Steph and Ed's IVF Journey

Hello Friends & Family,
My wife, Stephanie, and I have been dreaming of welcoming a second baby into our lives for the past four years. We’ve hoped and prayed that we would be so lucky, and that our four year old daughter, Penelope, would have someone to grow up with, play with, laugh with, and love. Unfortunately, my wife also has Lupus, and if you know anything about Lupus, it can cause all sorts of difficulties with getting and staying pregnant. We’ve experienced six incredibly joyful moments in those years where she became pregnant, only to grieve shortly thereafter when she miscarried before the first trimester. Needless to say, this has taken a heavy toll on us and our daughter.

For two years, we saw a fertility specialist and attempted many things to help us with having a baby. We’ve adjusted Lupus medications, tried supplements, tried timing ovulation cycles, and much more, but nothing has worked, yet. We’ve discussed our options with the doctors, and it seems that IVF (In Vitro Fertilization) is now our best bet for a successful pregnancy.

We’ve already gone through one round of IVF, but sadly things didn’t work out as well as we had hoped, and resulted in only one embryo to attempt an implantation with. That embryo did not successfully implant, and from our discussions with our doctor, if we can attempt another round, we have much more insight into what we can do differently to have the IVF process be more successful. The only issue is that we’ve already exhausted our fertility benefit ($10,000 lifetime benefit) and most of our savings on the first round. So, now we are turning to friends and family to help raise money for a second round. We are told the IVF treatment costs a little more than $12,000 if we pay up front at our first appointment in July. We already have some of the money, but need to raise the remainder before that first appointment so we can proceed with the IVF.

Please, any help, whether it is sharing this post or donating yourself, will be of great importance in our lives. It will literally make the difference as to whether or not we will ever be able to welcome another baby into this family. Thank you in advance to anyone who opens their heart to us, we are eternally grateful.

For those of you that don't know what goes into IVF and/or are interested in learning more about our journey so far, we’ve described it in detail below.

IVF is a very delicate process whereby Stephanie’s hormones and ovulation cycles have to be perfectly balanced and observed in order for it to be successful. Our first round of IVF started with Stephanie needing to get an ultrasound done to make sure that everything looked good. Something like a cyst in your ovaries or uterus can push back the timing of an IVF cycle by a month, which is what happened to us.

Ordering medication had to be done through a fertility Pharmacy that was delivery only, which cost about $3,500, and is time sensitive since some of the medication needed to be refrigerated. And when we say medications, we mean a series of injections done at home and directly into Steph's stomach morning and night. Those injections allowed her ovaries to produce multiple follicles, which may or may not contain eggs, and grow at the same time but not ovulate.

When these follicles were the right size, which was determined from bloodwork and ultrasounds, a final hcg injection was given and they harvested. The doctor inserted a needle on either side of my wife's cervix to reach her ovaries and extracted as many eggs as they could. With 16 follicles, they had retrieved 14 eggs! We thought we were so lucky to get so many; usually they hope for 10. Unfortunately, of the 14, eight were immature. Of the six eggs remaining, only three fertilized, with only two of those making it to blastocyst stage.

Because of the multiple miscarriages, further testing was done on the blastocysts to determine whether they were chromosomally normal. One came back normal and one abnormal. This meant we only had one chance to get this right, and yet through the entire process, the injections, the pain, the time and money spent, the emotional toll, we still remained optimistic that we had one healthy baby to attempt to implant.

To transfer, ovulation needed to be simulated which meant more injections, but we were so happy and hopeful on the day the transfer was to take place (the photo that's above of us three in the car is just before went into the clinic for the transfer) that none of that mattered. Heartbreakingly, the baby didn't implant, and we were back to square one.

Our doctor decided to do a hysteroscopy to look directly into the uterus. She discovered that there is inflammation in the lining. Typically this is cleared up with some antibiotics (which Steph has gone on) and everything turns out fine. However, if you’re familiar with Lupus, you may know that this inflammation could bring about a more complicated situation for us. We have another hysteroscopy scheduled for this Wednesday where we will look once more to see if the inflammation is still there. If it is, a biopsy will need to be done and further testing and treatments will need to be completed at the Pathology Department at the hospital. Otherwise, the plan is that we will continue with the IVF injections starting at the beginning of July and then will harvest the eggs in mid-July.

Again, please, if it is within your means, it would mean the world to us if you could help by donating $10 or more to help us cover the upfront payment that we must make by her first ultrasound in July. If we don't have it, the appointment and IVF treatment will be cancelled.

Thank you for taking the time to read our story and for helping us. We deeply appreciate your thoughts, prayers, and positivity, even if you are unable to donate.

From the bottom of our hearts, thank you, from our family to yours!