After our second failed IUI, we met with a new doctor at this clinic. She was honest, but encouraging. That, along with many prayers and considerations my husband and I decided to move forward with IVF.
Our insurance does not cover IVF, at all. This cycle was going to cost upward of $28,000. It’s interesting what we risk here. You don’t go to a car dealership and say, “Here is $28,000 – there’s a chance we will get a car out of this right?” But with this, we had to invest. The financial stress can be just as weighing as the emotional stress.
IVF Cycle #1
I remember being so frustrated when we first decided to start – it seemed like it was hurry and make a decision, then stop everything and wait. I had to start birth control before we were able to start our cycle. Talk about a mind game, you are trying to get pregnant but then you have to take medicine that will prevent you getting pregnant. All I can say looking back now is trust the process. Your doctors have done this time and time again, they know the best protocols and want you to succeed as well.
It was the very end of October 2018 when we started the process towards retrieval. Signing the consents that go along with IVF will make you think of things you thought you would never have to but that’s what life is now.
Our clinic was one hour away from the house and I was going in a minimum of twice a week for monitoring. I ended up being on retrieval medicine for 16 days as opposed to the 10 days we planned for. Each day at the clinic, check-up was harder and harder. We were just ready to be able to retrieve but continuously told that my follicles were slowly progressing. November 13th came, and we ended up with 47 follicles, 28 eggs retrieved and a long recovery!
Embryos + Transfer
Out of the 28 eggs retrieved, 20 were mature enough to fertilize. Of those, 15 actually fertilized and five days later we found out that we had 7 beautiful embryos. I didn’t think I could love anything more in that moment.
Because I have endometriosis, the plan was to do a frozen embryo transfer. We called in January for our transfer date and were scheduled for February, we were so excited – it was happening! Our first appointment, we went in to receive our medicine schedule and they found a polyp. The transfer was off, and we were devastated! Days, months and years of waiting and we were so close to only have it pulled farther away from us. In March, I went in for surgery to have the polyp removed from my uterus lining.
Transfer was again scheduled for August and we moved forward! I was on medication for an extra two weeks and we had anticipated transferring two of our seven embryos. Day of though, we decided to only move forward with one. The TWW (two week wait) was dreadful as imagined but we ended up seeing those two pink lines and at that moment every shot, appointment and tear seemed worth it! Unfortunately, our pregnancy ended in a miscarriage and our first IVF cycle did not end in a successful birth.
As we deal with this loss, we will put a short pause on our IVF journey as we heal, save and plan for 2020.
My Spool of Life 