Our journey started almost 9 years ago. We were married in March of 1999 and had our first visit with our fertility doctor in August. I had three children from a previous marriage but after my youngest was born I had my tubes tied. So we were very aware to have a child together I would have to go through Invitro-Fertilization. We met with our RE and fell in love, she saw my history of successful pregnancies and they literally said "we're going to get you pregnant, and get you out of here". We were very excited!
So we started with the 1st IVF cycle - I began my stimulation medications and was a few days from the egg retrieval when my cycle was cancelled due to an elevated progesterone level. I had no idea what that meant, but I was devastated that I had taken all those meds and now had to wait another month to start again.
AF arrived and we began IVF cycle #2 - Everything went well, my progesterone was elevating again but they weren't as worried with it. We retrieved 32 eggs!! They fertilized and on day 3 we transferred 3 8 celled embryos. Two weeks later I found out I was pregnant. We were elated!! My beta numbers continued to rise; and then one morning I woke up (sorry TMI) literally wet in a brownish discharge. I called my RE's office and they brought me in for labs and a ultrasound. That's when I saw 2 sacs on the ultrasound; she said yes it looked like twins but she did not see a yolk sac or fetal pole. I didn't know what that meant, I just heard TWINS! The doctor said it could be a little early but scheduled me to come back in a couple of days, but there was no change. At 6w6d I was diagnosed with two blighted ovums and had a DNC 3 days before Christmas that year. We were overwhelmed! I had never had a miscarriage before and I didn't like it!!
We took a few months off to recover and recoup. We went back in April the following year and sat down with our RE once again and she asked if I would be willing to do exploratory surgery and find out if my tubes were reversable. The Operative Report from the doctor who did the surgery said there was no way it was reversable but I said let's do it! The following month I had the surgery and woke up in PAIN and to the news that the surgery was a success. We were very excited! This gave us some hope. I had two tubes that were open, but they were just quite a bit shorter than normal.
We tried a few months on our own being monitored by our RE with no success and then attempted 6 IUI's all with no success. In November of 2000 we had a surprise, a positive pregnancy - on our own! We just knew this was the answer to our prayers. My first BETA was 150, my second a week later was only 175. The numbers had not doubled at all. They told me I was more than likely having a miscarriage, and so I did. Once again devastation! I did not like the word miscarriage and I didn't understand why this kept happening.
Once again we took a few months off and went back to the RE wishing to do IVF again. We said it worked last time (although it ended in miscarriage) it's got to work again!! She agreed but before we started cycling again we ran a multitude of test on Matt and myself to make sure there were no antibody issues or sperm issues. NOTHING, it all came back with flying colors.
So we once again started an IVF cycle - this one cycle #3. This one went very crazy. My hormone levels were all out of whack and my progesterone level soared much higher than it did during the first IVF and I could not figure out why they were not cancelling this cycle. I later found out my RE was on vacation and another RE in her practice was calling the shots. We went through the procedure, and retrieved 30+ very poor quality eggs. We transferred 4 - 4 celled embryos on day 3 (they should have been at least 8 celled). Obviously, failed cycle!
I was upset, I knew my cycle was handled properly! I requested copies of my records and we started searching out second opinions from all over the US from other clinics. We knew there had to be a reason my progesterone was rising during stimulation. We talked to other RE's through teleconferencing but never pursued any.
We again took a long break this time and Christmas 2002 conceived what we called our Christmas Miracle!! I found out in January '03 I was pregnant and went straight to my OB/GYN who knew my miscarriage history and watched me closely. My numbers were continuing to rise and everything looked great until late January I started having some lower back pain on my right side. I told my husband something wasn't right; so we went to the ER thinking they'd do an ultrasound tell us everything was fine and send us home. It wasn't! The baby was growing in my right tube! We later found out less than a cm from my uterus actually. I had surgery the following day to remove the fetus. The following week my husband's grandmother died. That week I also had to go back to my OB/GYN for a follow-up; shockingly my BETA numbers were still rising. He scheduled me to come back two days later; well two days later I couldn't walk I was in such excruciating pain. My tube had ruptured, on the initial surgery they had not gotten the "baby" they had only extracted a blood clot or piece of the placenta. So I was back in the hospital having emergency surgery! This miscarriage was the worst and took much more time to recover.
In the meantime we received a letter from our RE stating they knew my previous IVF cycle was mismanaged and agreed to give us another IVF cycle at no charge. But we first did a trial cycle to see if a different round of meds worked and kept my progesterone level at bay - it did! So we planned our next IVF cycle. Everything went great, we got a good 20+ eggs and transferred 2 blastocyst on cd5. My RE was certain I would get pregnant, I did not.
We had no idea what was going on with me, it was SO frustrating!! We attempted one more IVF late last year and once again had 8 beautiful blastocyst embyros. We transferred 2 and once again got a BFN(-). We were blessed that 5 of the embryos continued to thrive and made it to the stage where they could be cyropreserved.
Which brings us to where we are today!! :) We went back and met with our RE and she told me she felt certain my body has lost the enzyme in my uterus that would allow a pregnancy to implant. I attempted to be tested to ensure this was accurate but after two natural cycles my hormone levels were not cooperating for me to have the test. I could have done a hormone replacement cycle but it just wasn't worth it. She suggested we find a gestational carrier for our remaining embryos and let's not let them go to waste or risk putting them back in my hostile body!! I agreed 100% and she was thrilled to know I was at peace with that decision!!
We met Megan a few months later and WOW what an amazing blessing that she has been to our lives!! I have no doubt that God brought her into our lives for a reason, and she is going to bring us a little miracle (or two) that we have longed for, for 9 years!!!
