My name is Emily. My husband (Jordan) and I began the IVF process a couple years ago to start our family. We now have a happy, healthy, 14 month old son named Noah.
My story begins pretty much from birth–I have a chromosomal translocation. In layman’s terms, my genetic code is all there, just not in the right place. In my case, a branch from both the third and sixth chromosomes are switched. Weird, right? I have two now deceased siblings who were born affected by the chromosomal abnormality. At 15 I learned that there was a good chance I would have children like my younger brother (Mark) and older sister (Kiersti).
A few years later, I was in college and just starting to talk about marriage with Jordan. I knew the translocation was some serious baggage and was scared to tell him. One day, my mom showed up at my apartment because she heard that preimplantation genetic testing was being performed again! She was so happy and couldn’t wait to share the great news! My mom originally heard about preimplantation testing twenty years ago but the experiments were discontinued because around 30% of the embryos were born with some other complication. I was not excited. IVF is incredibly expensive and I was a very poor college student with little to my name. IVF seemed unattainable in the near future. Fortunately, Jordan took the translocation and IVF news really well. We were able to start IVF about a year after we got married.
I began calling fertility clinics and following people who “checked in” at clinics on Facebook and Instagram. I reached out to a few to ask questions about the process while we waited for our first appointment. We definitely had some unrealistic expectations about how long and invasive IVF would be. It was all very overwhelming. The only reason our specialist didn’t require us to see a genetic counselor was because my brother was still alive.
A couple months later, in February 2018, we got the retrieval drugs in the mail, started injections, and went in for blood draws and ultrasounds. I requested the blood work and ultrasound orders because I live a couple hours away from the clinic. It made the most sense to do what we could at the local hospital. After a week of shots, my follicles were growing quite large. I had been going in for blood draws and ultrasounds every few days before work. I remember it was a Friday when my coordinator called and told me to go home immediately and do the ganrilex shot. She had only seen my ultrasound results and was still waiting for the blood. I left work, picked up my husband, and drove home to do the injection. The follicles between 17-22mm. Practically prime size for retrieval. The hospital never sent the blood work results in time. My nurse coordinator called again and told us we need to drive down to Pleasant Grove the next morning so they could get results back. We immediately packed overnight bags and took off. At the appointment we discovered my body was ready. We were given trigger shot instructions and a home collection kit for sperm. My body had taken the drugs so well that the egg retrieval got moved up by 3 days! The weather had been beautiful, sunny, and warm all weekend. We woke up to over a foot of snow on retrieval day. There were countless accidents and run offs along the way. I, being extremely hormonal, cried all the way to the clinic. We were delayed by about 30-45 minutes. I was scared I would ovulate and the sperm inside the collection kit in the backseat wouldn’t make it.
Luckily for us, 10 eggs were harvested; 8 fertilized, grown, successfully biopsied, and tested. The embryologist called every few days with updates on our little babyros. I remember him telling me he was disappointed when the genetic results came back. 4/8 embryos were trisomy. HALF. All four girls. We were shocked. The embryologist asked if we wanted to thaw and discard them. I asked to wait and think and about it. To this day, I still don’t know what to do with them. Embryos numbers 1, 5, 6, and 8 are genetically balanced. We decided on #6, a boy, for our first FET. The embryologist called before our transfer to verify which number we wanted. We happened to be at drive thru when he called. It was funny to “order” a baby number and some Chick-Fil-A at the same time. On transfer day, our car randomly battery died in the parking lot and the transfer itself was delayed by about an hour. We couldn’t call family close by because we weren’t ready to share about the process. Thankfully, the FET was successful and our son was delivered 9 months later.
I’m so grateful that science as advanced far enough for us to give our children the best quality of life. My older sister died as a toddler shortly before I was born. Mark died almost a year ago at 17. My brother and I shared a special bond because of our DNA. I was lucky to be at his side when he passed. Watching his health decline over 18 months reaffirmed to us that we made the right choice by doing IVF.
I have my last ultrasound and bloodwork in a couple days before our second FET next week. I am so nervous and excited! I’m not looking forward to weeks of progesterone injections but baby girl will be worth it. Part of me wants to be public about this process and what I’m currently going through, the other part wants to be silent and announce the pregnancy later on. We’ll see what happens.
All my best,
Emily Cline
Facebook: Emily Cline
Leave a Reply