Freq 90.5 congratulates our winner of Win A Baby Melissa Saunders
Melissa has won $10,000 infertility treatment from the
NewLife Fertility Centre and supported by RK Electric…The Power To You!
My husband and I have been struggling for 4 years to have a baby, and winning this contest could help us finally achieve that goal.
Our journey towards having a baby has not been easy, and there have been many bumps in the road along the way – including miscarriages, a stage 4 endometriosis diagnosis, multiple fertility surgeries, and multiple rounds of IUI and IVF.
A month before our wedding date, in 2017, we found out we were pregnant. We were so excited. We decided to not tell anyone our news, and had an amazing wedding day followed by an even better honeymoon in Grenada.
It wasn’t until we got home from the honeymoon that things started to go wrong. After a few days of bleeding, I ended up in the ER and was told I was having a miscarriage. I ultimately had to have a D&C surgery, as my pregnancy was no longer viable. This was crushing for us.
After the miscarriage and surgery, we were told that we could try again. They also told us that they saw a suspicious looking cyst on my ovary during one of the ultrasounds, and that they would like to follow up on it in a few months. This cyst turned out to be an endometrioma, which is a form of endometriosis. The cyst grew to 10cm and caused me excruciating pain. I had to have a surgery to get the cyst removed the day after my 27th birthday. I was told my ovary may have to be removed during the surgery as well, but luckily I did not loose my ovary in that surgery. However, we later learned that the surgery impacted my egg quantity and quality. After a year of no pregnancy success post surgery, we were referred to a fertility specialist in Oshawa and started IUI. We did 3 rounds of IUI, all which failed.
After that, we moved to another specialist in Toronto, and were put on a list for IVF. We were actually told by that doctor that IUI would have never worked, because I now had bilateral endometriomas which were blocking my eggs from being able to get down the fallopian tube. We decided to do a self funded round in Januaray 2020 while we waited for our OHIP funded round (we were told it would be about a year wait). That first round of IVF was unsuccessful, as we had 2 embryos not survive thaw, and although the third embryo survived the thawing process, it did not implant. That first round of IVF was extremely difficult, and even more so as it was interrupted by COVID-19, and my cycle was cancelled mid cycle, as all fertility clinics along with everything else closed in March 2020.
After that round we were left yet again, empty handed. Our OHIP funded round finally came up and we did another egg retrieval which yielded a better result. We did a fresh transfer of our best embryo, and it worked! We were pregnant. I remember feeling SO happy. All my worries were gone, and I was just truly happy. However, at our 7 week ultrasound, there was no heartbeat detected, and we were having another miscarriage. This time I felt angry. It was very hard. My doctor did not want me to have a D&C surgery, so we had the miscarriage at home, after taking a medication to start cramping and cause my body to expel the pregnancy. This was extremely painful physically.
We took a few months off after this miscarriage, and then in February 2021, we decided to try again with our next embryo. This time, it did not implant and we did not get pregnant from it. We tried again in June 2021, and we were cancelled because they saw fluid in my fallopian tube during one of my ultrasounds. I had to have another test to confirm that it was indeed fluid in my tube. Once this was confirmed, I was told I would need surgery to have the fallopian tube removed. I had the surgery in August 2021, and my surgeon confirmed that I have stage 4 endo, and will likely need another surgery after kids to remove scar adhesions caused from the disease. My surgeon was only able to remove about 85% of the tube, due to the endometriosis.
We started another cycle after the surgery, and were cancelled again because things did not look how they should to transfer an embryo.
This journey feels never ending, and as a front line health care worker, working at the hospital during a pandemic and going through IVF treatments, this has been an even more difficult time than ever. The journey through infertility requires resilience and patience. You need to advocate for yourself at every turn. Nothing is guaranteed and truthfully IVF does not guarantee a baby at the end, as we well know now. All we can do is continue on in hopes of one day reaching our goal. We both feel that we will get there one day, but it has definitely not been easy.
Thank you,
Melissa