Our Dream of having a family

‼️Update‼️

We have a plan in place for the next round of IVF. We need to have around $10,000 by the end of the month to make this dream a reality. Any and all donations no matter how big or small make a difference. If you can please help us get to this goal by the end of the month. We are desperately trying to have a family of our own.

‼️Update‼️

After my appointment today with the fertility doctor I was told the abnormal embryo has 5 extra chromosomes and will not be viable for transfer. This leaves one remaining embryo we know nothing about. Based on my symptoms after transfer they believe the implantation did happen and then my body attacked it. The specialist would like us to do another round of IVF. This is our last opportunity to retrieve eggs to make embryos. They believe if they implant 2 embryos it will be successful. I explained we cannot afford another round of IVF as much as I would like to try again. This doctor has now offered to do another round for us at 50% off. This still makes it way to expensive to do it on our own. So please please please help us! Time is not on our side and we have to make this decision by tomorrow. We desperately need some help here.

Hello

My name is Melissa Kimball and I am 36 years old. My husband Allen Kimball and I have been trying for many years to have a family of our own. Unfortunately it has been a struggle at every turn. I had severe endometriosis and required surgery years ago which took my left ovary and fallopian tube leaving only my right ovary and fallopian tube left to possibly conceive. After trying everything natural under the sun we realized we may need the help of a fertility specialist. So we went to a fertility clinic and had testing done. Unfortunately my right tube was blocked. This meant I had to have surgery and cut the tube away from the uterus in order to have a chance at possibly doing IVF. So after spending thousands on surgery and diagnostics we finally had some answers and a plan. We would have to do IVF-invitro fertilization, as this would be our only option after having to cut the last tube. So we got the loan for IVF which is extremely expensive coming in at over 18k with the medicines and the procedure/process itself. This is an extremely mentally, financially and physically taxing process. After completing the round of IVF we ended up with 4 viable embryos from my single ovary which I felt good about. We opted for PGS testing which was another extra cost but would ensure we knew about the embryos and which had the best chance of being a successful pregnancy. We had 1 normal boy, 1 normal girl, 1 undetermined and 1 abnormal boy. Before being cleared to start the frozen embryo transfer process they did another Saline ultrasound which showed I required another surgery before we could try a frozen embryo transfer cycle. So we came out of pocket again for this surgery another couple of thousand dollars. After the surgery was proven a success we were finally cleared to start our first transfer in November of 2022. The frozen embryo transfer process requires more medications daily. One of these medicines costs 650$, another 155$ per vial which gives about 10 doses of medicine. The progesterone is the only medication the insurance helps with at all making that one the most affordable at 20$ per 8 vials which Is needed every single day for the first 3 months of pregnancy. This process requires 2 weeks of monitoring and daily injections and pill form medications just to get to transfer day. So our transfer day came which was the day before Thanksgiving 2022. The transfer process costs nearly 3k per transfer cycle which doesn't include the medications required. After the transfer we had to wait 14 days to find out if it was successful of not. Unfortunately on day 14 of our first transfer cycle we found out our little boy embryo was not successful. This was a very trying time for us. After having some time to physically and emotionally heal we were advised to complete more testing to see if we could find out what the issue was before we tried again. I had a procedure called an ERA-endometrial receptivity analysis done. This is a mock transfer process in which you have to take all injections and medications as you would if you were about to do a frozen embryo transfer cycle. Instead of transferring an embryo they took some samples of the lining of the uterus to see if the transfer may have been done to early or to late. The results came back that I would require an extra day of progesterone shots meaning the transfer was a day to early. This gave us some hope that we now had an answer and felt we wanted to try again. My blood work shows I have autoimmune disorders in which my body attacks healthy tissue so this round I would have to add a daily steroid as well to combat this issue. Now we had a plan and started our 2nd embryo transfer cycle which meant another 3k and another round of expensive medications. Our 2nd transfer was on April 13th 2023. It was our little girl embryo. This leaves us with 1 undetermined embryo and 1 possibly abnormal boy embryo. We were dealt another failure on 4/27 after the 14 day wait and medications I was told this transfer was also unsuccessful. This was devastating news. At this point we have used nearly all our financial options to keep this dream alive. We now need help to continue on with our dream of becoming parents as health insurance in North Carolina does not cover anything to do with IVF or frozen embryo transfers. I do not know what the future holds for us at this point. Our next step is another consultation with the specialist to map out our next plan. I am asking if you feel you can or want to donate to our cause please do. Any little bit helps. We have to come up with another 3k to try again with our 2 remaining embryos and I am not getting any younger which means the biological clock is ticking. We just want to have a family of our own. It's been a very hard journey but I am not ready to give up. We just need some help financially to continue trying to complete our family. I would like to thank the few people who have donated to us so far. We have received $350 in donations since the start of this journey a couple of years ago. Hoping to keep this dream alive.

Thank you for taking the time to read our story