The Bluestocking Boxing Day sale: 1 gerbil for the price of 2

[Boiledbeetle]

Previous thread:

https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/womens_rights/5457910-the-bluestocking-next-stop-christmas

As the patrons, and gerbils, of The Bluestocking Pub sleep off their Christmas Day food and alcohol intake the capybaras will be getting paid double time to move the pub and contents to the new thread overnight.

All welcome, as long as you are a woman. The men have their own pub The Staunch Ally. It's just down the road, then turn left at the bridge.

You don't have to be mad to drink here but it most definitely helps.

Leave the real world behind and join us in the mayhem and surreal life of a pub staffed by gerbils. Where the food is always exactly what you ordered and the drinks don't give you a hangover the next day!

What a surprise for you.
Enjoy Othello! ☺️

Well, how interesting, @MyrtleLion. So you’ve got to the great age of whatever-it-is, (22?), with various medical ailments and it’s only just been discovered?

Most of us, I imagine, have never had the sort of scan which would have revealed missing or tiny organs. Is this a tiny, tiny positive among all the bodily sufferings you’ve had? Although if they can’t do anything about it, maybe not, other than giving an explanation for why your kidney results were unusual.

I went back to craft club today for the first time since mid-December, and didn't actually do any knitting but caught up with assorted news, including how well the granddaughter of one of our mutual friends was doing, having had emergency kidney surgery a few days after birth last Christmas.

Which led on to assorted adults we know - one person's husband, one person's neighbour, my Aunt B, who didn't discover until middle age or later that they only had one kidney. In B's case, this was after she'd given birth to 8 children. So it must be terrifying Myrtle, and I sympathise very much over the shock, but there seems to be a lot more of it about than I would have imagined, and I'm sure they will know how to take good care of you.

My other excitement for the day was getting a new windscreen wiper after ripping a blade in the frost on Saturday evening.

Now hoping for a text from the waste collection company to tell me which bin to put out. Recycling I think.

Such a shock for you Myrtle! What a thing to discover out of the blue.
I hope Othello-not-a-musical takes your mind off it, and you have a lovely evening.

There was a mention upthread about the capybaras putting a curtain outside Swash's door and it brought back a very early memory - front doors with pyjamas!
They used to put curtains in front of doors during the summer because paint in days of yore blistered in the heat. They were made of deck-chair material. They had slots for the letterbox and the keyhole.
They became obsolete when paint improved.
Any body else remember them?

That was a bit of a facer, Myrtle.

Not quite as shocking as a missing organ, but when I had my first hip replacement, I was told that the arthritis was not surprising as I had hip dysplasia (I had no idea but it did explain my tendency to fall on that side). When I had my second, the medic trying to give me the spinal anaesthetic said "Did you know you have scoliosis?" The only possible response was ""Well, I do now".

Given that is never really bothered me, I'm sure it will be fine. Lots of people have this. And if I had been born in the last 30 years, it would have been discovered during my mother's pregnancy at one of the ultrasound scans.

It is just a shock because one goes through life assuming one has the correct number of appropriate organs. My right kidney is flourishing.

I've also had four gynaecological laparoscopies where I'd have thought they might have spotted a missing kidney. Though when I mentioned it to the radiographer she said they might not have spotted it as the gynaecology organs are embedded in the pelvis and the kidneys are higher up.

Wow. Two serious conditions but previously discovered!

I hope you feel well now.

Did you know (and I expect someone here does) that when you have a kidney transplant, they don't remove the old one(s), they just whack the new one in lower down and plumb it in?

When I was a theatre nurse, I helped with at least 2 kidney transplants, @Magpiecomplex. You are right about them leaving the old kidney in - the best bit, though, is when they have connected up the vein and artery to the new kidney, and unclamp them - the new kidney goes pink, and immediately starts to make urine. It was great being part of a surgery where you could see the improvement for the patient immediately.

@SDTGisAnEvilWolefGenius What happens to the old one, though?

Goodness, Myrtle! There's no end to all this, is there? PS Have you checked you've got the correct number of everything else?

A friend once bored me rigid with a long story detailing all the bad luck that had befallen a friend of hers over what seemed like her entire lifetime, while I tried to look interested & make supportive noises at the appropriate points. But when, after what felt like hours of this stuff, she suddenly said, "And you know, Android, that woman's only got one lung!", I'm afraid I burst out laughing. It's not my fault, she should've known when to stop. 😂

I don't think I could have got better seats!

It's quite a small theatre.

Also Her Majesty's Theatre is now called His Majesty's Theatre, which I find disappointing, as it was built in 1897 in the time of the old queen.

Having had a good day diet-wise, I've also just finished my first book of the year! This one next.

`Gosh, that must have been quite a shock for you, Myrtle. However I know from my younger sister's experience that you can live well with just one properly functioning kidney. She developed high blood pressure in her 40s and at 49 was diagnosed with a large kidney tumour, which was blessedly totally encapsulated and successfully removed, thus curing her high blood pressure.That was in 1998 and absolutely no problems since.

You're not dieting, Magpie, you are eating differently😄
A psychological difference, I think.
I hope you're finding nice-enough things to eat, so you have lots more days like today. without it feeling too penitential

I'm doing intermittent fasting, so it's largely business as usual (within reason) but only within a limited time frame. Business as usual shouldn't really include the last slice of Yule log, but it needed eating up. That's my excuse and I'm sticking to it. 😂

I met Terry Deary (a literacy charity event I was doing) and he was absolutely delightful. Not in the least luvvie and really kind and funny.

Where the Walrus did WHAT?

sorry for being temporarily distracted by your kidney . . .

and you're enjoying the play to much to elaborate . . .

too

too much, not to much

Let me explain.

We used to live in London and went to this restaurant often as a treat. In July 2020, once the first lockdown was lifted, the Walrus took me to this restaurant and proposed then.

It was a complete surprise - we had said we would get married one day and had bought rings in 2019, but I wanted a proper proposal. We were having cocktails and he put the ring on the table and asked me.

We married legally three years ago in February 2023 in a register office and then had a Humanist wedding in September 2023, which was the big do.

Apologies if it sounded as if he proposed this evening! He is in fact at home, which is not in London. Probably enjoying his own company.

The play is marvellous. I know the story, but I've never seen or read it before. It's wonderful.

I saw Othello as a teenager - my first "proper" trip to the theatre (previously panto or musicals only). A good drama to clear your mind of any other worries (although feel free to also enjoy any distractions from the Walrus 😉)

Ah, read your update. He won't be providing any additional entertainment during the show then

I did know that. I remember chatting to someone once about her SIL's pregnancy, and how wonderful it was that it was going well, given the SIL's kidney transplant, and how it blew her mind to look at her SIL and think, there are 7 kidneys in there: SIL's own 2, the transplant, and 2 each for the twins in utero.

Myrtle, its amazing the stunts that the body pulls, and how many of them we'd never know about were it not for modern medicine.

My news du jour is my new cast-iron pan. A few days ago I looked at the price of a Le Creuset pot that I rather fancied and promptly fainted. Today I trotted into Dunelm to investigate the sale, as I was in Town, and came out with a knock-off for 20% of the price Le Creuset charges. Tomorrow I plan to make a huge vat of soup.

❤️ for the seven kidneys inside Edith’s contact’s SIL.

I used to think it was interesting when I had 4 on my normal push bike. I used to collect a friend’s DC from nursery once a week along with my own, and cycle with them both to the friend’s home. As I was pregnant with DC2 at the time it meant 4 on a bike.

Cargo bikes weren’t around in those days, where children ride in splendour. Or bike helmets.

Glad the play was as good as it looked … I will be asking mr dragon to see if there’s availability for that when we’re down soon.

meanwhile he’s nobly taken dd home (train was not feasible yesterday) - M6 was nasty on his return. I seemed to spend most of the day on laundry, the most exciting thing being that when faced with putting the covers back on the two double duvets on DDs bed I remembered to look for the ‘burrito method’ often referred to on MN. It actually is rather like a magic trick!