http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RSJdn0_2uGY

We also have a video to share with you above! :) 

Our Story

Hello, we're Trent & Rachel! If you're finding yourself here, reading our journey of the last 8 years in a nutshell, thanks for taking the time to do so! We started dating in May of 2004, got engaged in June 2005, and had a beautiful fall wedding on the lake in October 2006. Trent and I knew we wanted to start a family right away. But, what we didn't know, was how difficult it was going to be. It all seemed pretty simple to us....having sex = having a baby. We tried for about a year before we started wondering why we hadn't gotten that positive test we had wanted so badly. I swear I was on the computer searching early pregnancy symptoms every month. Oddly enough, the early signs of pregnancy can also be the same as those of your menstrual cycle. So, after quite some time had passed by, we called the clinic to make an appointment and was told that we would have to meet with a doctor that specializes in infertility. Infertility? Back to searching the internet once again.....

Infertility: Diminished or absent ability to conceive and bear offspring. A couple is considered to be experiencing infertility if conception has not occurred after 12 months of sexual activity without the use of contraception. Infertility can have many causes and may be related to factors in the male, female, both, or unknown. Treatments can include medications and assisted reproductive technologies.

The doctor we met with was very kind and helpful. She explained what our first steps would be and reassured us that we should have no problem conceiving! On to the infertility workup together we went. Looking at our areas of our health background, multiple blood tests for me, semen analysis for Trent, physicals for both of us, and a hysterosalpingogram for me.  

Everything looked great, with all tests & blood work normal, and Trents "little swimmers" were 98% mobile, which is almost perfect! Well what's the problem then, we asked, why are we still childless? The answer was not the answer we we're looking for and really gave no reassurance as to why...diagnosis of "unexplained infertility." Off we went to the steps that other couples, in our situation have done, with some ending in success......

First step was to try this regimen for three months; have timed intercourse (using ovulation kits), while having multiple follicle ultrasounds when kits were positive, and using the HCG shot (triggers ovulation w/appropriate follicle size), and then IUI if everything is looking perfect. The follicle ultrasounds check to see if your follicles are growing like they should, at the right time for ovulation, and that the size is measuring appropriately.  IUI is a fertility treatment that uses a catheter to place a number of washed sperm directly into the uterus with a cathetar. The goal of IUI is to increase the number of sperm that reach the fallopian tubes and subsequently increase the chance of fertilization. I was instructed to call the doctors office as soon as my period started or if it hadn't come when it was expected to. My cycles have always been on time each month. When my cycle hadn't started, I called the clinic and went in to get a blood test done to see if I was pregnant. That was the longest 3 hours of my life, waiting for the nurse to call me with the results! As she spoke those words we had been waiting to hear so badly, as I held my breath the whole phone call, she said "Congratulations, you're pregnant!" I just couldn't believe it, I had never felt so much emotion all at once! Finally!

I decided to wait until after I was done with work to call Trent and surprise him with the good news. I went and bought two pairs of baby shoes, one pink and one blue, for Trent to open when he got home. When he finally got home from work, I handed him the shopping bag. He opened it, looked at the boxes, took out the tiny sneakers, and instantly had a huge smile on his face. He just kept asking if I was serious and said "we're finally going to be parents, this is so awesome, I love you." After we composed ourselves and wiped all the tears of complete happiness and joy from our faces, we instantly decided to call Trents parents (we find it hard not to share any news with them) and let them know the great news! They were so excited for us and to become grandparents! Everything was finally perfect and we couldn't have been more happy and blessed. We decided not to tell anyone else for awhile until we waited for the rest of our bloodwork to come back. When you're going through infertility, they have you take blood tests galore to see what you progesterone levels and hcg levels are at. When the nurse called the following day, she let me know that my progesterone levels were a little low but it was common to happen when you're so early in a pregnancy. We were worried about the numbers but remained positive about the future. I continued to go in for blood work over the next couple weeks, with everything still  looking great, with less testing needed as we went on. I was 6 weeks along when I noticed that I had very light spotting. I immediately called the clinic and was told to go in for blood work to get my levels checked out once again. Another agonizing three hour wait for bloodwork. The nurse called back and said that Trent and I should come in so they could do an ultrasound to see if they could see how everything was looking. The ultrasound tech didn't really say anything about what she was seeing but told us that the doctor would be with us soon to talk with us. Trent and I were moved to another room to see our doctor, the same room I had had my IUI in. She told us that she was sorry to tell us that my levels were not looking good at all and that we were more than likeley going to have a miscarriage. She said that there was a gestational sac & a yolk sac but no fetal pole. Which explains why we weren't hearing or seeing anything on the monitor during the ultrasound. I don't think I have ever cried as hard as I did in that office in my entire life. Trent & I were going out of town that day to celebrate our 2 year anniversary. As I type this, all the emotions I remember feeling that day fill me with tears and sadness. Despite the news we got, we decided to go on our trip, and as the doctor told us, wait for our miscarriage to happen naturally. It's so crazy how you can go from an extremely great feeling to a feeling of emptiness and helplessness. We tried to make the best of our trip and just try to take our minds off of the inevitable. The day before our anniversary, we had the miscarriage. As time heals all wounds, we waited a couple months and decided to continue on with treatment.

This time, she had us try clomid with timed intercourse (while using ovulation kits) for three months while having multiple follicle ultrasounds, and using the HCG shot with IUI if everything is looking perfect. Month after month, cycle after cycle, shot after shot, pill after pill...... all pregnancy tests ending in negative results. We were just getting even more medical bills, as the insurance companies do not see infertility as a medical necessity, it's hard to just give up and decide that the cost of having a child was just getting to be too much. We decided to take a break for a few months.

Fast forward to June of 2010, I had always told Trent that we would absolutely look into IVF and pursue that as our next step if I wasn't pregnant by the time I was 26. Much to our surprise...I was expected to start my cycle a few days before my birthday, so when I hadn't, I decided to take a pregnancy test and it was positive! Happy Birthday to me! I called the clinic to get a blood pregnancy test done and as we expected, it was positive. Still had to wait for the bloodwork to see what my levels were at. Once again, was told to come in and speak with our doctor to go over the results. She told us that our levels were too low and it would result in another miscarriage. She said that our best chance for us to get pregnant was to do IVF. She recommended us to a clinic in the cities. We went to the IVF orientation and loved everything about the clinic and all that it offered. Even met a really nice couple from our area!  We were absolutely ready to begin with the process, but there was one thing holding us back.....the cost. With the cost of all of the previous treatments we had done added up, it made the process of saving for IVF pretty much impossible. We decided to take yet another "break" from it all and figure out what to do next.

So, here we are September 2012, after countless failed cycles, stress, sadness, and no little one of own....we are sharing our story with you.

The Impact

Trent and I have discussed if it was a "good idea" to post this information on the internet and let our friends, family and the world into this personal and difficult journey we've been on. With everything in life, there are positives and negatives, but we wholeheartedly believe that the pros absolutely outweigh the cons. To begin, there is not a guarantee, IVF may not work. But if we never try, we'll never know. We know that alot of people in our lives do not know what we have been going through and may be surprised that we have been going through it for this long. It's not that we didn't want anyone to know, we just didn't know how to say it. We hope this will not change the way they interact with us and that they will feel comfortable talking about this with us. We have prepared ourselves for the questions and comments that will come and will never be offended by them.  All that to say, we can NOT do this without you. We are humbly asking for your help. The more we get into this, the harder it is to pretend like life is great and we can do it on our own. With looking into the cost of IVF, we realize we can't afford it alone and our medical insurance does not cover infertility treatments. It's so frustrating to know that there are so many people out there in the same situation as us. They say you can't put a price on life, yet it's the only thing holding us back. Sharing our story with you has two pros worth it all..... With your help, we could become pregnant and start our family! The other is if there are any couples reading this that are dealing with the challenges of infertility, we hope this gives you courage to share your story too and stay strong throughout your journey! Overall, this is a huge and personal thing for us to speak of and if there are others dealing with this too, we'd love to hear from you!

What We Need: $26,000

We have set our fundraising goal to $8,000 although our need is much greater. We would love to be over our fundraising goal and closer to what we need! The clinic that we will be going to has a HOPE program that allows you to pay $26,000 for up to three cycles in the event it takes more than one try. One cycle alone of IVF with all medications costs approximately up to $12,000-$16,000. The HOPE program does refund all costs if the three cycles do not result in a viable pregnancy which we would then use for adoption. We are 100% hopeful that this will result in our little miracle! Please feel free to check out the clinic we are going with: www.rmia.com We have also broken down the cost to give a better understanding of what the money covers.

Cost

• Program Start

  • Sonohysterogram

  • Trial Transfer

  • Informed Consent Signing

• Injection Teaching

• Serum Pregnancy Tests

• Confirmation of Pregnancy Ultrasounds

• Hyperstimulation checks and related services

• Ovarian Stimulation Medications

  • Bravelle (FSH) or equivalent

  • Menopur (HMG) or equivalent

• IVF cycle monitoring

  • Ultrasounds

  • Blood work

  • Office visits

• Aspiration of oocytes (including anesthesia services) performed at RMIA

• Fertilization process utilized by the Embryology Laboratory to include:

  • Intracytoplasmic Sperm Injection (ICSI)

  • Assisted Hatching

  • Extended Culture

• Cryopreservation of embryos

• Storage of embryos – one year from the date of initial cryopreservation

• Fresh and corresponding frozen embryo transfers

Other Ways You Can Help

Finances aren't the only part of this journey. We ask that you keep us in your prayers, support us, check on our progress. Please share our site with friends, family and anyone you know that may get inspiration from our story.

Side Note

We are absolutely excited about the outcome this may bring for us and the thought of us being able to start our family is worth it all! We will never be able to put into words exactly how thankful we are for donations and support from all of you. Our children will always know that there are so many wonderful and caring people out there that made it possible for them to be here. Thank you for believing our dream of becoming parents will be a reality.

“I am only one, but still I am one. I cannot do everything, but still I can do something; and because I cannot do everything, I will not refuse to do something that I can do.” - HK