Next Week’s Forecast…

Las Vegas, NV (where Bob and I will be): Mostly sunny with an average high temperature of 102 degrees and an average low temperature of 74 degrees. There is also roughly a 10% chance of rain throughout the week.

Evanston, IL (where Sean with be with my parents): Mostly sunny with some isolated thunderstorms. An average high temperature of 87 degrees and an average low temperature of 68 degrees.

My Uterus: 5-20% chance that a blood test on Monday will reveal the presence of hCG (Human chorionic gonadotropin), “the pregnancy hormone,” thus indicating that we are expecting. There is also an 80 – 95% chance that the test will be negative, I will cease using progesterone vaginal suppositories and my period will arrive sometime mid-week.

In preparing and packing for both Bob and my trip to Vegas and Sean’s stay with his maternal grandparents, I did an online check of the weather forecasts for both places. It was interesting to get an idea of what to expect in terms of weather conditions and that will help me in deciding what I should bring and what I should gather for Sean. I wish it were that easy to find out a more accurate “forecast” for my blood test on Monday!

Based on what our RE told us, at one of our initial consultations with him, a conservative estimate of our chances of success with IUI would only be about 5%. That is one of the many reasons he strongly recommended we go straight to IVF, for which he gave us another conservative estimate, a 25% success rate, but still a lot better than 5%. That said, some of the research I have done about IUI would lead me to believe that our chances might actually be higher than 5%, despite our secondary infertility issues, but I guess that is where the “conservative” part of our Dr.’s predication comes in!

Surprisingly I have not been thinking a lot about whether or not this cycle has been successful. Of course it has been on my mind, but recognizing the low odds, I feel I have a good handle on the reality that it likely did not work. That said, it would be such an awesome surprise if we got a call on Monday afternoon in Vegas telling us that we beat the odds! I have not taken any HPTs (home pregnancy tests) and I don’t intend too. It hasn’t been that much of a sacrifice either, I just haven’t had a strong urge. We have kept pretty busy this week, hence my infrequent posting here, which has also helped me to not obsess about the outcome of our 1st try at IUI!

Yesterday Sean and I spent a fun day with my mom at the beach in Evanston, and also hung out at their house with my dad, before we made the mistake of taking the “Edens” to the “Dan Ryan” expressways to get home (a two hour trip, than when the roads aren’t under construction is usually more like 45 minutes)! This morning Sean had his last summer arts camp class and we celebrated afterwards by meeting some friends at McDonald’s for Happy Meal lunches (he got another Surfs Up! character “Big Z” to add to his collection) and to play in the kids’ play land area! Sean is taking a good nap this afternoon and I am waiting for our “cable guy” to arrive to install our new DVRs! I have wanted to have a Digital Video Recorder (DVR) for awhile now and we didn’t think we could/should afford it, since we are still paying off our kitchen remodel. But recently I did some research on alternative cable options and was ready to switch to Dish Network, which would have been a lot cheaper than we were paying now and would include DVR. Well, when I called our current provider to cancel they offered us an even better deal that included 3 DVRs for less than we pay now! Not bad! 🙂

This weekend we plan to spend most of the time preparing and packing for our trip, as well as getting things clean and organized around the house before we go. Sunday we will be meeting my parents, my sister and her fiance at Arlington Race Track for our annual belated Father’s Day celebration! We look forward to this tradition every year (we don’t go on Father’s Day, as my dad doesn’t prefer big crowds)! After we go to the race track, and hopefully warm up our luck for Vegas next week, we will have dinner with my family at a local restaurant (near my parent’s house) that we all enjoy. Then Bob and I will take Sean back to my parent’s house and help him get settled in and probably down for bed that night, before heading home to our house to sleep. My blood draw is bright and early Monday morning at 7:00 a.m. and then I will come straight back home so we can call a cab for our late morning flight out of Midway airport!

I will probably not post again until I get “the news” on Monday, unless something comes up which I feel the need to share. My plan is to post sometime Monday afternoon or early evening from Bob’s Blackberry to let you know if we are pregnant or on to what would most likely be our 2nd attempt at IVF#2! Thank you for your continued support, thoughts and prayers!