Test Results and A Weekend Of Painting

Test Results - We went in for the HSG test Thursday. The wait in the outpatient check-in was a long one. From what I could overhear my wife wasn't in their system for some reason. Eventually they called us up and we got checked in and she got a bracelet. Off to the radiology waiting room from where we were very soon escorted to the x-ray room. I had to wait in the hall, so I pulled out my Palm and read a book on it.

My wife had been dreading this test for a while after reading stories of it being very painful for some women. I could hear her laughing from time to time, though, so I figured it maybe wasn't nearly as bad as she had thought it would be. Still, I was prepared to hear a scream and rush to the door. (Okay, maybe just comfort her after - there were x-rays in there after all.) Soon, though, the nurse came out and told me I could come in. The delay in the check-in didn't amount to anything consequential, as it turns out, because the doctor was late. We chatted a little bit, and my wife flashed her bare hip at me as she sat on the xray table, and I patted her butt. She asked me to fetch her a bit of paper from the adjoining restoom, and as I came back the doctor entered. They shooed me out and I went back to reading.

Before long I sensed someone near. I looked up and the doctor was there, rolling down his sleeves. He said everything looked normal, and there was nothing he saw that would get in the way of her getting pregnant. When my wife was done dressing she came out, and as we left she told me about it.

As with many of the procedures so far the worst for her was when the doctor was inserting the hardware. Once everything was in place they had her lie down and the x-ray machine was moved into place. Then the doctor started injecting the dye. My wife says it felt like a bad cramp at its peak. Afterward the doctor rewound the tape (they recorded the whole thing rather than just take a few shots along the way) and showed her what was what. There was nothing amiss in her uterus, and the dye flowed freely through one tube. There was so much flowing through the one, it was hard to see the other, but he could see enough to know that at most there was a blockage, and nothing else.

Before the test she had taken some anti-anxiety medication, so on the drive home she slept most of the way. She woke up right as I turned off the highway.

Weekend Of Painting - As I had promised my wife earlier in the week, this weekend I finished a long put off project: painting the den. When we first moved into the Secret Lair we painted the walls in this room a pale peachy pink. I don't remember the name of the color. The trim was sort of a pastel pinkish mauve. It worked well, but I don't think it was quite what she was after. A few years ago - October of '04 according to the sticker on the paint can - she picked a different pair of colors: terra cotta for the walls, and sand for the trim. We pulled the furniture away from the walls in phases, painting each wall and its trim and allowing it to dry before moving the furniture back and moving on to the next wall. The end of the room where the computers are posed a bit of a problem. My wife had, at that time, a huge corner desk with cabinets, and of course my smaller desk was heaped with junk on top and underneath. It was a daunting task. She wanted to get a new desk anyway, so we decided to put off finishing the paint job until she could pick one she liked.

Finally, not long after alluding to it in this post, we got the new desk. The old one is in the dump now. It was fun tossing it into the compactor. But still we didn't paint. We had the whole IVF thing going by then, and that just ate up too much of our time. Plus, I was hesitant to expose her to paint fumes. We're in a lull now, and since we're doing a frozen transfer next we don't have to worry about the conditions for developing eggs, so now is the time. Friday night my wife cleared off her desk. Saturday morning she headed out to the gym and then to Secret Headquarters to catch up on some paperwork. I stayed home to paint.

The first thing I did was disconnect her computer and move the components out of harm's way. Then I removed her keyboard tray and drawers, taped the computer cabinet door shut, and rolled the desk away from the wall onto its top. It slid over the carpet easily after that. Then I started clearing off mine. That took a while. I boxed up most things, and put some in a pile on the sofa. There were many things I threw away, but the piles of papers I just moved intact without going through them. I'll do that when I put them back. My current computer has been sitting on top of the desk, while my old one remained in its cubbyhole below. there was also a much older computer, salvaged from the junk pile at my former workplace, sitting idle on the floor under the desk, with the cable modem and router on top. I moved both old computers out permanently. (I'll strip out the hard drives later.) Man there was a lot of dust! I vacuumed as I went along and the dust cannister, which started out pretty empty, is now about 1/3 full. The place where the older computer was on the floor is visibly lighter than the rest of the carpet. I think we need to clean it, or replace it - it's been here since before we bought the house.

My desk is much lighter, so I was able to lift it out of the way. That being done, I started the actual wall prep, beginning with a wash with some TSP substitute. My wife has had a long habit of squishing bugs against the wall, then not cleaning them off, so the wall by her desk was a bit of a mess. I scrubbed the worst spots, then did an allover wipe down. After that dried, I did a dry wipe with an old clean towel to clear off any lint from the disintegrating washcloth I'd used with the TSP, and the walls were ready for paint.

We had a full can of the terra cotta left, plus a partial cam. I opened the partial can first and found that there was some corrosion around the rim that had rubbed off and sprinkled into the paint as I opened the can. If the paint had been fully mixed I would have skimmed it off the top, but after over three years the color had all settled to the bottom. I tossed that can and opened the other, which was fortunately pristine. I finished up, including the brush painting in the corners and along the ceiling, around 9PM and after a quick clean-up we headed out for a much-needed meal. Afterward I discovered I had had my fly open the whole time we were out. Good thing I was wearing a coat. We had to switch from one sale to another at midnight, so I rolled her desk back over, moved mine back into place, and set up the computers.

Today my wife headed out again, to the gym, Secret Headquarters for a bit of work, and to her sister's house for a visit with the family. I stayed home to paint the trim. This time it didn't take so long to move everything out of the way. The main part of the trim went fast, but the den is sunken a couple steps down from the rest of the house, so there was a banister to paint as well. It meets the wall with an oval piece which was a lot of fun to tape around. After that I went back to the beginning and gave it all another coat.

My wife wanted to get on the computer tonight, so I set them back up again. It's still temporary and the desks are out from the wall a bit since I want the paint to have time to dry well and adhere tightly before we have anything rubbing against it. Tomorrow evening I plan to go along the trim with a small art brush to touch up the places where the trim paint seeped under the tape. After that, it'll all be done. Yay!

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...