My husband and I started struggling with infertility issues in 2004. I had been diagnosed with PCOS. I had many issues with ovulating and having periods with this condition so conceiving on our own wasnot working. We decided to try an IUI cycle with Bravelle in 2007. First round we were very lucky and got pregnant. That was in October of 2007.
The pregnancy had its complications but at 19 weeks I became very high risk and was put on complete bed rest due to my cervix shortening. At 23 weeks + 5 days I went into premature labour. At 24 weeks + 1 day I gave birth to our son. He was immediately in the NICU but sadly, our son passed away 25 days after birth due to a lung infection in his tiny little lungs. I can't describe the pain. The heart break. Devastated. We had tried for so long and our son was gone.
After our little boy passed away we were very determined to have another child. A living child. We knew it was going to be a really hard journey but we had to keep trying. We were at another fertility clinic at the time. We tried many more IUI cycles and were getting increasingly frustrated. We had a discussion with my family doctor and she then referred us to Dr. Yuzpe.
We saw Dr. Yuzpe in 2010 and did a few more IUI cycles. Nothing was happening. It was decided we would start trying IVF. I did 4 cycles in total. 2 were cancelled before we made it to egg retrieval due to not responding well enough to the medications. 1 went the whole way but didn't end up in a pregnancy and we ended up with zero embryos. Finally, in 2013 we made it all the way to egg retrieval. 5 eggs retrieved. 4 embryos from the 5 eggs. Embryo transfer on day 2. Pregnant. I was fortunate enough to see Dr. Yuzpe for my first ultrasound at Olive Fertility Centre. Everything was good with the ultrasound.
I had a high risk pregnancy, I got a cerclage at 11 weeks, scheduled C-section at 37 weeks. Today our daughter is 3 years old.
It took 3 years to conceive our son. It took almost 5 years (minus 2 months) to conceive another baby after losing our son. 5 years + 6 months to hold another one of my children in my arms.
I want to say how much support we received from the doctors and nurses. (all staff that we encountered were truly amazing) You know, you'd sit in the waiting room in the morning, anxiety building, anticipation for the ultrasound and blood test. Praying you would respond to the medications. Praying you had good numbers. I swear, every time one of the doctors or nurses or a staff member walked by there'd always be a smile. Always a "good morning". I'm talking about the doctors or nurses that might not have even have been on ultrasound duty that morning. It was always a warm place. Reception as soon as you walked in, always a warm smile. Even if you walked out hanging your head, tears down your face, the smile or the nod or the "good bye" was genuine. Genuine caring.
I really want to leave this story with saying we had the attitude that we were never giving up. We had the cards stacked against us for so many reasons. It was so hard to start trying to conceive again (via fertility treatments) after losing our son but this was our dream and we were going to achieve it. We looked at it like a job. We never took no for an answer if I thought it might coming and was never asked to. (I say this because one time we got into our appointment with Dr. Yuzpe and I sat down and I said very much in a protesting way "I AM NOT TAKING NO FOR AN ANSWER!" his reply was simple "I'm not asking you to") We did our own research and homework. We made ourselves part of our own team and that is really important in this journey.
We miss our little boy terribly and we are so eternally grateful for Dr. Yuzpe getting us our little miracle girl.
What an incredible journey.
