The Ball Is Rolling

Other than the consult with the doctor and the IVF consultant Tuesday, we took our first official step in the IVF process Wednesday: Getting blood drawn for a panel of pre-procedure tests. They're testing us both for a number of diseases, including HIV and hepatitis, and running a genetic screen on me. We discussed it, and we figure that if something wrong is found in my genes that is likely causing my poor sperm production, but that's all it would possibly do to any son of ours, we'd still go ahead without sex selection since we know the technology for him to get around the problem already exists (or else he wouldn't) and can only get better in the next twenty years. (BTW - going by the most likely date we'd schedule the IVF, it looks like the due date would be two days before my birthday. One of our nephews' birthday is the day before mine, so that would be quite a week! If the baby were born a couple days late - I think I was born like ten days late - that would be the best birthday present I ever got. :) )

The last time I had blood drawn was probably before my appendectomy a few years ago, but there was so much going on then I don't really remember it. This time around, they took, I think, five vials of blood. It didn't take long, though, and I had only the smallest little drop of blood on the gauze pad afterward.

Tonight was also the start of other changes. For some years we have not been doing much cooking to speak of. Sad to say, I've largely been living on frozen food and sandwiches and restaurant meals. My wife made herself the occasional batch of cheese bread, but was otherwise the same as me. We have decided to ween ourselves off the convenience foods and try to eat healthier & fresher. Tonight she made me a pasta bake with chicken & cheese & whole-wheat penne. Very nice, and with enough left over for at least a couple lunches.

This weekend I'll be attempting to finally finish the paint job in the front room and hallway. I had tried weekend before last, but ran out of the glaze I was sponging on. We got glaze & paint to mix a new batch. The least we could get was a gallon & a quart, so there should be plenty enough to finish, with plenty left over for later touch-ups. We've still got the guest room to install flooring in, but we have to get rid of some stuff that's in it now - particularly our old bed. (We plan to get an inflatable to put in the den if we do have company, and when we finally furnish the front room we may get a sleeper sofa for there. But the priority, assuming the IVF works, will be to convert the guest room into the baby room. There's a smaller bedroom, but that's to be my wife's studio for drawing, quilting, or whatever else she's inclined to do. In order to make this baby thing work we've also got to work on delegating a lot more at Secret Headquarters, as my wife does most of the paperwork & data entry now. Gotta offload that job so she can focus on the baby and the more creative aspects of the business and life in general.

And some potential good news: it looks like we'll likely be able to get additional financing for an additional cycle of IVF on our own, so, assuming we can get help for another from family, it looks like we'll probably be able to do three cycles. At a 40% chance each try, that comes to about a 78% chance of pregnancy, with a 63% chance it'll happen in two or less tries.

Here we go...