30s TTC. It was the BESHt of times,it was the worst of times, it was the age of rummaging in gussets, drinking gin.....

[ginhag]

C'mon in BESHes to the beach bar...sprawl on comfy sofas while you wiggle your toes in the sand and watch a glorious sunset....and drink brightly coloured cocktails with sparklers in. Cos we're classy,innit.

I've got Adam and joe in as barmen, and we have a rather nice Cave of Gloom in the corner for those 'whyyyyyy meeeeeeee???' moments. We have a reggae sound system playing mob barley's greatest hits. It's a sunshine paradise!

Newcomers welcome,as long as they drag along a bucket of black humour and a vast amount of gin. And please note,some of us have been here so long we have forgotten the real world almost entirely.

Now,who's getting the next round in?

RieRie just seen this, so sorry mate. What news this morning? When are they inducing her? You must all be so scared, but great that they spotted it, and great that she's at King's.

As I also have family member in hosp I allowed to give you big cuddles and kisses xoxoxoxoxoxoxo

Cami, did needles man mean that he has got you down to a good level now (am of your 8.sumfin), and will give you another poke as a booster in a couple of months? Maybe he is acksherly saving you a few quid?

Oh Aries just caught up with this. How scary for you all. Any more news this morning? I have no particular knowledge of SCBU, but it has to be good that they've found out now. Big bosomly BESH hugs to you & sis, xx

Lyra how's your Dad doing?

Well if you can believe this, they're actually leaving it in there for three more weeks because they think (fuckitt I think it's a boy so I'll call it "he") he'll be better off in the tum. Given that it's a lung issue and he doesn't need to breathe while floating around in amniotic fluid. And they also think that having a section will be quite shocking for him, so they induce her and she'll have to do the whole birth. So basically it's three weeks if waiting which is so tough for them. BIL's brother and his wife were expecting and their baby died (late in pregnancy so she had to go through the birth and the baby was dead ) and Sis and BIL had just started to look forward to everything rather than being worried about everything, but now they have three weeks of solid worry to look forward to to. Gah.

Oh Aries that sucks, and the waiting will be horrible for them (and the rest of the family), but I can see why they want to leave him in there as long as poss. What a horrible situation to be in - this is supposed to be the nice relaxing bit where you look forward to meeting your little baybee. Gin-soaked donut? xx

Sorry, Lyra, I forgot to add speshal message for you . How's Pops?

Oh Rie, that's such a mixbag of news - bad cos of the sheer worry, but good because he's getting the best care possible and if things were v v v dire, they would've whipped him out, shock or not. More big loves to you all.

And lots of big love to PapaLyra. Virtual grapes and bouquets winging his way

Oh yes, and lots of 'getting well vibes' and good wishes to PapaLyra.

Also, so much lung development happens in those last few weeks, so he'll have the absolute best fighting chance the longer he's in there. And they'll be all over it now they know something's up with him. He will get such special care and attention between now and then, they'll know quicker than anyone normally would if anything was up with him. And if they do have to operate; best to be at fullterm than prem to undergo that.

All of which I know you know, but I don't know what else to say.

I know it's easy to say "I'm sure they know what they're doing", but it does make sense that at 35 weeks, the womble is he best place for him to be. Will be a horrible three weeks for all of you though

PapaLyra is doing MUCH better, thanks. Turns out all of his electrolytes are flooding out of his body into his bile drain (which we now seem to have accepted as a permanent fixture), and of course electrolyte imbalance = fluid imbalance = dehydrated = v. poorly and confuzzled. He said his head started to clear as soon as they got him on IV fluids and antibiotics. He's going to have to drink a lot of isotonic drinks from now on.

I think his GP could have been better at recognising this, given that he had both my dad and his blood results in front of him. It wasn't him that suggested that dad be admitted, it was my sister insisting that dad email his surgeon that got things underway. Go sis (and I don't often say that). Also go surgeon - she phoned within 5 mins of the email being sent.

He is having an MRI on Monday to check the bits of his liver that they are worried might be more tumours, so I will mostly be spending the weekend bricking myself about that.

Lyra I'm so glad to hear your dad is better. Can't believe idiot GP didn't pick up on it earlier, but at least someone did. Will be sending lots of positive vibes for Monday.

I'll second that, hope PapaLyra continues to improve and all goes well with the further tests.

Everyone's already said it all Aries so I shall just pass the gin over. It's so unfair that these 3 weeks should be spent worrying when it's meant to be such a happy time.

The cup of tea I'm drinking tastes weirdly strong and I only swirled the teabag a bit. Ack.

Hmmm. What brand of tea? Assam (strong)? Or Lapsang Souchong (barf-worthily smoky)? Or Darjeeling (the champagne of teas)? Or Tesco's Red Label (my own tea of choice)?

Whatever brand the office buys. Probably Tetley based on the round bags.

It's horrible.

Oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo muse I haven't been able to drink tea since I got pg with mooch. Make of that what you will

Lyra am so glad that things are looking up. Will send extra vibes on Monday.

Aries what everyone else said. And some donuts to dunk in your gin.

Muse You're symptom-spotting! You're trying to be subtle but you can't fool me!

Aries I have everything crossed for your sister that things will work out.

Lyra So glad they worked out what was wrong with your daddy, and I really hope that his results on Monday are the most hopeful and best possible.

If BESHes sending out positive thoughts into the universe [hippy emoticon] has any effect at all, we'll all be doing it.

Apologies for yesterday's acupuncture rant. It was meant to be tongue-in-cheek, but I got carried away and it came out sounding super poor me. As Lyra suggested, my lovely needles man was just trying to save me money, bless his little cotton socks.

I am only half symptom spotting. Sometimes tea just tastes weird to me, no idea why. But don't think it is a sign of diffedness. I have no such symptoms to spot. If I did only ov on day 18 that would be fine. If I oved day 14 then I'm in the last week of 2WOOFLing and surely there ought to be a symptom to spot?

Muse I suddenly went off coffee from 10 DPO. Couldn't stand it - if I try to drink it, it tastes of bitter and of chemicals. Like someone didn't rinse the washing up liquid out of the cup. Yuck.

Tagine If you're out there, can you drop me an email? perfect dot dromedary at gmail dot com should find me, if you replace the dots with . and the at with @.

I have something Very Important to impart

(Just incase Tag was thinking of writing dot and at in the email address )

She might do! If she was having a dappy day! I have been known to do idiotic things! Like explain how the internet works to people who are capable of posting on a talkboard!

I'm reminded of that scene in Gavin and Stacey when Uncle Bryn is explaining "the internet" to Gavin and he's wondering how best for Gavin to remember www. "Think of some words which start with www." Gavin suggests World Wide Web.

Ah, there you all are. Nice new fred, but haven't had chance to read it to see if there are any nice things happening, in fact don't seem to have had time to do much of anything non-work related since we got home.

But I brought cowboy hats and tequila.

Will try and catch up at some point, but in the meantime headbutts and nipple twists to all in need.