Just checking in to say hi....

Have been really sick/tired the last couple of weeks, head cold morphed into lung infection (pleuritis on right lung - still hurts to breathe in deeply), and GP has ordered most tests (just had the lovely blood draw this morning) to rule out lovely things like Lupus and Coeliac because of ongoing issues (like the last 2 years!) and I've recently had a diagnosis of fibromyalgia and life is just kind of sucking these days. I want to be outside gardening and hanging out with the goats rather than just doing the bare minimum and dragging my bum around the rest of the time.

Kidding season, which was very long this year (for us), started the last week of August and just finished up with the last pair of twins born a couple of days ago, 2 very spirited HR Togg bucklings. First-time mum, worried mum, but very devoted to her little boys. 49 kids in all for us this year, just slightly more bucks than does (I think we're at about 55%B and 45%D at last count).

If it weren't for my very supportive DH, DS and DD, I couldn't keep going....:rolleyes:

That all sounds very hard. I hope things improve soon and quickly.

Can you shorten kidding next year? I remember finding it all rather trying when my calving spread out over too long. It's pretty tiring over six weeks!

Ugh... sorry, just read what I wrote and it sounds like a big old moan..... []

Yes, will certainly be making kidding shorter next year. A couple of years ago it was all too insane, all done in just a few weeks, and much more stressful than slightly stretched out, but this year was a bit too long for my liking, especially with all the first-timers who were in-kid. It was almost all good, only one kid rejected (doe wanted her doe baby, but didn't want a bar of her buck baby, so we're rearing him, and he's a lovely-natured boy), and one incident of mis-mothering which resulted in one dead kid and one having to be removed from his dam (she was feeding her sisters kids, and as long as there were two feeding, she was happy, but didn't pay particular attention to which kids she was feeding.... her own kids were a month younger, so the stronger, pushier kids were getting all her milk, and it was almost too late for both kids before we realised what was happening...[][]).

Moans are sometimes entirely in order.

Ruth;447323 wrote: Moans are sometimes entirely in order.

Hear hear!

Sorry to hear you're having a bad time, Andrea. It sounds as if it's been going on for a while too [] Great to have a supportive family when things are bad

I hope things start improving for you soon.
Cheers
kate

Sorry to hear things are not good, it is horrible when everything piles on top of each other.

Sorry to hear this, and it doesn't sound like a moan. Just fair comment on what's going on for you.
Is there anyone near you who does massage? Some people have found that useful, so it might be worth trying, and a little pampering wouldn't hurt.

Andrea, moan all you like, it helps to share with sympathetic people. I was immobilized right through last summer due to injury and I will never forget it. The frustration of not being able to do anything, particularly outside, was terrible. I do hope you feel better soon.

Life would suck with fibromyalgia on its own without anything else! Moan all you want.....I hear ya!

Got a friend (strangely enough, also down there!) going through exactly the same thing, at diagnosis stage after months and months of symptoms and discounting other possible things...I know how hard it has been on her, and can only send lots of virtual hugs to you, Andrea.

Moans are always in order when needed to feel a bit better - and sharing with others is also therapeutic! Kia kaha, its great you have support.

It must especially suck to be sick at this time of the year. Get well soon Andrea, and let me know if we can help in any way.

Louisa

That fibromyalgia sounds awful (thanks google). How incapacitating it must be, and a sore lung as well, phew

Sharing is not moaning...and sharing is good[^] I can relate very much to what you are going through ,,,,hope things start to get better and easier very soon ..meantime take care of yourself
Cheers

Yes, sharing.... I have not always been good about that, but when I do, I always feel like a great weight has been lifted. Problems are still there, but commiseration makes them easier to bear. Thanks for sharing your troubles as well, it does help to know that you're all getting on with life and taking the time to contribute to this wonderful site!

If you're lucky the crap passes - or maybe you adapt. I spent five or six years getting over a long exposure to some unknown chemical cocktail when I worked as the Science Tech at the local school. It wasn't until it was mostly resolving that I realised what the problem had been, and by then it was probably too late to identify the cause. The medics had been doing all manner of interesting (and sometimes painful) tests to establish what hideous ailment or genetic defect I had. I couldn't walk properly, movement was severely limited by a condition called Myotonia, which caused my muscles to snap back to however they'd been contracted. When I stood up from sitting, I'd be snapped back to sitting again, turning my head to check nothing was coming along the road before driving out, when I turned back to proceed, I had to fight to keep my head facing the right way. It led to constant muscle soreness! There were all sorts of other global issues which gradually faded again, the more time passed. It even affected my memory, in which there are still great gaps. I meet people sometimes who know me well, apparently, and I have no idea who they are, beyond their looking slightly familiar.

I think lots of us go through all sorts of stuff which makes periods of our lives really challenging at times. I think it helps us all to share the experience in ways which support each other through parts of it. Hopefully that helps us stay out of the mire of swimming in the gloom of it constantly though, because the "poor me" option, if we go and stay there, does not allow any enjoyment of anything and there is that, from any situation, to some extent.