The Coles' Baby Goal | IVF Fund
Donation protected
As long as I can remember, all I ever wanted was to be a mom one day. I am always the one at parties playing with the kids, holding the babies, and deep down, longing for my own child. So obviously when I met Don, my true love, starting a family was my number one priority.
But as some of you know, we have been trying to have a baby for over 6 years now. Its not something you plan for or expect to happen to you but these are the cards that we have been dealt. We have worked so hard putting in extra hours at work, picking up odd jobs here and there, and saved ruthlessly to be able to afford IVF, we even sold our first home that Don worked on for ten years to fix up for us to help pay for IVF.
In 2014 before the idea of IVF we first started on super expensive fertility drugs which allowed us to get pregnant but unfortunately resulted in a miscarriage. We eventually bounced back and tried again, this time resulting to using 2 IUIs which resulted in nothing.
We then decided from the doctor's advice that IVF should be our next avenue and could be our last hope.
In August 2017 we sold our house, moved in with Don's parents to save money and we had finally reached our savings goal and was able to begin IVF. We were so excited and overwhelmed at the idea that we were finally going to be parents. But before we could start, I had to have surgery to remove an over whelming amount of endometriosis which the doctors thought was preventing us from getting pregnant and could create complications during the IVF treatments. After my recovery in November, we had finally got the green light from our doctor to begin IVF.
After LOTS of shots, daily blood work and ultra sounds for two weeks, my hormone levels were dangerously high and the doctors stopped our cycle. Feeling like we were back at square one, devastated, defeated, hurt, confused, and all that time, to start another cycle, we were told that we would have to pay for all of the medication AGAIN, 5 thousand dollars worth of meds and doctor visits wasted because of the doctors mishaps.
We had to pick ourselves back up, swallow our pride, and we started over in December 2017. But before we could start our second round, I found out that I have melanoma on the back of my knee and I need to have emergency surgery to get it removed as soon as possible. We are almost at a breaking point in our lives and cant seem to catch a break. But they always say its darkest before the dawn, and boy could that not be more true.
After kicking cancer's ass we begin again.... Back in the doctors office, more shots, blood work, ultrasounds, and closer observation so that the over-stimulation didn't happen again, and we FINALLY made it to the egg retrieval stage. The egg retrieval requires surgery to recover the eggs for fertilization and we are both nervous. The surgery went extremely well and the doctor was able to retrieve 16 eggs. From those 16, only 6 survived to be genetically tested to make sure they were healthy. We were ecstatic! We now had to anxiously wait for 7-10 days for the results to come back.
Life threw us another curve ball during the results waiting period and my grandpa Jim passed away. I am barely hanging on from all of the stress, its really hard to even write this at this moment. During the funeral we went back to my grandmother's house to celebrate my grandpa's life with the whole family, Don, my mom, and my sisters. I then received a phone call that completely took our breathes away. After all of the events we went through we were not even prepared for what the doctor was saying on the other line, that all 6 eggs were genetically abnormal and would not survive.
Its taken us two years to heal from that moment. Two years to understand why that happened to us, and two years to mentally prepare for another round of IVF. This process has been a huge strain on our lives, our relationship, and our mental strength, but still hasn't broken us and has brought us together even stronger.
This is potentially our last and final attempt to have a baby. We cannot currently afford to pay for the third cycle on our own and need as much help as we can get. They say it takes a village to raise a child but in our case we need a village to have one.
Any amount will help, even if you can spare 1 dollar, or even sharing the link will help make a huge impact on our lives.
But as some of you know, we have been trying to have a baby for over 6 years now. Its not something you plan for or expect to happen to you but these are the cards that we have been dealt. We have worked so hard putting in extra hours at work, picking up odd jobs here and there, and saved ruthlessly to be able to afford IVF, we even sold our first home that Don worked on for ten years to fix up for us to help pay for IVF.
In 2014 before the idea of IVF we first started on super expensive fertility drugs which allowed us to get pregnant but unfortunately resulted in a miscarriage. We eventually bounced back and tried again, this time resulting to using 2 IUIs which resulted in nothing.
We then decided from the doctor's advice that IVF should be our next avenue and could be our last hope.
In August 2017 we sold our house, moved in with Don's parents to save money and we had finally reached our savings goal and was able to begin IVF. We were so excited and overwhelmed at the idea that we were finally going to be parents. But before we could start, I had to have surgery to remove an over whelming amount of endometriosis which the doctors thought was preventing us from getting pregnant and could create complications during the IVF treatments. After my recovery in November, we had finally got the green light from our doctor to begin IVF.
After LOTS of shots, daily blood work and ultra sounds for two weeks, my hormone levels were dangerously high and the doctors stopped our cycle. Feeling like we were back at square one, devastated, defeated, hurt, confused, and all that time, to start another cycle, we were told that we would have to pay for all of the medication AGAIN, 5 thousand dollars worth of meds and doctor visits wasted because of the doctors mishaps.
We had to pick ourselves back up, swallow our pride, and we started over in December 2017. But before we could start our second round, I found out that I have melanoma on the back of my knee and I need to have emergency surgery to get it removed as soon as possible. We are almost at a breaking point in our lives and cant seem to catch a break. But they always say its darkest before the dawn, and boy could that not be more true.
After kicking cancer's ass we begin again.... Back in the doctors office, more shots, blood work, ultrasounds, and closer observation so that the over-stimulation didn't happen again, and we FINALLY made it to the egg retrieval stage. The egg retrieval requires surgery to recover the eggs for fertilization and we are both nervous. The surgery went extremely well and the doctor was able to retrieve 16 eggs. From those 16, only 6 survived to be genetically tested to make sure they were healthy. We were ecstatic! We now had to anxiously wait for 7-10 days for the results to come back.
Life threw us another curve ball during the results waiting period and my grandpa Jim passed away. I am barely hanging on from all of the stress, its really hard to even write this at this moment. During the funeral we went back to my grandmother's house to celebrate my grandpa's life with the whole family, Don, my mom, and my sisters. I then received a phone call that completely took our breathes away. After all of the events we went through we were not even prepared for what the doctor was saying on the other line, that all 6 eggs were genetically abnormal and would not survive.
Its taken us two years to heal from that moment. Two years to understand why that happened to us, and two years to mentally prepare for another round of IVF. This process has been a huge strain on our lives, our relationship, and our mental strength, but still hasn't broken us and has brought us together even stronger.
This is potentially our last and final attempt to have a baby. We cannot currently afford to pay for the third cycle on our own and need as much help as we can get. They say it takes a village to raise a child but in our case we need a village to have one.
Any amount will help, even if you can spare 1 dollar, or even sharing the link will help make a huge impact on our lives.
Organizer
Courtney Cole
Organizer
Indianapolis, IN