Thursday, August 28, 2008

a happy ending

I was going to add this as an update in the other post, but I decided it deserved its own.

I went and held a beautiful baby boy yesterday - and he brought tears to my eyes.

My friend M. We met on an IVF discussion board. She was embarking on IVF after having first an eptopic that ended in a ruptured tube and her nearly bleeding to death. And then an early miscarriage. And then several months on clomid but couldn't seem to get pg again. So she started IVF. Cycle #1 she ovulated the night before retrieval (they tell you this never happens - but it does). Cycle #2 was cancelled because she wouldn't supress. #3 Cancelled due to a cyst. #4 finally made it to transfer and BFN. #5 also made it to transfer, then hospitalized due to internal bleeding - the doc botched something. BFN. She was diagnosed with Ashermans syndrome (scar tissue in the uterus). They had some embryos in the freezer. They moved on to surrogacy. Two failed FETs to the surrogate - call those cycles #6 and #7. The she had surgery to try to fix her uterus.

And finally - an FET (into her) with her last frozen embryo - ART cycle #8. Really her intent here was just to 'use up' the embryo. They were moving on to adoption - they had their paperwork done, their 'dear birth mother' letter written. But she couldn't bear to leave an embryo sitting in a freezer.

and...

Baby G was born on August 10th. He is beautiful in every possible way. He is a miracle -given to people who went through hell and back to find him. He brought tears to my eyes - to hold such a precious gift and know in such painful detail everything his mother went through to have him - so many years, so much failure and so much pain. Even after everything she went through - she told me that she would willingly go through every bit of it again, knowing that he would be the end result.

I know exactly how she feels.

The prize is so worth it.

6 comments:

Bea said...

Congrats to M. A lovely ending.

Bea

Jaimie said...

I'm bawling like a baby! God bless them!!

Rachel Inbar said...

Wow! Brought tears to my eyes. It just shows how far modern medicine still has to go...

Sarah said...

i've got tears too, and i thought i was told dried up and crusty for that anymore! congratulations to them!!

JV said...

What a story, I'm speechless... My most heartfelt congratulations to them.

Anonymous said...

My name is Holly Lem and i would like to show you my personal experience with Clomid.

I am 28 years old. I got preg first time on my own & miscarried. after a while of trying, my dr put me on clomid. after the first round i got pregnant & miscarried. i decided not to try or think about it at all probably for a 9 months... right around the time baby would be due & then started trying again. after a few months got back on clomid. after 5 months and no pregnancy i'm giving it a rest again. it's to much disappointment. i'm going to give it a try again soon, in the mean time we're keeping our fingers crossed for the old fashioned way to work.

I have experienced some of these side effects-
HOT FLASHES, moody, cry easily, weight gain, headaches etc!!

I hope this information will be useful to others,
Holly Lem