Help us make a baby Cannon!
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Well, this is something I never would have imagined we would be doing but we are grasping at straws. We are running out of options and have realized that we are willing to do anything to start a family.
About five years ago after I got engaged to my now husband John, we began trying to have a child. About a year later we had no results so we decided I needed to see the doctor to ensure everything was in working order. After talking to my general practitioner, she recommended I see an infertility specialist, still hopeful I made an appointment.
After about a year of testing, weekly doctor appointments, tracking my cycle, having an HSG performed (the worst thing ever) and an outpatient surgery, my doctor decided the best bet would be Intrauterine Insemination. At the time it sounded like a solution and we would finally have a family, we had no idea the heartache and disappointment that would follow.
Over the next year and a half we would attempt IUI seven different times. Once on Clomid and then immediately we moved to injections of Gonal-F that were ridiculously expensive and still I did not seem to be reacting as expected so we began another medication called Menopur which made little difference. Seven attempts, seven failures and lots of dollars spent we realized we only had one option left, IVF (In Vitro Fertilization).
After a strong recommendation from a good friend I called an IVF clinic, they had reviewed all 83 pages of my medical records and I received a phone call at work. Since I knew it was the doctor I stepped away. This was possibly one of the worst phone calls of my life or so I had thought. The nurse proceeded to tell me that there would be a less than one percent chance that I would be able to conceive with my own eggs and our best bet would be to use donated eggs. I broke down, I dreamed of raising a child that was both John and I and now I was told this would never happen. I soon realized that the baby would still be part of me as I would be the one carrying it, raising it and teaching it.
After this devastating news we met with the doctor for an all-day meeting to get started and check out our options. We were told that we could either use frozen eggs where we could start the process immediately and we could choose our donor from several profiles, this would cost about 20k not including medication. The other option was to be placed on a waiting list for what could be a year or more to wait for fresh eggs and we would have no choice as to what donor we would receive. If we chose this we would get a percentage of our money back if it failed and would get three fresh attempts. This option would be about 25k again not including medication. This sounded great except that we were only getting older and we were afraid of what kind of donor we would get as we would have no say if we chose this option. After a great deal of deliberation we scraped up the money for the frozen eggs so we could start right away, this turned out to be the wrong decision. We thought from the six to eight eggs we received several would be able to be frozen so we would have more than one attempt, we were wrong.
On the day of the transfer, the embryos looked good and the transfer seemed to be successful, now it was just a waiting game. I was then notified the following day that none of the other embryos had survived so this was our one shot. About a week later I went for a blood test and I got the news I had been waiting for, I was pregnant! Unfortunately, about three weeks later I began to bleed, I had lost the baby. Again our world had been destroyed, now here we are, out more than $20,000 and still no baby.
The funds will be used to for more eggs and another IVF procedure along with the medication needed. Thank you for taking the time to read our story!
About five years ago after I got engaged to my now husband John, we began trying to have a child. About a year later we had no results so we decided I needed to see the doctor to ensure everything was in working order. After talking to my general practitioner, she recommended I see an infertility specialist, still hopeful I made an appointment.
After about a year of testing, weekly doctor appointments, tracking my cycle, having an HSG performed (the worst thing ever) and an outpatient surgery, my doctor decided the best bet would be Intrauterine Insemination. At the time it sounded like a solution and we would finally have a family, we had no idea the heartache and disappointment that would follow.
Over the next year and a half we would attempt IUI seven different times. Once on Clomid and then immediately we moved to injections of Gonal-F that were ridiculously expensive and still I did not seem to be reacting as expected so we began another medication called Menopur which made little difference. Seven attempts, seven failures and lots of dollars spent we realized we only had one option left, IVF (In Vitro Fertilization).
After a strong recommendation from a good friend I called an IVF clinic, they had reviewed all 83 pages of my medical records and I received a phone call at work. Since I knew it was the doctor I stepped away. This was possibly one of the worst phone calls of my life or so I had thought. The nurse proceeded to tell me that there would be a less than one percent chance that I would be able to conceive with my own eggs and our best bet would be to use donated eggs. I broke down, I dreamed of raising a child that was both John and I and now I was told this would never happen. I soon realized that the baby would still be part of me as I would be the one carrying it, raising it and teaching it.
After this devastating news we met with the doctor for an all-day meeting to get started and check out our options. We were told that we could either use frozen eggs where we could start the process immediately and we could choose our donor from several profiles, this would cost about 20k not including medication. The other option was to be placed on a waiting list for what could be a year or more to wait for fresh eggs and we would have no choice as to what donor we would receive. If we chose this we would get a percentage of our money back if it failed and would get three fresh attempts. This option would be about 25k again not including medication. This sounded great except that we were only getting older and we were afraid of what kind of donor we would get as we would have no say if we chose this option. After a great deal of deliberation we scraped up the money for the frozen eggs so we could start right away, this turned out to be the wrong decision. We thought from the six to eight eggs we received several would be able to be frozen so we would have more than one attempt, we were wrong.
On the day of the transfer, the embryos looked good and the transfer seemed to be successful, now it was just a waiting game. I was then notified the following day that none of the other embryos had survived so this was our one shot. About a week later I went for a blood test and I got the news I had been waiting for, I was pregnant! Unfortunately, about three weeks later I began to bleed, I had lost the baby. Again our world had been destroyed, now here we are, out more than $20,000 and still no baby.
The funds will be used to for more eggs and another IVF procedure along with the medication needed. Thank you for taking the time to read our story!
Organizer
Alicia Cannon
Organizer
Fridley, MN