Wednesday, July 16, 2008

How it all started!

Well here it is. My doctor let me read her blogg about going through IVF. She said that it helps her and it keeps her friends and family up to date with the good and bad. I haven’t under gone IVF yet but I will soon I hope. IVF is in-vitro fertilization. This is a process that is the last step for people that have infertility problems. So here is my story so far.

My husband and I have been together for over 10 years now and we have never use any type of protection. Know that we figured when it happened it would be fine. But through out all that we never even had a possible pregnancy to report.

About eight years ago when I still lived in Texas I went to a doctor there, a fertility specialist. He looked at me and said I will do a scan but don’t even bother to come back until you have lost 50 pounds. He did the scan and said that my walls where a little thick but that shouldn’t be a problem. I cried for a long time after that. I went into a depression that lasted along time. Instead of losing the 50 pounds that he wanted I gained like 80.

So about a year ago I get the lap band operation. So far I have lost about 60 pounds or more. So with the encouragement of my friends and family I went back to my primary doctor the one I talked about above. She ran a TON of tests on me. She said that larger people have healthy children all the time. Then she told me that she is undergoing the same thing right now.

The tests that she ran said that everything was fine. I have great blood pressure, and all my hormones are at normal levels. She said that I am perfectly healthy as far as the test she could run said. She put me on a medication called clomiphene. It’s an oral pill that is suppose to make your egg production increase so you are more likely to get an egg fertilized. So I tried this for a few months with no success. Dr Carr did warn me that if this didn’t work she would have to refer me to a specialist. I told her about my past experience and she assured me that this would not happen. She said that she was sending me where she goes.

I made an appointment that day for Dr Bankowski. He saw me and said that he was very hopeful for me. He said that depending on the treatment that I have to go through would depend on my success rates. He said there are 3 stages that they can do. After hearing my past he said that I was having about a 1% success rate. Step one would give me about a 12% success rate and cost about 500.00 a pop. Step 2 is called IUI and that is about 3000.00 a pop with a success rate of about 25%. Step 3 is called IVF that is 12000.00 with a 75% success rate.

So he said that he wanted to run yet more tests. He did an ultrasound to see how big my eggs where. He said that for step one he can do it when my eggs are 18-20cm. he did the ultrasound and we found out I had a couple with in that range, he said ok we are going to try step one right away. I cant tell you how excited I was because he told me that from what he see in my past test I should have to go further then step one. But that there are more tests that he wanted to run but could not due to my cycle dates.

He gave me a shot to take home and said to give it to myself at 10pm that night and make an appoint to come back in 2 days with my husband and he would inseminate me. I did the shot. Any one that knows me knows that I hate needles with a passion. But I did the shot and it didn’t even hurt so I felt that was a good sign. Bill and I went in and we gave them his sample.

Poor Bill I could tell he was nervous. We ha never had his tested and so far all my tests said I was fine, he was worried that it was him. They tested his sperm and they said to his joy he was fine, really good in fact. They said that his sperm couldn’t have tested better.

So he took the concentrated sperm and put it directly into my uterus. Had me wait on the table for a few mins and said to make an appoint to come back in two weeks and see if I was pregnant. I was so excited. I knew that this was a last minute thing and may not have worked the first time.

But I was progressing into my dream to become a mother. The next day was my day off and my sister and mother took me to babies’ r us. My mother didn’t want me to go she was concerned that I would be very disappointed if I wasn’t pregnant. But I told her that I know that if this time doesn’t work that next time would since next time I would be able to have the rest of the test done and have a better idea of my problem.

My sister was almost more excited then me to pick out baby things, we found the stroller and the pack n play that I wanted. One that I loved, and would work for a boy or a girl. I took pictures with my cell phone to remind me what I found. Oh yea and to show Bill what I liked.

So finally it was time to go and see if I was pregnant by this time I knew I was not. They said it didn’t work and to call them the first day I got my period to make an appointment. So I did. They had me go in there on day 3. They did an ultrasound and found everything growing great, they told me to go ahead and start taking the clomidphane that night. They also had me make an appoint to get the rest of the test done.

One of those tests was a test they shoot dye up my uterus to make sure my tubes are not clogged. I went in for this test on day 6 of my period. It was painful but necessary. They put the dye in and I watched the dye inter the tubes. One went in really fast. The other seemed blocked. She said that it’s not uncommon and for me to move to my side, that didn’t work so she had me move to my lay on my tummy. This got the dye moving and it went in. she said that was a good sign that the dye moved and that she would forward the results to my doctor.

I left feeling positive. I made an appoint to see Dr Bankowski. I saw him by day 9 of my cycle. He said that he had some bad news for me. He said that the test results for the dye test showed that my tubes have grown to twice the size they should be. This causes the fluid in the tubes to be too much for the eggs to live through. He said that they have to be removed and that the only way I will ever be able to have a baby is by IVF treatment.

Now remember that this was the 12000.00 one. My first thought was Billy will never let me do that. I will never have a baby. I freaked out. I mean I went crazy for a little while. I called Bill at work and told him what the doctor said. He said that I needed these tubes removed right away. I told him that I would not be able to give him a child with out IVF and all this crying so hard he had trouble understanding me.

He asked me if I needed him and I told him I did. He said that he would tell him boss and I was to come and get him. I was only about 5 mins away at the office anyway. I called my job and told them I wouldn’t be in after all and that I wanted able to handle things right now. My boss told me if I didn’t come in I would be written up. I told her I didn’t care; I couldn’t take it right now.

After talking to Billy for some time he told me that we could try IVF since it’s the only way. He said that we had to save up half the cost and we could finance the rest. He said that we would try in a year no matter how much we where able to save up. That made me feel a little better.

So the next step was to get those damn tubes take care of. I went back to my Doctor. Dr Carr said she understood my problem as she has a tube problem too. She was actually going into egg collection that week. I wished her luck and she gave me a number for a doctor to do the extraction. I called them and they said that they do not do that any more.

Despair hit me. I called my sister and told her what happened. She told me to use her doctor. Most of my family has used this guy now that my sister has insisted and he is very good. So doctor sargent said that he could do the operation. But after he talked to Dr. Bankowski he said that a clamp would do instead and that would mean less recovery time.

So I went in and got that done. So now all I have to do is get my IVF done. We are working on saving the money for this and it will probably take a few months. The good this for me is that Bill my husband makes enough money to pay all the bills so all my money I make will go to my baby fund. Oh yeah I did lose my job in the end and am currently not working. I have to pay about 3000 to the doctors and place I had my operation for getting my tubes done. After that all my money will go for IVF. I will keep you all in the loop as things happen.

Once I start my treatment I will also blogg that so you know what it was like for me. Please know every one is different and my experience may not match yours.

If you have read all this, thank you and please feel free to comment or ask questions. I am not in anyway in bad spirits or feel like I don’t want to talk about it, matter a fact sometimes I think people wished I would stop talking about it J

Love always

Amy and Bill.