video of all the side-effects I might encounter.

So far? Nothing. I might have had a slight burning sensation when peeing but not more than after eating a fairly hot curry like Madras. Apart from that, nothing yet.

I have more chemo pills to take later today. Maybe I will have a reaction to them but at the moment I feel like a fraud.

1 Oct 2019

Thanks to all for the prayers and good wishes. They are a great help in making feel I'm not facing this alone.

Lack of side-effects? It might be that apart from the Lambert-Eaton Myasthenic syndrome I am very fit for my age. Going up and down stairs at my house thirty times a day and using a walker instead of a motorised buggy probably helps. I have just returned from a supermarket shopping trip with my wife. They have motorised buggies and wheelchairs available but I won't use them. They would make me too lazy.

2 Oct 2019

I am Type II and tablet controlled. Until I started chemotherapy my signs were improving. Eighteen months ago I was close to moving to insulin injections. Until I started chemo it looked as if I could reduce the tablets but one of the side effects of the various chemo drugs is that they will temporarily increase my blood sugar levels for a day or so.

So far, so good...

6 Oct 2019

Not a good day - tired all day and sleeping in a chair or in bed except for few posts here. Also felt cold when real temperature isn't.

Was warned that extreme tiredness might be a common effect of chemotherapy but today was the first example.

I have been unable to concentrate to continue with part-written stories. That is annoying because I have so many left to finish.

8 Oct 2019

Thanks to all.

Yesterday, Monday, was better after a sleeping Sunday. I went shopping with my wife, had yet another hospital visit to another consultant who is very pleased with my progress so far. He doesn't expect any result from the chemotherapy until December but I am still fitter than he thinks I should be.

I had another blood/oxygen check with a device on my finger. The nurse wouldn't accept the first two results of 100% which are ridiculous for someone with lung cancer. She kept trying until she found a finger that read 97%. Even that is well above the expected result. My blood sugar levels from Type II diabetes are slightly raised which happens with chemotherapy but still OK; as is my blood pressure and my weight has stayed the same.

After the hospital visit, we did some more shopping and I managed to add a few lines to one of my Christmas story drafts.

11 Oct 2019

Thank you, SolarRay.

Most of my local friends and acquaintances know my situation and accept 'He's OK, just dying'. But some of the younger ones aren't so sure.

Most of my friends are of an age when dying isn't a distant prospect and they have dealt with the death of a close relative. To them, dying is inevitable. But the younger people seem to think they (and I) are immortal perhaps because I have been around all their lives and they can't imagine that I will soon be gone.

11 Oct 2019

Quote:

Originally Posted by Vix_Giovanni View Post

Hugs, Ogg I hope rest and relief comes easy today, along with a few more lines of writing.

Rest? What's that? I have just returned from giving three large boxes of books to a charity bookshop and visiting the local supermarket with my wife. The youngest daughter and our youngest grandchild will arrive in the next quarter of an hour for the weekend so the house will be busy and noisy.

This morning three local friends and one of my sons-in-law dropped in for a cup of coffee and a chat.

In between I have managed a few lines of writing.

I am up and down stairs at least thirty times a day and go for a walk with my four-wheeled walker several times as well. I will NOT use a wheelchair or a powered buggy because as long as I can I want to keep mobile.

18 Oct 2019

3 hospital appointments today - fortunately all at the same hospital - but no vacant disabled spaces so I had a long walk.

Signs still good. Blood oxygen level retested three times because they didn't believe the first two of 100%. Recorded as 99% which is still unusual for someone with lung cancer. The oncology consultant was very pleased that no side effects from chemotherapy, and my general fitness, but I now have a tooth abscess. That has delayed the next chemo session for a week while I have antibiotics and dental treatment.

Tomorrow? Dentist and speech therapist. I visited the dentist today and was prescribed penicillin as recommended by Oncology specialist. The tooth with an abscess will be extracted next Wednesday. No rude comments about British teeth please - mine were wrecked by Rugby, rock climbing, mountaineering, cross country motorcycle racing etc.

I have perfect teeth that I keep in a box in my bathroom. After Wednesday I will have one natural tooth left.

I also visited the speech therapist today. As my speech problems are caused by Lambert-Eaton Myasthenic Syndrome she cannot help. Only chemotherapy might. But on the last visit in early August she had recorded all my tests on video and, with my permission, had shared it with her speech therapist colleagues and specialists. None of them had come across a case like me before. My speech centres are perfect, it is just that Lambert-Eaton interferes with the messages between my brain and the muscles producing speech. (As it does with my balance, my walking, my vision and sometimes my taste)

Now that Lambert-Eaton has been finally diagnosed she can share that too. A problem with speech might be a very early sign of Lambert-Eaton and therefore lung cancer long before anything might be visible on a scan or blood test. Now, if a speech therapist sees a patient with speech problems like mine they could suspect Lambert-Eaton and lung cancer enabling early referral to Oncology and an early intervention that might prevent spread and/or death. Lambert-Eaton is a very rare complication of a type of lung cancer that is itself rare but aggressive.

Unfortunately for me it is too late. All I can hope for is a slightly longer reasonable quality of life and perhaps a short delay in eventual death.

The doctors are reluctant to say how long I have got but the latest estimate is while I should reasonably expect to be around for Christmas 2019 I should assume that at best, even if chemotherapy works, I will not see Christmas 2020. I'd like to prove them wrong but not if I have to survive months in a hospital bed. I prefer to die with my boots on...

24 Oct 2019

Tooth extracted yesterday and pre-assessment for next week's chemotherapy (on Monday) today. There was some doubt that I could go for chemo so soon after after a tooth extraction but a phone call from the oncology specialist confirmed it is OK to go ahead on Monday.

Next week I have appointments on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday. My wife is getting fed up with being my driver.

27 Oct 2019

Second course of chemotherapy tomorrow. I hope my reaction is the same as the first course - nothing except occassional tiredness.

28 Oct 2019

Boring four and a half hours of chemotherapy into right arm today: steriods, five minute flush, anti-nausea, five minute flush, chemotherapy; five minute flush and home with two sets of pills and five injections to do over next six days.

Only side effects from previous session: one day of tiredness and slight expansion of bald spot and thinning of beard neither really noticeable except to me cleaning sink plughole.

14 Nov 2019

Today I had pre-assessment for chemotherapy next Monday. All signs were good, but after I had left the results of the blood test came back - my white blood cells are too low so chemotherapy is delayed by a week.