A return to blogging? I predict an immediate and complete recovery.
It's good to read your writing again. I am, of course, very sorry about the additional setback, but immensely glad to hear about the positive prognosis. Also, that I have an endoscopy post to look forward to.
Best wishes. Later on, perhaps a "Got Well Ogged" tour would be in order; the last tour being a good time.
Re-reading old threads, some drunk exchanged their karma with you, I assume.
Wow, Ogged, you can really write like hell.
Thinking lots of nice things, but retarded about saying them. Please forgive, and please be okay.
say nice things to me, you should say them over at the Washington Monthly
If you still have access to WaMo, you should strongly consider editing all your posts so that they say, both at the beginning and the end, "I have cancer and criticisms of my posts based on tendentious misreadings may exacerbate it."
Ogged, you should get one of these.
Thinking of you always. Your blogging is a gift. Thank you.
I assume this is a shameless ploy to get some of that Big Cancer advertising money. Also, does the Iranian surgeon have a daughter?
mad karma to ya, Ogged. But what's with the lazy 'd' in "Expendable"? Are you winking at us?
here's to a swift recovery- and an excuse to drink at work.
I had forgotten what an amazing writer he is...
Best wishes, Ogged.
Christ in a sidecar, ogged. It's really, really good to read you again, but... I'm so sorry that you're having to go through all of this. I'm sending you my best thoughts for a quick recovery, and I'm sending your mother all my best thoughts, too.
Oh my. I feel very weird about complimenting your writing given the subject matter, but boy is it vivid.
Be well, and please ask for anything I (or I assume anyone else at Unfogged) can do for you. (Homemade cookies? Probably not. Legal advice? Pretty useless in this context. But if there is anything, just yell.)
Best wishes ogged. And ditto about the great writing, and a reiteration of the thought that it's a pretty twisted way for the damn universe to get you blogging again, but oh well.
Also, hope your lack of luck in getting gay male nurses turns around soon.
ogged, I totally know what you are talking about in re: Old World Freakouts. Will be thinking of both you and your poor mother.
Also, echoing what's been said about your writing; it's fantastic, particularly your post on prayer, which was just excellent and spot-on.
Oh, man, ogged.
At least you'll get to be the Lance Armstrong of swimming when this is over. 5 years from now, you'll be nailing Sheryl Crow, people will wear a piece of cheap plastic jewelry with your name on it, and still no one will care about your sport.
Sign me up for the OggedStrong bracelet.
Too [insert correct emotion] to say much else.
Seriously, can we just make the "ogged" wristbands already? Because awesome.
Best wishes, Ogged. I'm sorry that this has been such a shitty few months for you. Definitely thinking about you.
Beautiful new blog! Best wishes. (And really, WaMo? I thought one had to be a glutton for punishment just to read the comments there, let alone actually comment there.)
Good luck, Ogged. I'm sure you'll come out fine.
Sign me up for the OggedStrong bracelet.
Wouldn't the proper bracelet, following Lance's pattern, be "Live[whatever Ogged's surname is]"?
Yeah, but LiveOgged sounded weird, although I like it as an exhortation.
(So far as I can tell, you can get custom silicone wristbands in a variety of colors for $1.95 or so.)
nothin but love for you here, man. get well soon.
Sign me up for the OggedStrong bracelet.
Anyone get the feeling that ogged might have been the insipiration for Ferris Bueller? I'd get the bracelet too. But I'd deny that I got it.
Thanks for keeping us informed, ogged. I know all of us are thinking of you, praying, thinking positively, and/or whatever else each of us does to cajole the universe into arranging the best possible outcome for you.
Get better ogged. Thinking of you, in inappropriate ways.
Yeah, 4 is awesome.
12 is right on too. I'm trying very hard not to be mawkish, since I don't know you all that well. All the best.
Oy, somehow I missed the initial post here. Damn. Damn. Damn. Thinking of you and hoping for a quick recovery.
I'm tempted to say the entire thread to date gets it exactly right. I feel for you Ogged but have no more fluent way of expressing the feeling than to type in some Hallmarky sentiment like Hope you bounce back real soon! or Take care of yourself! or Bravery, Honor, Courage.
The bracelets should read "ogged lives!" and be priced up to $6, with half of the markup going to ogged's bills and the other half to unfogged's.
(Thanks for the update, ogged. Best wishes to you--and to your poor mother.)
From a past survivor to a future one, I wish you an easy chemo and a gentle recuperation (preferably involving orange sherbert and foot massages).
Also, one you're healthy again, keep your eye out for Honda Civics. They have a thing for us survivors.
The bracelets should read "ogged lives!"
Emphatically disagree. If we are going to be wearing any kind of jewelry with Our Leader's name, it should be simple, block text: "-GG-D". A t-shirt OTOH could have a little more text on it, like maybe (front of shirt) "-GG-D Saves!", (back of shirt, smaller lettering) "(and that's not a euphemism.)"
Hope that that arrogant persian surgeon is right.
Why and when did people start writing "ogged" as "-gg-d"?
38/39 -- I started it, round about December, I forget why except it seemed like a good idea at the time. Never really caught on in a strong way but I stuck by it. I like WWOD, it's a nice catchy, pithy slogan.
After -gg-d left we apotheosized him. Pretty standard story, really.
Pretty standard story, really.
Except for the nonstandard Persian Chile slight returns.
Get well, ogged.
I wish you all the best, ogged, and hope that you won't have any more of those POW moments.
"Dr. G called me later in the day. "I wanted to give you some good news, since you haven't had much of that recently. Preliminary results of your PET scan are that everything is clear; nothing is lighting up."
Such good news! The PET scan could have shown cancer creeping anywhere in my body, and until those results came back, "I'm a goner" was an unlikely, but real, possibility. But even my stomach wasn't lighting up, which meant that even if there was cancer there, it was in its very early stages, and probably amenable to cure by surgery. Woot!
Hrmmm. Do all the shit the doctors tell you to do and get better skip that whole dying business and then get better. It's overrated.
Get a hobby instead! Like...knitting! De wimmenz dig men knitting! Yeah! Also, you could try posting a personal ad asking for 'the healing power of blow jobs'. You know, like that movie with the shaved head dude (Scott Campbell?) with the motorcycle and whatshername (Julia Roberts?). Yeah! Get a motorcycle, cuz who the hell cares?
If you want to say nice things to me, you should say them over at the Washington Monthly.
Your random wish is my occasional command, Sir!
ash
['May the Blessing of the Prophet rain down upon your head.']
Amazing writing, Ogged. Thanks for sharing it with us. Wishing you all the best.
This good news stuff doesn't mean ogged is going to stop blogging again, does it?
I'm so conflicted.
P.S. Not really. Woot!
The good news isn't that great, unfortunately–though, as is most important, they still think he'll be fine.
Yeah, I just read the next part: no stomach. That's definitely going to be a huge life change, perhaps especially for ogged, who has a well-known requirement to be well fed at all times. The likelihood that it will produce great posts isn't really cheering me up any.
Still, they caught it early, and they still think everything will work out fine, and we're all still pulling for you ogged. Best of luck with everything.
There's something about the words "total gastrectomy" that is freaky even before you're sure what it means.
Is there something wrong with me that my first reaction is 'time to schedule a whirlwhind pre-surgery tour of some really great restaurants'?
LB: a friend of mine underwent similar surgery a while back (and, while it wasn't as extensive, he's made a full, healthy recovery, which augurs well for Our Narrator), and in the week beforehand, he had us bringing him all sorts of stuff to the hospital for him to eat. Just over 24 hours pre-op, we brought him DC's best Chinese spareribs...
Fuck a duck.
(Look, a comment collage).
Fuck a sequence of ducks. Permutations, and re-orderings.
Jesus, Ogged. I really hope you're OK. As always in these cases, I wish there were something more profound I could say.
What rotten luck. Your domain name is already outdated.
we all care about you, ogged, and would like to send you fudge.
53 and 55 get it exactly right. Also: shit.
Goddam, now I'm crying. Lousy sonovabitch.
I can't believe that the solution is to fucking take out the whole fucking stomach. Christ.
Me too, LB. And I have people coming over in two minutes, who will not understand, at all. I wish I could give you some of this cake I'm burning, ogged.
Fuck. Me three. Cancer sucks, but cancer blogging is amazing.
Out of words. So sorry.
Ogged, please let us know if there's anything we can do.
I feel like I have a beachball-sized lump in my throat after reading that.
Talk about grace under extraordinary circumstances.
::speechless::
All good thoughts. As Quakers say, I will hold you in the Light.
There's no obvious place over at Washington Monthly to say nice things to Ogged. Someone should set up a site like GetWellOgged.blogspot.com.
So sorry to hear about this Ogged. The bit about having to tell your mother just kills me. Glad to hear you've got so many people around you.
Oh, ogged, this is too much. I hope the outpouring of love from around the world continues indefinitely.
Ogged - please take good care of yourself. What you're going through is very scary, and I'm glad your family is at your side.
I have to say that despite the fact that I haven't posted here in a long time, and we've never even come close to meeting IRL, I'm really devastated by this news. You'll be in my thoughts, and please get well soon.
ogged, those posts are really good. you are a skillful observer of people, and a beautiful writer, which is what brought all of us here. And it looks as though you are becoming an even better observer, writer, and person. all best, all best, all best.
Ogged, blogging often feels like an exercise in solipsism, but reading through the obviously heartfelt sentiments in this thread hopefully shows you the impact you've made on the people who have come to know (or "know") you through this site.
Also, all those people are banned.
People, if you're nice to me, earnestness will win! Is that what you want?
Hell, sincere thanks to you all. It's hard to explain how good it is to read this thread.
Oh hell, if we're banning for earnestness, at this point we just have to shut down the blog. Thanks for stopping in, ogged -- please come by whenever you have a minute.
(Purely as a matter of narrative, the accelerated recap of the last month is killing me -- the suspense of what's going to happen next, combined with knowing that it's already happened. I love the post on what assholes surgeons are -- from what Dr. Oops tells me, the ones you've hit are perfectly typical.)
#82 commits premature self-disemvowellment...
What I really find touching about this whole saga is how much the Iranian community has been willing to do to help out a Mexican like ogged. It warms my heart it does.
(there, am I unbanned now?)
Hey, maybe no stomach cancer. Not definitely good news, but a possibility.
I keep getting confused about what it is specifically that I'm crossing my fingers/sending good vibes/etc. for. But no matter. I just keep hoping for the best.
Also, I guess it kind of makes sense that it would be stomach cancer.
