Hello Kenya, Russia, China, and India and welcome to a 'better late than never' post...despite ongoing problems I do intend to continue with this 'ere blog, The Mount Gambier Independent...(and indeed you're doing it now-Ed)...indeed, but it's been a very long 2 weeks since the last post and it's been a real struggle to get back to even doing this...not even going to attempt humour, got a bunch of stuff going on so's I'm just going to kick-off on 2 issues and do my best, cheers...
Fictitious Disorder:...as I heard discussed at length on the ABC/BBC World Service Radio, is the hilarious nomenclature for a condition otherwise described as a sort of 'social media Munchausen's', where Munchausen's Syndrome is broadly defined as acts of self-harm for attention...this FD involves people creating/discussing false maladies on Facebook/forums/chatrooms/whatevs, in what often becomes escalating behaviour where the alleged afflictions become more and more extreme...(a bit like that Aussie sheila Belle Gibson who claimed to have survived Cancer and had blogs and sponsors and whatevs, but then it turns-out to be all bollocks, she made it all up, never had Cancer-Ed)...well indeed, very much in that vein, although I didn't hear her mentioned...and most do it for attention, etc, and not with any specifically malicious intent, a much smaller number do it deliberately as a scam...elsewhere...
July/August 2016 is the 14th Anniversary of my Non-Hodgkins Cancer diagnosis...it was July 29th 2004 that I was X-rayed at Mt Gambier hospital and found to have a 16cm x 12cm mass right in the centre of my chest, and then discharged...(wow-Ed)...I know...this stuff is covered in detail in some early posts, eg, February 2013, so I won't run through it all again...suffice to say that I'm celebrating the extraordinary reality that in August 2004 no-one thought I'd see my 39th birthday only months away, let alone get to begin again at 40...(and 45 was right out!-Ed)...absolutely, and nice Monty Python reference there too, 'Holy Hand-grenade of Antioch'?...(that's the one, from The Holy Grail-Ed)...hilarious, but we digress...so, so very crook at 38 nearing 39, and yet here am the poor old bastard I, now burdened with the looming potential reality of possibly turning Hawaii...("Hawaii"?-Ed)...5-0...(ah, nice-Ed)...
The Elephant In The Tomb:...from August 2004 to February 2005 I had 8 rounds of CHOP, the Chemotherapy regime consisting of 4 chemicals/drugs fed intravenously over 2-3 hours, and given/taken every 3 weeks, and as followed by a strong 'steroid' injection the day after each Chemo...in short, I had enough Chemo to kill an elephant, to kill a tumour big enough to kill a horse...(a mild exaggeration, if not quite Gibson-esque-Ed)...not at all, if you took all the Chemo and steroids and gave it to an elephant in one hit, you'd kill it stone-dead...(fair enough-Ed)...and during one of the many initial scans/tests, the normal biopsy needle was too small for the size of the tumour, and they brought-out "the one used on horses"...(that's what they actually said?-Ed)...yep, quote-unquote, and the nurse on my right was holding my hand and said, "don't look at it, just look at me", and that's exactly what I did...so's I can tell ya' what it feels like to have the biopsy horse-needle through the chest, can tell ya' what it sounds like and what it feels like when it goes "crunch", but can't tell ya' what it looks like...(what a charming story, does it come with marshmallows?-Ed)...
What I can and will say is that when push comes to shove, I sir, I have been to The Crunch, indeed, I have quite possibly been The Crunch...(shazzam!-Ed)...and also please note that they had "the one used on horses" ready to hand, indicating that it likely wasn't the first time they'd had to haul it out on a human...(or you-Ed)...yes, thankyou! or me...
And I survived all that and then some and then a bit more and have the actual scars to prove it, and am obviously still here to whinge about that...(and a coupla' other things-Ed)...and my teeth are bad but could be much worse, and the arthritis stuff ain't great, and ya' can't go through an experience like that without it taking a toll...place those stressors on and/or in your body and you will pay a price...(and on your mind no doubt-Ed)...indeed, and in so many ways, and not least of all the 'Survivor Guilt' stuff...I'll get into all this stuff in more detail in future posts on the Health Issues confronting South Oz...(and it ain't good news, particularly re the new Adelaide Hospital-Ed)...indeed, it's not very positive stuff is it, and in some ways it's very confronting and it's certainly very, very concerning...oh, and re the recent re-revelation re the multiple Prostate Cancer mis-diagnosis, the latest in a recent series of mis-treatments and/or mis-diagnosis, I re-remind availees that I was also one of the approx 1,000 people not correctly Radiotherapy-treated in March/April 2005...more laters...
The St Martins Lutheran School Child Abuse Cover-up:...is of course my main bug-bear and the June long weekend anniversary (the 14th) has just pounded me into the ground like a big, hairy, angry tent-peg, and that pounding has been, um, compounded by the continual reportage of the cynically farcical debasco that is the Federal Child Abuse Royal Commission...(is that the Royal Commission Into Institutional Responses that refuses to look at the St Martins case, and indeed, has never publicly mentioned and/or investigated the Lutheran Church?-Ed)...yes, that would be the one...it's apparently winding-up some time soon having refused to even look at St Martins...(and if the Royal Commission isn't looking at St Martins, with it's well documented litany of bureaucratic failures and refusals and dysfunction, etc, if they ain't even lookin' at St Martins, then what else is going under the carpet as well?-Ed)...and exactly, that's exactly the point, well, both points...
1) how can the Commission not just ignore but actually refuse to look at St Martins? the St Martins Cover-up, even if it was originally genuine mistakes that were then covered-up, etc, whatevs, what has happened with St Martins and how the Lutherans and Authorities have responded/reacted, etc, all of this is exactly what the Commission is supposedly looking at...and 2) given the Commission has refused to acknowledge the extraordinary 'official' conduct re St Martins, what else potentially remains undiscovered and unresolved?...this and what else?...
I do appreciate that I've covered this same ground repeatedly, and can only apologise to availees that this post and the next few are highly likely to be short, staggering shadows of the epic statutes that have preceded them...(strewth-Ed)...but the point is, there will be more posts...I am down if not quite out, and clearly not too proud to admit it, but I ain't goin' nowhere re this 'ere blog...well other than forward, I am going forward with this 'ere blog, ain't never givin' it up 'til it don't need to be done no more...(and I'm sorry, but I just can't see that happening anytime real soon-Ed)...yeah, maybe, maybe not...a few people have commented to me though about the apparent appearance of some fractious cracks in the rancorous ranks of various Vested Interests because of some angry old bastard with 'is ugly blog...(huzzah!-Ed)...or was that an ugly old bastard with 'is angry blog?...(I think it all boils down to the same thing-Ed)...
Tomorrow: South Oz's Energy Crisis
Is apparently everyone's fault other than the SA Labor government...(the people actually responsible-Ed)...absolutely...a diatribe of denial via a most accommodating and massively pro-Renewables ABC Radio, including some clown from New South Wales who actually blamed "the market"...(but 'the market' is an abstract construct that is determined by actual physical issues of production/supply vs usage/demand, not vice versa-Ed)...I know, I know, absolutely ludicrous redefining of fundamentally undeniable realities to support Renewables, no matter what...and that's what really pisses me off...
Just for the record, again, I am absolutely pro-Renewable Energy Production and minimising Coal-based pollution, etc, and I do not support Nuclear, etc, etc, all very Greenie really, and that's why it really pisses me right-off when people engage in such biased refusal to acknowledge the failings of production methods like Wind Turbines, particularly with the bloody Turbines, and the hugely vulnerable position that SA currently finds itself in, as witnessed over the previous week, etc...unwavering support that ignores the facts makes for very difficult discussions re genuine options...(well if you won't admit the problems, how can you ever hope to address and rectify them?-Ed)...exactly?...these people piss me off because they 1) are near impossible to debate with because they won't admit any fault or failing, and 2) having defined themselves thusly, self-undermine the good things they do have to say...and often they do have good things to say and with genuine intent...however, effective and responsible policy on any issue cannot be achieved by people who are 'barracking' for a particular element...
I am Nick Fletcher and this is my blog...cheers and laters...
Well I for one am glad you survived, and I liked you as a person before I knew what you looked like with that mane of hair that any woman would be envious of ! Survivor guilt - no doubt the lingering after affect of not dying from the big C when so many others do, every minute of every day. And you survived despite late diagnosis, despite initial medical negligence ( GP - ' you are young and fit , you must have pulled a muscle playing footy' mentality. There is no order to cancer and certainly no selectiveness, just as there is no order or selectiveness to surviving cancer. What is more important is that there are people in your life that are grateful you are still kicking because in the absence of that, what purpose do any of us serve ?
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