Our Fertility Fund
Donation protected
Hi everyone! My name is Melissa and my husband's name is Joe. On July 29th we will be married for 15 years!
We knew very early in our relationship that we wanted kids. We tried and tried for a baby for the first 2 years of our relationship but nothing happened so we were referred to a fertility specialist. She did the routine blood work and other tests and were prescribed 6 months worth of Clomid. I did the 6 months but no pregnancy occured. Our specialist then began talking about IUI and IVF but the costs were far out of our budget (we were very young at the time). So we went on to try on our own.
We tried for another 10 years, so that took us up to 12 years of trying when I noticed I was 5 days late so I took a pregnancy test (3 actually, haha) and they were all positive!!! To say we were thrilled would be an understatement, we were on cloud 9. We told everyone the happy news.
That lasted for about 3 weeks, then I started to bleed. Panic set in. Joe took me to emergancy where the doctor examined me and said he seen a bit of blood but other than that everything looked fine but still wanted to send me for blood work to check my beta levels. The blood work came back good but the bleeding still continued off and on so I had to go for an ultrasound. By the time I got in for the ultrasound I was 7 weeks pregnant. I won't go into details but I had to have 2 ultrasounds a week apart where it was determined that our precious baby did not make it and I had to take some medication to induce the miscarriage since my body didnt want to do it on its own. I miscarried at home in my bathroom.
We were devestated. I spent many months crying, being angry, sad, depressed and lived a shattered life. I was angry at God for making us wait 12 years to FINALLY get pregnant only to take it away.
Joe and I decided to start trying again right away. Still nothing was happening, so after about a year we were referred to another fertility specialist. He repeated the blood work since it was so long since I last had it done and everything came back fine again. He then wanted to do an internal ultrasound on me to check on my ovaries. At that ultrasound he said he could not see my ovaries. He said it was either because my ovaries are too small or because I'm too fat (his exact words) and that I need to lose 40% of my body weight and lost it FAST and he will not help me to get pregnant until I do. I left his office in tears and never went back.
We tired on our own again. Fast forward to 2014. We got a referral to a new fertilty specialist. He orded the same blood work and the exact same internal ultrasound to check on my ovaries. He seen my ovaries with no problems at all (I was the same weight I was when I seen the other fertilty specialist) and my ovaries looked fine. He then prescribed 4 months of double dose Clomid, I did the 4 months but no pregnancy. He then prescribed 7 rounds of Femara (like Clomid but with less nasty side effects!), I did the 7 months of Femara but still no pregnancy.
We then talked about more aggressive measures to get me pregnant. We decided on injectable fertility drugs combined with IUI. We were told worst case senario it would cost as much as $2500. We scrimpted and saved until we had $2500. We were excited to do this procedure and to have a real chance at a pregnancy! BUT nothing went according to plan. I religiously injected myself in my belly with the fertility meds and went to my ultrasounds to check on my eggs. I was told I only had 1 egg and it was still small at 14mm. I was instructed to buy more meds (which we didnt budget for) and ended up spending a grand total of $3080. I bought the extra meds and went home and waited to do my next dose at 11:00 that night.
I started showing signs that I was going to ovulate but by that time my clinic was closed, so I called them the next morning (which was a friday). They told me to come back in on Monday for another ultrasound, which i thought was odd and would be too late, but they were the specialist so i did as instructed. I went in on Monday morning where the ultrasound showed no egg, meaning i had already ovulated. I had to go ahead with the iui because we already prepaid and it was non refundable. I was crushed that yet again i would not see 2 pink lines after the dreaded two week wait. Sure enough, 2 weeks later, no pregnancy.
So here we are, 16 years into our trying to conceive journdy and still have empty arms. We are having trouble saving up the money for a second attempt at injectables with IUI so I have decided to create this as a way from my friends and family to hopefully make a donation to my fertilty fund.
We knew very early in our relationship that we wanted kids. We tried and tried for a baby for the first 2 years of our relationship but nothing happened so we were referred to a fertility specialist. She did the routine blood work and other tests and were prescribed 6 months worth of Clomid. I did the 6 months but no pregnancy occured. Our specialist then began talking about IUI and IVF but the costs were far out of our budget (we were very young at the time). So we went on to try on our own.
We tried for another 10 years, so that took us up to 12 years of trying when I noticed I was 5 days late so I took a pregnancy test (3 actually, haha) and they were all positive!!! To say we were thrilled would be an understatement, we were on cloud 9. We told everyone the happy news.
That lasted for about 3 weeks, then I started to bleed. Panic set in. Joe took me to emergancy where the doctor examined me and said he seen a bit of blood but other than that everything looked fine but still wanted to send me for blood work to check my beta levels. The blood work came back good but the bleeding still continued off and on so I had to go for an ultrasound. By the time I got in for the ultrasound I was 7 weeks pregnant. I won't go into details but I had to have 2 ultrasounds a week apart where it was determined that our precious baby did not make it and I had to take some medication to induce the miscarriage since my body didnt want to do it on its own. I miscarried at home in my bathroom.
We were devestated. I spent many months crying, being angry, sad, depressed and lived a shattered life. I was angry at God for making us wait 12 years to FINALLY get pregnant only to take it away.
Joe and I decided to start trying again right away. Still nothing was happening, so after about a year we were referred to another fertility specialist. He repeated the blood work since it was so long since I last had it done and everything came back fine again. He then wanted to do an internal ultrasound on me to check on my ovaries. At that ultrasound he said he could not see my ovaries. He said it was either because my ovaries are too small or because I'm too fat (his exact words) and that I need to lose 40% of my body weight and lost it FAST and he will not help me to get pregnant until I do. I left his office in tears and never went back.
We tired on our own again. Fast forward to 2014. We got a referral to a new fertilty specialist. He orded the same blood work and the exact same internal ultrasound to check on my ovaries. He seen my ovaries with no problems at all (I was the same weight I was when I seen the other fertilty specialist) and my ovaries looked fine. He then prescribed 4 months of double dose Clomid, I did the 4 months but no pregnancy. He then prescribed 7 rounds of Femara (like Clomid but with less nasty side effects!), I did the 7 months of Femara but still no pregnancy.
We then talked about more aggressive measures to get me pregnant. We decided on injectable fertility drugs combined with IUI. We were told worst case senario it would cost as much as $2500. We scrimpted and saved until we had $2500. We were excited to do this procedure and to have a real chance at a pregnancy! BUT nothing went according to plan. I religiously injected myself in my belly with the fertility meds and went to my ultrasounds to check on my eggs. I was told I only had 1 egg and it was still small at 14mm. I was instructed to buy more meds (which we didnt budget for) and ended up spending a grand total of $3080. I bought the extra meds and went home and waited to do my next dose at 11:00 that night.
I started showing signs that I was going to ovulate but by that time my clinic was closed, so I called them the next morning (which was a friday). They told me to come back in on Monday for another ultrasound, which i thought was odd and would be too late, but they were the specialist so i did as instructed. I went in on Monday morning where the ultrasound showed no egg, meaning i had already ovulated. I had to go ahead with the iui because we already prepaid and it was non refundable. I was crushed that yet again i would not see 2 pink lines after the dreaded two week wait. Sure enough, 2 weeks later, no pregnancy.
So here we are, 16 years into our trying to conceive journdy and still have empty arms. We are having trouble saving up the money for a second attempt at injectables with IUI so I have decided to create this as a way from my friends and family to hopefully make a donation to my fertilty fund.
Organizer
Melissa Clarke-Eisnor
Organizer
Red Deer, AB
