Miracles do Happen! - Jen's Personal Story

I'm not even sure where to begin, I guess from the start. Our journey started way back in the fall of 2001, yes almost 14 years ago now. We got married in September and decided we wanted to have a family, so our journey began. At first I didn't worry too much about not getting pregnant because it had taken my sister a long time (about 6 years), although I did cry a lot when it didn't happen.

After 7 years of nothing working and getting extremely frustrated we finally got in to see a local ob-gyn. The first thing he did was prescribe a fertility drug and lo and behold we got pregnant the first month. Sad news the pregnancy lasted less than 3 months. That was heartbreaking, but we continued on and kept trying. We went back to the ob-gyn and he referred us to a fertility specialist.

So now we are in the fall of 2009 (I'm back in college too) and we go for all the tests to make sure that we can do IVF and everything comes back normal including the fact that my tubes were open. That was wonderful news and so we were prepared to start IVF and, gulp, the cost as well. Once again we got surprised; because I somehow got pregnant right after all the tests. Well this is great news we can hopefully avoid the costs of IVF. Well come February I started having some pain in my abdomen and I was told I should go to the hospital to make sure everything was ok. Turns out it was not all ok. The embryo got implanted in my tube, so they admitted me right away and I was being sent for tests the next morning to confirm. Well it was, so they scheduled surgery for that afternoon, unfortunately it was too late, my tube ruptured before they could go in. Talk about excruciating pain. I was told I was lucky that I was in the hospital when it happened. I more than likely would have lost my life had I been at home. I ended up being there for 6 days and had to have a blood transfusion.

So now what do we do? Do we keep going? Or give up? Well I'm not one to give up on this dream, it is way too important to me. So we waited a bit before going back to the fertility clinic.

We went back to the clinic later in 2010 to continue our journey. I had to go through all the tests again and then we begin our actual first round of IVF, from retrieval to transfer. First round did not work, second round worked, but once again the embryo did not survive. The heartbeat stopped somewhere between week 7-13. Third round did not work.

So what do we do now? Well we find out that DEB USA has an agreement with our fertility clinic in Canada and that we can try this donor egg procedure. Well ok I'm willing to try anything to go through the miracle of child bearing. So we get all our ducks in a row and decide to get 1 batch of eggs. And then the waiting game begins because we have to wait for all the paperwork to be finalized. So finally in July of 2014 we are ready to start. Round 1 of donor egg procedure fails and now I'm really worried. There is 1 donor egg left, this thing is precious, more than words can say. Round 2 transfer happens in January of 2015 and the waiting begins for the test results. As most of the women who have been through this when the call comes saying it is good news, you're like "are you sure you have the right results?"

I am happy to report that we are just past the halfway point of this pregnancy and this is a testament to women out there to not give up on your dreams. We have been trying for almost 14 years and went through 5 rounds of IVF and 3 miscarriages and I almost lost my life. If not for my persistence and being stubborn and wanting this more than my own life, we would not be here at this stage. Good luck to you all!!