Road to Baby Richardson: Our IVF Journey
Donation protected
Hello everyone!
We are Cam and Abbi Richardson. We have been happily married for 6 years and we are ready to start our family! Unfortunately, we are going to need a little medical magic and some help from our wonderful friends and family to make our dreams become a reality.
We knew from the beginning that starting our family would be difficult. Just a couple of months before we got married, Abbi was diagnosed with Myotonic Dystrophy, a form of muscular dystrophy that causes progressive muscle degeneration, weakness, and shrinkage of the muscle tissue. It is an inherited mutated gene, meaning it is passed from a parent down to their children. Abbi’s family does have a history of this disease with several family members passing away due to known complications of myotonic dystrophy, including her father who passed away in 2012.
While Abbi does have a positive diagnosis, her specific case and symptoms are currently mild. Every year we have an appointment with a specialist to check in on developing symptoms and talk about any questions we might have. A few years ago, we brought up the topic of children. Our doctor highly urged that we explore IVF (In Vitro Fertilization) with PGT (Preimplantation Genetic Testing) if we want to have a family to prevent the passing of this disease to our children. Children with congenital myotonic dystrophy almost always inherit the disease from an affected mother.
To provide the best possible life for our future children, we started the review process in the Spring of 2017 with the Utah Center for Reproductive Medicine (healthcare.utah.edu/fertility). We were impressed with UCRM’s program and success rate and knew they would take care of our future family. After an initial round of talking with doctors, we decided to put the process on hold until we felt comfortable enough with our living situation since we were both still in school and were recovering from other life events.
In January of this year, we made the massive decision to revisit this process, which would mean starting from square one. After multiple doctor visits we received great news, we were perfect candidates for IVF! With that confirmed, we were ready to face the trials ahead of us. However, the biggest trial is the cost.
Now, the money. As previously mentioned, we started up the process again earlier this year and have already paid for all appointments, tests, and pre-work. In addition, we have applied for grants to help with some of the costs. Thankfully we have been approved for a grant that will cover a portion of the medication costs. That being said, there is still a large sum of money that we need to come up with to continue toward our goal of having a family. After many restless nights of deliberation, we came to the conclusion that we may need additional financial help. Ultimately that is why we are writing this, we need help in paying for the remaining IVF and PGT procedures.
In the spirit of transparency, here is the list of costs that we hope to cover with this money:
PGT IVF package: $11,725
Inpatient Retrieval: $2,925
Frozen Embryo Transfer cycles: $3,215
PGT Testing: $7,850
Medication: $3,000 (after grant money)
Total Cost: $28,715
This is just for the cost of achieving pregnancy. From here we are fully expecting to handle all regular doctor fees and birthing costs from our pocket.
We are so excited to be on this journey. Any funds we receive will be used solely for this purpose of IVF and PGT. Additional funds would then roll over to the regular birthing costs and other baby expenses.
There are not enough words to express our gratitude for the support, both emotional and financial, we have received and will continue to receive in our journey to having a healthy, happy baby. To follow us in our journey we have created an Instagram page @roadtobabyr to post updates and we would love for you to follow along! We encourage everyone who views this to visit the websites for the Myotonic Dystrophy Foundation (myotonic.org) and the Muscular Dystrophy Association (mda.org) for more knowledge of this disease we are working to fight.
We are Cam and Abbi Richardson. We have been happily married for 6 years and we are ready to start our family! Unfortunately, we are going to need a little medical magic and some help from our wonderful friends and family to make our dreams become a reality.
We knew from the beginning that starting our family would be difficult. Just a couple of months before we got married, Abbi was diagnosed with Myotonic Dystrophy, a form of muscular dystrophy that causes progressive muscle degeneration, weakness, and shrinkage of the muscle tissue. It is an inherited mutated gene, meaning it is passed from a parent down to their children. Abbi’s family does have a history of this disease with several family members passing away due to known complications of myotonic dystrophy, including her father who passed away in 2012.
While Abbi does have a positive diagnosis, her specific case and symptoms are currently mild. Every year we have an appointment with a specialist to check in on developing symptoms and talk about any questions we might have. A few years ago, we brought up the topic of children. Our doctor highly urged that we explore IVF (In Vitro Fertilization) with PGT (Preimplantation Genetic Testing) if we want to have a family to prevent the passing of this disease to our children. Children with congenital myotonic dystrophy almost always inherit the disease from an affected mother.
To provide the best possible life for our future children, we started the review process in the Spring of 2017 with the Utah Center for Reproductive Medicine (healthcare.utah.edu/fertility). We were impressed with UCRM’s program and success rate and knew they would take care of our future family. After an initial round of talking with doctors, we decided to put the process on hold until we felt comfortable enough with our living situation since we were both still in school and were recovering from other life events.
In January of this year, we made the massive decision to revisit this process, which would mean starting from square one. After multiple doctor visits we received great news, we were perfect candidates for IVF! With that confirmed, we were ready to face the trials ahead of us. However, the biggest trial is the cost.
Now, the money. As previously mentioned, we started up the process again earlier this year and have already paid for all appointments, tests, and pre-work. In addition, we have applied for grants to help with some of the costs. Thankfully we have been approved for a grant that will cover a portion of the medication costs. That being said, there is still a large sum of money that we need to come up with to continue toward our goal of having a family. After many restless nights of deliberation, we came to the conclusion that we may need additional financial help. Ultimately that is why we are writing this, we need help in paying for the remaining IVF and PGT procedures.
In the spirit of transparency, here is the list of costs that we hope to cover with this money:
PGT IVF package: $11,725
Inpatient Retrieval: $2,925
Frozen Embryo Transfer cycles: $3,215
PGT Testing: $7,850
Medication: $3,000 (after grant money)
Total Cost: $28,715
This is just for the cost of achieving pregnancy. From here we are fully expecting to handle all regular doctor fees and birthing costs from our pocket.
We are so excited to be on this journey. Any funds we receive will be used solely for this purpose of IVF and PGT. Additional funds would then roll over to the regular birthing costs and other baby expenses.
There are not enough words to express our gratitude for the support, both emotional and financial, we have received and will continue to receive in our journey to having a healthy, happy baby. To follow us in our journey we have created an Instagram page @roadtobabyr to post updates and we would love for you to follow along! We encourage everyone who views this to visit the websites for the Myotonic Dystrophy Foundation (myotonic.org) and the Muscular Dystrophy Association (mda.org) for more knowledge of this disease we are working to fight.
Organizer
Abigail Richardson
Organizer
Draper, UT
