Boils...

When they tell you that pregnant women's immune systems take a beating, they never really give you a good indication of just how beaten they get.

Ell had to go to the doctors last night after a recent outbreak of boils. Until recently I had no idea what they looked like and it's quite amazingly horrid. On the surface of the skin there's not much to see, but popping the damned things results in mountains of evil stuff coming out - it's not great to look at when it's happening to someone else so I imagine it's pretty gross when it's your own armpit/leg that's oozing *shudder*

So, anyway, the doctor tells us that the likely cause of the boils is shaving as it tends to remove the top layer of skin and invite germs to get stuck in and the only "cure" is to stop shaving for the foreseeable future. To be honest it was all a bit of a relief as I was expecting dire portents and warnings of blood poisoning so I've got to do my bit now to convince my wife to stay away from the razors for a bit. This, of course, means my wife will become officially GERMAN...

In other news, we've heard precisely nothing from the hospital. I was led to believe that twins were regarded as a high risk pregnancy and we would, therefore, be monitored closely and have access to extended levels of care.

Instead, we qualify for bugger all and no-one seems to give a damn, which is just about right for the NHS and just proves we were foolish to expect anything less than listless disinterest - silly us eh? The only people so far who seem to have given us any care and consideration were the ladies at Frimley Park's Early Pregnancy Unit who went to great lengths to make us feel cared for.

Shame the rest of the Health Service don't feel the same way really ...