Josh and Michelle’s IVF Journey

It was in late 2019 when we received the devastating news that if we wanted to have children of our own, our only real chance would be to do In-Vitro Fertilization (IVF). Many of you may not know, but this is very costly and unfortunately most health insurance coverage does NOT cover this type of treatment. In February 2020 we reached out to Indiana Fertility Institute in Indianapolis and had a local appointment of which Dr. Meredith Provost had confirmed that this would be our only viable option. We then reached out to their Financial Counselor and determined that given my condition the cost would range $20,000 - $30,000 of out-of pocket expenses just to get pregnant. Unfortunately, they won’t even begin treatment without the money up front. We are sad to say, we don’t have this kind of money and never thought we would be in a situation to ask for help in order to have a baby, but we have no other choice. Please keep in mind that the size of your gift, no matter what it is, is greatly appreciated. We understand if you are not able to help, but please keep us in your thoughts and prayers. For those of you that know us, you know, we are not ones to speak of very private personal matters. However, we have decided to share our story and if you are interested in reading it, please do so. It’s a journey that we hope and pray ends with a blessing from the good Lord above.

 God Bless,
Mr. and Mrs. Tipton-Troyer

Our story and how it led us to IVF

Josh and I have known each other since the 1st grade and started dating in high school. We have been together for 15 years and married in May 2014. Excited to begin our life as a married couple, we had bought our home later that year and was ready to start a family. After a year went by with no success, we decided to reach out to my OBGYN. I was put on medicine to help regulate my menstrual cycle and hopefully increase my chances of becoming pregnant. After 6 months of no success I had an ultrasound that indicated I had a cyst (the size of a small basketball/cantaloupe) on my left ovary. My doctor halted the medication and wanted to wait a month to see if it would decrease in size naturally. Unfortunately, it grew larger and surgery was inevitable as the cyst needed to be removed. The cyst was so big that it damaged my left ovary and fallopian tube and both had to be removed during surgery along with removal of the endometriosis that could be seen. The cyst was sent for a biopsy and came back as ENDOMETRIOSIS. We were blessed and thankful that is was not cancer.  For those of you that do not know what endometriosis is, we highly recommend that you (especially if you’re a woman) educate yourself as this has become a major issue in the world today and affect’s each woman differently. Endometriosis is often a painful disorder in which the tissue that normally lines the inside of your uterusactually grows outside of it. Endometriosis most commonly involves your ovaries, fallopian tubes and the tissue lining your pelvis. There is so much more to this disorder but we wanted to give you a general idea of what it is.

After the surgery, we decided to take a break and attempt to ease our minds and allow my body to heal.  We hoped and prayed that we would now be able to conceive and become parents naturally. After a couple more years and no success, we came to terms with our hearts and minds that we needed some extra help. This led us to an amazing doctor who was highly recommended and an OBGYN specialist in infertility care. Dr. Cavallo takes a more holistic approach to everything he does and helped us become more educated with our situation. We’re so grateful for Dr. Cavallo’s approach and it was determined that I needed to make some lifestyle changes such as diet, exercise and taking supplements to get all my levels where they needed to be in order to have a successful outcome. All of this plays a huge role in women with endometriosis. My husband decided that I was not in this alone so he joined me in this journey, without the supplements of course. I can tell you that without my amazing husband, I’m not so sure I could have done this alone. Dr. Cavallo had given us so much hope. I went through tons and tons of blood work and finally all my levels were where they needed be. Sadly to say, nothing was happening. The next step would be to go through surgery again and remove what he could of the endometriosis. Let me make you all aware, you can’t get rid of endometriosis, there is no cure! You can only try to manage it through diet, exercise and surgery. Dr Cavallo was very positive that with the surgery and maintaining a healthy diet it would increase our chances drastically, because overall I was healthy enough to carry a baby. We couldn’t wait, this was what we had been hoping and praying for, for so long. The surgery went well (except for my allergic reaction to the surgical tape), but very exhausting and sore for a couple of weeks. Once I healed we were given the green light to try and conceive a little Tipton-Troyer. Several months went by and (once again) still nothing! What an emotional rollercoaster. I can’t even begin to tell you how this felt. I had been through so much in the last 5 years trying to conceive and it’s frustrating when you feel like this should be something every woman should have the opportunity to have. Becoming a mommy is something I have always dreamed of and at this point it just felt impossible. I would be lying to you if I told you that I wasn’t beginning to give up hope, it had become so very overwhelming. Josh kept reassuring me that everything happens for a reason and in God’s timing we will become parents.

We decided it was time to see Dr. Cavallo again who still had not given up hope for us. He recommended that we go to Memorial Hospital to have a small procedure done to determine if my eggs were able to travel through my fallopian tube (remember that I only have my right ovary and fallopian tube because my left had to be removed). We received more unfortunate news; the dye was not able to make its way through my fallopian tube because my tube is actually blocked from scar tissue from the endometriosis. What a huge let down and a room full of tears. I just didn’t understand why, after all I had been through, why did this have to happen to me. We of course had to schedule yet another appointment with Dr. Cavallo to see what was next. Unfortunately, there wasn’t anything more he could do himself. He did what he could and we will be forever grateful to him. He gave us a couple of options, I could have surgery to remove the scar tissue, but he didn’t recommend that route given what my body had already gone through since that could lead to more scar tissue and make my condition worse. He highly recommended that we seek IVF and recommended the Indiana Fertility Institute. I had to take a couple of months to come to terms with all of this.

 

We met with Dr. Meredith Provost and she had reviewed my records and assured us that IVF would be the best option for our situation. She performed an ultrasound to see where I was at with the endometriosis and my current egg count. We actually got some good news. I have plenty of eggs in my right ovary! She seemed a little surprised. She told us that this was good for when it’s time for egg retrieval (part of the IVF treatment). I have come to terms that I am healthy enough to carry a baby and God had a different plan for me to be able to conceive. This brings us to where we are today, which is IVF. We hope that you will be part of this journey with us. Please understand that we don’t expect to be treated as a charity case and only hope that you can give what you can and if you can’t, just keep us in your prayers. We promise that if we can reach our goal and can proceed, we will keep you up to date as much as possible, but please be considerate of our privacy as well. This whole process will be tough emotionally, physically and financially (as we don’t expect total funding). We truly believe that with all of your support and prayers we will get through this and obtain our dream of becoming loving parents.

Thank you so much from the bottom of our hearts!

Michelle and Josh