Hanson/Carpenter Baby - Final IVF
Donation protected
For those of you who know Jeff & me, you hopefully have heard our love story. What we have not shared a whole lot about is our struggle to grow our family together. Something I have wanted since I was a little girl. This is very difficult to put out in public, because we know that some people with have a negative opinion (IVF, Age, GFM, etc). This struggle is very real and very hard to talk about... so we thank you for taking the time to get to know our story, being positive and supporting our decision to move forward in our journey to expand our family. If we had 20 months, we could save enough, but it has to be in the next two months.
This Go Fund Me page is to try to gather enough money to have a precious little baby together through IVF!
OUR STORY:
Jeff and I go back way back to being friends in high school at Ocean View in HB. We were reconnected through another OVHS friend back in 2007. Jeff had already been married/divorced and had a precious 5 year old little girl who I immediately fell in love with. Over the next few years, Jeff and I dated and in 2011 got engaged. At this point, we decided together to start to try to get pregnant and add to our family. Even though I have been a step mom to Acacia and a 2nd mom to thousands of dance kids... I still have always wanted to have a child of my own. I had the BEST mom in the world and I want to pass that on...
Through the last 5 years, we have tried lots of ways and now we find ourselves at the FINAL crossroads. We are trying to do our last IVF treatment this November 2016.
What I haven't shared has been our struggle with getting pregnant, health issues & IVF attempts. I have always had issues with uterine fibroids since my early 20's. I remember my Ob/Gyn telling me in my late 20's the best option was full hysterecomy to keep the pain away. That has been agreed upon by all doctors I have seen across the board through the last 20 years. But I didn't go that route, because I couldn't take the dream of a family away from myself and future husband. So for years I have dealt with the pain.
The first few years that Jeff and I got together, we tried the good old fashion way with lots of suggestions from friends/family. ;) After no pregnancy, we consulted our doctors and started testing about 2.5 years ago. The final reason we have not been getting pregnant was that my Fallopian tubes were closed due to the over-sized fibroids & uterus. My husband, Jeff, has been the best through this all... dealing with my tears & heartache.
The next step was to see the IVF (In-Vitro Fertility) doctor in 2013. After tons of test with regular OB/Gyn and the IVF doctor, we got really good results on egg production and levels. Our IVF doctor was very pleased with results. He said my number were great and most 20 year olds who struggle with fertility do not have that high of numbers. So we were super hopeful on the possibility of starting a family together. We started to save money and find ways to pay for this treatment. Because of my age, we are going through the process of genetic testing so the costs were a little higher than the normal options.
In 2015, after suggestion from my OB/Gyn and the genetics counselor at my Women's Center - I had genetics testing done due to family history of cancer. I got the results back and I am BRCA 2 Positive. This means I have a 45%+ of developing Breast Cancer and a 17%+ of developing Ovarian Cancer. I lost my mother to Breast Cancer at 59 and my sister Kathy to Ovarian Cancer (other complications) at 59. TOO YOUNG for both! <3 So after all the doctor appointments & elevated CA-125 and suggested protocol, we have decided to get the preventative procedures done ASAP. That means a full hysterectomy & risk-reducing bilateral mastectomy. Which bring my risk of cancer down to 2%. We will do these surgeries once we are finished with IVF and hopefully a baby! This means that I we had to start IVF ASAP.
We started the IVF process back in March of 2016 and everything looked hopeful. Both of our doctors, Ob/Gyn & IVF Dr's, were concerned about the large fibroids I had and wanted to do surgery to get them out before we tried to get pregnant. But we all decided to do IVF first & ASAP due to the age factor and the BRCA 2 factor. After all the planning, giving myself shots daily (ouch!) and going through the entire IVF process - We were unsuccessful. I can't go into details because it makes me cry uncontrollably! My IVF doctor said it was the one of the top 5 hardest egg retrievals he had ever done and I was visiting the ER two days later in extreme pain. It was all due to my fibroids.
So - in May 2016 I had surgery to remove all my fibroids (some were 10cm+, the size of a grapefruit) and removal of my Fallopian tubes as part of my BRCA 2 protocol. I am healed up now and got the okay from the doctor last week to make ONE LAST ATTEMPT to have a baby together (biologically).
We have scheduled the last IVF treatment for this November 2016. The issues is that we have tapped out all options for financial assistance. Loans, savings, credit cards, etc. We have already spent over $19K and this last round will cost us $11K ($4k in medications and $6k in IVF treatment+GFM cost). The money is due this month in full and we need to order medication tomorrow. So, we have finally put our pride aside and are asking friends and family to consider helping us make our dream of having a baby together a reality.
We are so grateful for the time you've spent reading about our struggles and we're forever grateful for those who are able to share or donate. Even just by sharing, it helps us tremendously! I know that one day we will be blessed with our miracles babies and that the past four years of struggling will be worth it! We love you all and are so thankful to have such supportive family and friends!
This Go Fund Me page is to try to gather enough money to have a precious little baby together through IVF!
OUR STORY:
Jeff and I go back way back to being friends in high school at Ocean View in HB. We were reconnected through another OVHS friend back in 2007. Jeff had already been married/divorced and had a precious 5 year old little girl who I immediately fell in love with. Over the next few years, Jeff and I dated and in 2011 got engaged. At this point, we decided together to start to try to get pregnant and add to our family. Even though I have been a step mom to Acacia and a 2nd mom to thousands of dance kids... I still have always wanted to have a child of my own. I had the BEST mom in the world and I want to pass that on...
Through the last 5 years, we have tried lots of ways and now we find ourselves at the FINAL crossroads. We are trying to do our last IVF treatment this November 2016.
What I haven't shared has been our struggle with getting pregnant, health issues & IVF attempts. I have always had issues with uterine fibroids since my early 20's. I remember my Ob/Gyn telling me in my late 20's the best option was full hysterecomy to keep the pain away. That has been agreed upon by all doctors I have seen across the board through the last 20 years. But I didn't go that route, because I couldn't take the dream of a family away from myself and future husband. So for years I have dealt with the pain.
The first few years that Jeff and I got together, we tried the good old fashion way with lots of suggestions from friends/family. ;) After no pregnancy, we consulted our doctors and started testing about 2.5 years ago. The final reason we have not been getting pregnant was that my Fallopian tubes were closed due to the over-sized fibroids & uterus. My husband, Jeff, has been the best through this all... dealing with my tears & heartache.
The next step was to see the IVF (In-Vitro Fertility) doctor in 2013. After tons of test with regular OB/Gyn and the IVF doctor, we got really good results on egg production and levels. Our IVF doctor was very pleased with results. He said my number were great and most 20 year olds who struggle with fertility do not have that high of numbers. So we were super hopeful on the possibility of starting a family together. We started to save money and find ways to pay for this treatment. Because of my age, we are going through the process of genetic testing so the costs were a little higher than the normal options.
In 2015, after suggestion from my OB/Gyn and the genetics counselor at my Women's Center - I had genetics testing done due to family history of cancer. I got the results back and I am BRCA 2 Positive. This means I have a 45%+ of developing Breast Cancer and a 17%+ of developing Ovarian Cancer. I lost my mother to Breast Cancer at 59 and my sister Kathy to Ovarian Cancer (other complications) at 59. TOO YOUNG for both! <3 So after all the doctor appointments & elevated CA-125 and suggested protocol, we have decided to get the preventative procedures done ASAP. That means a full hysterectomy & risk-reducing bilateral mastectomy. Which bring my risk of cancer down to 2%. We will do these surgeries once we are finished with IVF and hopefully a baby! This means that I we had to start IVF ASAP.
We started the IVF process back in March of 2016 and everything looked hopeful. Both of our doctors, Ob/Gyn & IVF Dr's, were concerned about the large fibroids I had and wanted to do surgery to get them out before we tried to get pregnant. But we all decided to do IVF first & ASAP due to the age factor and the BRCA 2 factor. After all the planning, giving myself shots daily (ouch!) and going through the entire IVF process - We were unsuccessful. I can't go into details because it makes me cry uncontrollably! My IVF doctor said it was the one of the top 5 hardest egg retrievals he had ever done and I was visiting the ER two days later in extreme pain. It was all due to my fibroids.
So - in May 2016 I had surgery to remove all my fibroids (some were 10cm+, the size of a grapefruit) and removal of my Fallopian tubes as part of my BRCA 2 protocol. I am healed up now and got the okay from the doctor last week to make ONE LAST ATTEMPT to have a baby together (biologically).
We have scheduled the last IVF treatment for this November 2016. The issues is that we have tapped out all options for financial assistance. Loans, savings, credit cards, etc. We have already spent over $19K and this last round will cost us $11K ($4k in medications and $6k in IVF treatment+GFM cost). The money is due this month in full and we need to order medication tomorrow. So, we have finally put our pride aside and are asking friends and family to consider helping us make our dream of having a baby together a reality.
We are so grateful for the time you've spent reading about our struggles and we're forever grateful for those who are able to share or donate. Even just by sharing, it helps us tremendously! I know that one day we will be blessed with our miracles babies and that the past four years of struggling will be worth it! We love you all and are so thankful to have such supportive family and friends!
Organizer
Michelle Hanson Carpenter
Organizer
San Clemente, CA
