Fireworks, bonfires and long winters' eves will herald the Rat Smacketeers' BFPs this month and we are Brooking No Argument!

[Shrieklette]

Welcome to our new humble abode for the next six weeks or so, Brookers!

Here's hoping this fred will be as lucky as sparks' and scarlett's [hgrin]

Aw solars

[boots AF really hard for being a miserable old witch and daring to show her face again]

When is your lap?

Glad to see that us weirdos we haven't frightened you off Griff. The NHS obviously haven't had the memo that you are a brooker now. It sometimes takes ages for them to realise so don't worry about their timescales. By joining us you have guaranteed a BFP, we just don't know when it booked for yet.

Before deciding to TTC I naively thought that it would be a quick, straightforward business. Coming on here I have realised that for far too many people it is a long and arduous process. While I'm one of those jammy people who got pg very quickly, I do realise just how lucky I am and wish that my experience would be the same for everyone else. I feel guilty and that I shouldn't be here at times.

solars boooo to AF, evil wench that she is! Still, not long to go now for your lap - it's the 14th isn't it? I guess this is the difference between proper private and NHS choose & book private, I'm still waiting for a date for mine but have been told to expect it to be around Feb.

jen don't be daft, of course you should be here - you are a brooker! You have always given us so much support and it is always a joy to see people graduate from the TTC fred, to the antenatal, to the post-grad. It gives us old timers some hope.

I've just found out dink boss was actually expecting me to come in to work on the first weekend of my holiday!!! He has now been put well and truly straight, my annual leave starts from Friday 14th and that's all there is to it. Now that I know I have ov'd and AF will not be due that weekend, there is no way I plan on working then.

Biscuits a week on Friday, yay!!

Jen you shouldn't feel guilty at all, it's sweet you stick around and support us all x

119 posts to go

I'm glad you put dink boss in his place Geek Do you think you can chase anyone up on when the procedure may be?

I have the name of the choose & book co-ordinator solars so I was thinking about giving her a call, but wasn't sure if I should do it now or wait til after Christmas. I don't know if there is stuff going on in the background like funding forms needing to be posted back and forth or anything. I get myself so wound up about making chasing calls!

by name I mean number... that's how wound up I get about these things!!!

If it were me I would give a call now, especially since you just had one of your scans right? You could even say you need to know sooner rather than later as work needs notice for time off etc

Right, I have just called and wish I hadn't

There is no record on the system for me having yet been booked in for the pre-op assessment (usually takes place a week before the op is due) so it doesn't look like the necessary forms have been submitted through to Theatre Bookings yet. Consultant's secretary's details are not on the system, so the receptionist I spoke to can't even give me the number of the person who would know if they are in the queue for booking or not.

I know my consultant has written to my GP advising them of the outcome of my last appointment (ie a lap is required), because I was copied in on the letter, but that doesn't state whether any response is required from the GP or whether I am going to be booked straight in by my consultant's secretary.

I can't believe they don't have his secretary's details for me to contact her! I don't want to call the consultant because he has twice told me in the past that he has done something that he hadn't in fact done. I think all I can do now is wait it out and hope a letter comes soon

Oh no Geek :( sometimes if you call the main reception of where the consultant works at and ask who their secretary is they can give you her details.

It was the main receptionist who told me that the secretary's details weren't on the system solars - I spoke with the main choose & book team first, who told me I needed to call the clinic itself as they made the bookings after referral, and it was there that she said she couldn't see the secretary's details. She gave me the number for Theatre Bookings, but they can only tell me if they have received a completed form or not.

That is just ridiculous that the clinic don't have the secretaries details! I really feel for you! Do you know what other clinics he works with?

How annoying Geek

Maybe the consultant is such a pain to work for his secretary has left and he hasn't noticed. Hence he thinks he's done things and its just piling up on her desk somewhere and no one knows who she is because she doesn't exist?

It's horrible trying to chase people like this.

What about if you spoke to your doctors surgery - could they perhaps chase it up for you?

I know it is annoying but if your referral has been lost somewhere along the way it must be better to know about it now rather than getting to February and thinking 'i wonder where my appt is' and then finding out it's lost?

Hahaha that's exactly what I felt like saying to the receptionist, but I have long since learned it doesn't pay to get on their bad side. I know of one other clinic that he works at, but iirc he has a different secretary there. I don't quite know which is worse - my first consultant's secretary from hell, or my current consultant's invisible one!

I agree with Biscuits it's better to find out now rather than later! If you want to pm me your consultant and clinics name I may be able to help you if you want! I feel so frustrated for you! The other secretary should know who the secretary is or may be able to help in some way!

biscuits I'm loving that image of a long-vacated desk piled high with work My GP surgery will not help me, so I am not going to embarrass myself by calling them. They were very unhelpful and unco-operative when I was trying to get them to submit a formal referral to this consultant for the initial lap appointment, and refused to make any chasing calls on my behalf. If I can get myself in the right frame of mind I might try to put a letter together to his secretary and hopefully it won't just sit unopened on her empty desk for months hehehe

Thank you solars I have pm'd you

By the way - drastic measures (and replacing my daily fruit basket with rice cakes) did the trick - I lost a pound last night

Just waiting for my consultant's secretary at a different hospital to call me back now - she was away from her desk when I rang Thanks so much for your help solars zzz

erm... I of course meant xxx not zzz...

No problem at all Geek happy to help! Hope she can help and get things moving for you x

Heellllllooooooooooooooooo brookers!

How are we all? I've been kinda keeping up but am going to be as rude as a potplant with tinsel on can be and not namecheck

AF landed last night/this morning, this month she's in one hell of a bad mood and passing on the symptoms to me - heavy, crampy, beachballboobs the lot Oddly my cycles seem to have gone back to 27 days since we had the abandoned IVF cycle in Sept - they went to 30/31 in the 3-4 months leading up to IVF, I've been thinking about it and that coincides with starting Acu [which I haven't had since IVF]. Not sure what to think about that? Any input brookers?

If my ovaries are behaving themselves [and being honest why would they, they didn't manage it under hideous amounts of medical intervention ] then this month I will mostly be ovulating from left side [the one with the tube] so I am brooking like billyo [what does that word even actually mean?] that this will be lucky cycle number 24 as AF is not due on 1st January OMAG what a New Years Day THAT would be!

Soooo am feeling like this is my last proper full chance before we go back for IVF review in Jan and probably hop back on the junkie bus in Feb.

I've been on a detox since Monday and am booooooooored of fruit but it's all part of Operation GetFitForIVFAgain so I've got my eye on the prize!

What do we want?
POSITIVE PEE STICKS
Gimme a B Gimme a F Gimme a P

WoooooHooooo

[shakes pom poms] [stops cos beachballboobs hurt] [runs to toilet for 15th time today cos of cramps] [Stupid AF]

Scarlett how can you fail with a combination of good ovary/good tube/lots of fruit/NYD BFP. I am brooking my ass off.

Solars so sorry re your AF too, but I will continue brooking for you all.

Geek, glad you are being proactive, even though it seems like an uphill struggle. Better to be chasing it all though, even if it means getting frustrated that things aren't being done. If only we brookers were consultants etc. I have often thought about this actually and if I wasn't so old, I would seriously consider going to medical school to become a gynae specialist and help people like us. Maybe my brooking children will choose such a profession - how amazing would that be.

Anyway, I'm down with all the thread filling to get the Christmas brooking thread, but do you think we could just squeeze in one more BFP before the end of this thread? If not, I know we will get a glut of festive BFPs. We are due one and we are BROOKERS and we never quit!!

Definition
like billy-o
a lot or very quickly, strongly, etc.
We worked like billy-o to get it finished.

(Definition of billy-o adverb from the Cambridge Advanced Learner's Dictionary & Thesaurus © Cambridge University Press)

BAAAAD AF, how dare you land with two brookers at once (three if you are still with griff you bad bad lady!!!)

scarlet brooking too for your New Year BFP

Ok, so secretary from alternative hospital started going down the track of 'nothing to do with me, I don't deal with choose & book'. A few tears later, she agreed to speak with my Consultant as apparently he doesn't have a secretary at the clinic where my op will be carried out, and see what she can find out for me. She hopes to call me back by lunch time tomorrow.

What do we want?
POSITIVE PEE STICKS
When do we want them?
NOW!!!! (or in about 10 days' time in my case )