IVF.ca Forums: IVF gave us our dream the first time and now we are looking to add to our family again. - IVF.ca Forums

Hello,

My husband and I had been ttc since 2003 before we were even married. We married in Sept 2004. I never had regular cycles unless I was on the pill. I only had a period 4 times per year. In December 2004 I had what they think may have been a miscarriage (not sure why they could not tell us for sure but who knows). I had a major bleed and bled heavily for about 3 months. Finally the bleeding stopped. In May 2005 I had a laproscopy by Dr. Leung and he told me that everything looked good and that we should just start trying again. So we started to try again with no success month after month, year after year. By Jan 2007, I had had enough and asked my GP to send me to Dr. Brkovich (on suggestion). In May 2007 we started to see her. She was VERY annoyed with Dr. Leung that he did not do an HSG 2 years earlier while he was already looking inside me with the laproscopy. She did some intial blood work and then put me on Clomid. I was ovulating with the Clomid but since there was no success after a few months she wanted to do a HSG. In July 2007 she preformed the HSG test (which only took 5 minutes but hurt like HELL). Unfortunately both my tubes were blocked. She even tried a second time just to make sure. JP and I were devasted!! I cried for two days!!!! She told me that our only option was IVF. I felt like a failure as a women that I could not concieve on my own.

Dr. Brkovich referred us to Dr. Martin at the SOFT clinic in London. We were scheduled to meet with him in August 2007. The first appt was to review our records and then he ran his own blood work and semen analysis on JP. Everything was perfect with JP. Dr. Martin was also very annoyed that Dr. Leung had not done the HSG with the Lapro as Dr. Martin actually trained him in London and feels that should be common pratice. Anyways, Dr. martin wanted to redo the HSG test himself to ensure the results. He set it up for Sept 2007. JP and I were getting so frustrated with all the waiting we were doing for this test and that test. I was started to get depressed. Ofcourse when he redid the test it was still the same results!! 100% Blocked!! We went back to his office right after and decided to go ahead with IVF. I just happend to be at the perfect part of my cycle to start right away.

To start my journey I stopped smoking and drinking coffee as of Oct 2007!!!
I start the nasal spray Synarel to supress my hormones. Then I did daily injections of Bravelle and Repronex for 10 days. I went for ultrasounds every other day in London. I also had to start taking Metformin as I am insulin resistant.
Our first cycle ended up being cancelled as of Oct 29th 2007!! We were devasted. We had spent ALOT of money at that point and it was just GONE!! We had to start all over again.
We were told at first that we would not be able to start a second cycle until Jan 2008, but then found out we could start again in November.

We did another entire cycle and things were going well. Money was getting tight but we didnt care.... all we could think about was having a baby. We had to up the amount of meds that I was taking which meant that we had to spend almost double the amount from the last cycle.

UNFORTUNATELY.... then I got laid off from my office job (even though I had been promised in writing that I had a job there). I am fighting this with my lawyer still to this day as I was wrongfully dismissed. I could not believe that people could be so heartless and cold to me!! They knew exactly what I was going through and did what they did as it was easier to get rid of me then accomadate my medical treatment.
Well with all the stress of losing my job and money I was sure that our second cycle would be cancelled as well. Thankfully, things progressed and we followed through to the retreival and a few days later transferred two embryos back in me. ( we did not have any to freeze so if we did not concieve then we would have to start all over again)
On Dec 21, 2007 we got the news that I was pregnant. I was happy but OVERLY careful not to get ahead of myself as I was BARELY pregnant.

Things were going well and then at 8 weeks I started to bleed. I bled up until 13 weeks off and on. I was so scared that I would lose our baby. On top of that my ovaries were both the size of grapefruits as well as my growing uterus. I was VERY uncomfortable. I was told that the bleed was from the placenta attaching to the wall of my uterus and it his a blood vessel. At about 18 weeks my ovaries FINALLY went back to "normal" and my pregnancy started to be moving along.

My husband and I spent $12000 in total on the 2 attempts. That is everything (meds, doctor fees, transportation back and forth to London, hotel stay). Our meds alone for our second cycle cost us around $3000. OHIP does pay "some" of your lab fees because of I have 100% blockage. It also depends on who and where you recieve treatment.

We were able to claim it on our income tax but only got back just over $2000.... which is not really anything but better than nothing I guess.

So here we are again in 2010 starting our journey to add to our family. We went to a different Doctor here in Windsor because the clinic we were at last time was 2 hours away and I do not want to deal with losing my job again. The Doctor is really nice and he and his wife had infertility issues as well so they are extra sensitive to the issue. We have a potential start date of June 2010. Here we go.....