> Hello all! It has taken me a long time, but I knew that one day I would be able to post my story here. So, here it goes. Our journey started out by finding out one of my tubes was blocked and that I have PCOS. We began with the Pacific Fertility Center in San Francisco where after a few consultations, one of the IVF Dr.'s said to us "once you get over the financial part of this process, the IVF is no big deal" With that one comment, my husband and I took our business elsewhere. Why would I want to spend around $50,000 with a facility that has lost sight of what they are doing? For us, it was(and still is) the biggest deal of our lives. We then moved onto Dr. Zouves and he began all testing including immonology. He found out that I had high NK's, high TH1/TH2, and blood clotting disease. He put me on his usual protocol- Humira, Heparin, etc. We did our first IVF cycle in Nov. of 2009. We trasferred 2 embryos. We got a chemical pregnancy. We decided to do another fresh round of IVF. In the mean time, more Humira, Heparin, etc. We did our 2nd IVF cycle in Feb. 2010 and we transferred 3 embryos. At our ultrasound, we were stunned to find out that all 3 of them took! Dr. Zouves then suggested to us that reduce one due to the risks involved. We did so much research and received a lot of medical advice on this and we decided to move forward with the reduction. We did this at 12 weeks. Then at one of my check ups at 16 weeks, the Dr. could not hear one of the heartbeats and we found out we lost the 2nd baby. Then at 22 weeks, I went into labor and lost the last baby of the 3. It was the most heartwrenching, emotionally traumatizing thing I have ever went through. We were devastated. Not only emotionally, but financially as well. Thank goodness I have a strong and supportive husband and we worked through that time. After some time, we contacted Dr. Zouves again to once again, start all over. We started with the Humira and Heparin all over again. However, this time, the Humira would not bring down my TH1/TH2 levels. At this point, Dr. Zouves suggested we move onto surrogacy. I was in shock and was not willing to take this for an answer. I had just been pregnant and he wanted me to turn to surrogacy! Instead, we moved onto the AEB center where we spent the next 6 months with trips to Mexico doing LIT, IVIG, etc. Interestingly enough, without trying, I got pregnant naturally, but miscarried at 6 weeks. This was crazy to find out that my body could do it on it's own. After trying some more naturally, in January of 2012, we decided to move onto Dr. Braverman as this was our last effort before moving onto surrogacy. He went over our records and had some interesting insights on my case and history. He had us do the HLA matching tests (which is not covered by my insurance and will end up costing us almost $3000). But we had spent almost $100,000 so far, what is a little more money towards the effort. He put me on Neupogen and Lovenox and some supplements and that was it. We also researched for a new IVF Dr. and chose Dr. Schmidt from NOVA IVF in Mountain View Ca. We did another fresh cycle in June of 2012, transferred 2, and one of them took! I stopped the Neupogen at 11 weeks and stopped the Lovenox at 16 weeks. I am being watched by 2 high risk Dr.'s and my OB. I am now 32 weeks pregnant and am due March 19th, 2013!
<br/>> There is much much more to this story, but I just wanted to give everyone the high lights of the kind of journey that my husband and I have been on for the last 3 1/2 years. I am so grateful that I did not listen to not only Dr. Zouves, but to so many other Dr.'s along the way. I chose to listen to my gut instinct and not to give up. Believe me when I say, I know how hard this road is, and it is not for everyone. There are many issues with Dr.'s, their egos, their office staff, their bedside manner, and their pricing. But for us, at the end of the day, we had to be comfortable with each and every decision that we made together. If you don't feel comfortable with a one Dr., or had a bad experience with one, then move on. This is one great thing about not having socialized medicine in this country- you have choices.
<br/>> I do have to say thank you to everyone on this board for all of the support and knowledge. It certainly supports the fact that we are not alone, we are not the only ones, and there are options.
<br/>> If anyone has any questions at all, feel free to contact me on the board or privately.
<br/>> Hopefully all will go smoothly and I will post again after I deliver!
<br/>> Keep strong!
<br/>> Hillarie
<br/>>
<br/>
<br/>太感人了。她试过humira, lit, ivig都失败，最后成功了，但愿我也和她一样。。呵
|
