Category: Fertility

I’m sorry for the delay on the rest of our Infertility Journey! The last bit of my pregnancy was rough to say the least! But all worth it now that he’s here and we have a healthy perfect baby boy!

When I turned 11 weeks pregnant we had just taken our announcement pictures and were just about ready to announce we were pregnant. I woke up that morning and felt a little crampy but I had been crampy on and off the whole time so I didn’t think much of it. I went to work and at about 9:30 I felt like I had to pee so I got up and immediately felt weird. I went to the bathroom and noticed I was bleeding bright red blood. I just remember my whole body going numb and calling Stephen. He too freaked out and I called the doctor and they made me come in for an ultrasound. I cried the whole way there because I was terrified I was miscarrying. They immediately did bloodwork to test my HCG levels again to make sure they hadn’t dropped and then did an internal ultrasound.

The doctor scanned my uterus back and forth for a few minutes and then discovered I had a pocket of blood inside my uterus. I had started to wean off my medicine and once you do that you can develop blood pockets. I immediately felt some relief that I wasn’t miscarrying and that the baby was ok, but still concerned as to what this meant. They put me back on my progesterone injections for a few more days and put me on bed rest for 2 days. I went back a few days later and all was good! Thank gosh!

Our IVF doctor continued to monitor me up until I was 13 weeks and then released me to my OBGYN, Dr. Mauney. This was a surreal feeling. We finally made it out of the danger zone for miscarrying and the nerves settled a bit. Leaving our IVF doctor and nurses was so hard, they got us through the roughest time in our life and made our miracle baby a reality. We are forever grateful for all of them.

Once we started seeing my OB things started to feel normal, which is something we hadn’t felt up until this point. It was so nice to be completely off meds and to feel like this was a normal pregnancy. We had the normal amount of check ups and scans just like everyone else! For me, being pregnant felt like the biggest blessing god had bestowed upon me. I woke up every day thankful for this sweet baby inside of me.

We found out at our gender reveal at 16 weeks that we were having a BOY! I don’t think anything could have been more perfect for Stephen. As much as he didn’t care what we were having I knew that this was going to be so fun for him to have a boy.

My whole pregnancy really was a breeze, up until about 36 weeks. I started having swelling and really bad side pains that weren’t going away. My doctor sent me to the triage at labor and delivery to get checked out. They admitted me for contractions and because the baby’s heart rate dropped dramatically every time I would contract and also for my pain. They did lots of tests and blood work and couldn’t figure it out. Finally they did an ultrasound on my kidneys and found that I had multiple kidney stones in each kidney. They sent me home to pass the kidney stones on my own, and let me tell you… I wouldn’t wish that on anyone. After about 2 days I passed the stones and started to feel better.

Next post I will take you through my final doctor appointment and our surprise induction! And you won’t have to wait so long next time!! Lol

Xoxo,

Macey

Once I dropped off the sperm to the lab the embryo making process started immediately. They did the ICSI method. ICSI is Intracytoplasmic sperm injection. Here is what this means, Intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI) is an in vitro fertilization (IVF) procedure in which a single sperm cell is injected directly into the cytoplasm of an egg. Because the doctors didn’t know how mobile Stephens sperm would be once they got them out, they decided that this was the best option to achieve the goal of having embryos.

We were told that once they had a firm count of fertilized embryos they would give us a call and let us know. That call came the next morning, and they told us we had 8 embryos!! We were shocked and ecstatic. They then told us that they would call us every day around 4 PM to let us know how many made it through that day. Embryos go through stages, once they are fertilized they are called a zygote and then after a few days they turn into a blastocyst. A healthy blastocyst is what you want to be able to achieve a healthy pregnancy. After day 3 we had 1 of the embryos that was already a blastocyst so they went ahead and froze that embryo. The others were a little slower at developing but we had up until day 6 to freeze any other blastocyst. By day 4 we only had 2 more that were starting to become blastocyst. On day 6 they called me and told me that the 2 had started to deteriorate and that they weren’t good enough to freeze so we just had the one blastocyst that was frozen on day 3. This sounds weird, but it’s almost like a loss when you lose the rest of the embryos. We were a little upset because we only had one shot, but then we remembered how blessed we were to even have this one! So the lab would keep this embryo frozen until the day of our Embryo Transfer.

I started on my shots and medication immediately after Stephens surgery and went in every other day for bloodwork and ultrasounds to make sure my uterine lining was thickening for the transfer and that my hormone levels were where they needed to be. This went on for a few weeks, and let me tell you they were rough weeks. I had huge knots on each side of my upper butt from the progesterone injections I had to do everyday, and man were they painful. They finally told me that everything looked perfect and that my body was ready for the transfer. They set our transfer date for November 28th, 2018.

Our appointment was downtown at the lab where they made all the embryos but just on the other side which was Piney Point Surgery Center. I had to go in with a full bladder so that way the ultrasound was more clear for the doctors. So we waiting for about 20 minutes and then we were brought back into a room where we both changed. I put on the hospital gown and Stephen had on what looked like a hazmat suit… LOL. Then finally I had to ask the nurse if I could pee a little because I thought my bladder was going to burst from drinking so much water. Then our doctor, Dr. Griffith brought in the picture of our embryo(above) and that’s when the nerves set in. It’s crazy to be able to see your baby at the embryo stage.

We were brought back into a dark room with a bed for me, chair for Stephen and a big ultrasound machine. The nurse tilted the bed all the way back so my body was at a full slant and my head was towards the ground. Finally the doctors and the ultrasound tech came in and got a look at my uterus just to double check everything. Once they could see everything was fine the embryologist brought in our embryo. They throughly check to make sure they have the correct embryo, scan my arm band and then scan the test tube with the embryo.

They then insert a small catheter into my uterus, it sounds much more painful than it really is. I could barely feel anything. We could see on the ultrasound screen that the catheter was inside the uterine lining and then they told us to watch very closely because in about one minute we would be able to see the embryo shoot inside my uterus. It was like a small little flash on the screen and the embryo was inside my uterus. The picture above shows the arrow pointing to the embryo once it had been implanted. We had to stay at the surgery center for about another hour and then they discharged us with strict instructions to stay on bed rest for 3 days, pretty much just be a couch potato. They also told us that the core of a pineapple helps with implantation, so I made Stephen go buy like 3.

For the next 3 days I did nothing but binge watch Netflix and lay on the couch and try to not worry about if this embryo would stick and grow into a healthy baby. But it was HARD! That’s all I could think about, it seriously consumed me. I had to continue my shots every day and add estrogen pills along with it. Our HCG blood test to tell us if we were pregnant or not was scheduled for December 13th. It seemed like a lifetime away. I continued to go in every other day for blood test and they would call me and tell me to either up my medications or lessen them. Every time they would tell me to up my meds I would immediately go into a full blown panic thinking something was wrong and I would call them and the nurses would laugh and tell me to calm down.

December 6th is a day I will never forget, for two reasons. Let me back track to December 6th, 2017. This is the day that our old doctors told us that we would never be able to have our own children. Fast forward to December 6th 2019. I went in for routine blood work like I had been all the other days before then went back to work and waited for my email to either up my meds or stay the same. So around 1 pm I get a phone call, and I panicked. I walked into our back conference room and our nurse Jenny was just talking to me and asking me how I was feeling and that everything looked good with my blood work and to keep my medicine the same and then she screamed “oh also YOU’RE PREGNANT!!!!!”. My whole body went numb I immediately started crying (quietly because I didn’t want anyone to hear me). I was like WHAT?? It’s only been a week are you sure?? She told me my HCG levels were through the roof and that they were very sure! I was seriously dying inside because I didn’t want to tell Stephen over the phone I wanted to tell him in person. I had to wait 4 freaking hours to tell him! So I left work around 5 and went to target and grabbed baby booties and a hat and wrapped it up for him since his birthday was 3 days away I just acted like it was an early birthday gift. He opened it, looked at me with complete shock and goes WHAT? I told him they called me today and they snuck in an HCG test while I was giving my routine blood today and that they called me and told me I was pregnant! We hugged and cried and were just completely shocked still. This was actually happening. After all the pain and heartache we went through for 2 years we were finally going to have a baby.

We continued to go in for blood work and then they scheduled our first ultrasound for December 18th and we were so excited to see the baby, even though it was a tiny dot. We got to hear the heartbeat and we went back every single week for bloodwork and an ultrasound just to make sure everything was progressing correctly.

In the next post I will go over our minor scare at 11 weeks and our last few doctor visits with Dr. Griffith before we were discharged to my OB.

Xoxo-

Macey

Once we decided to get a second opinion we both went into this appointment with a very open mind and didn’t expect much. We showed up at Houston Fertility Institute for our appointment and immediately I felt a different vibe than what I had felt at the last Fertility Doctor we went too.

We saw Dr. Jason Griffith. He was so personable and just seemed like he wanted to figure out our situation as bad as we did. We went though all of Stephens surgery notes, test results and as well as all of mine. He immediately said “let’s do a genetic blood test for Stephen so we know where to start”. This is what we had needed all along and never even knew.

Stephen did the blood test and we went back a week later for the results and to see what exactly Dr. Griffith thought was the issue. He told us that Stephen had Non-Obstructive Azoospermia with a Y micro deletion. FINALLY!!!! An answer!!! He told us that this was going to be a hard road because Stephen needed to see a specialist. Then he told us that his old college professor specializes in Male Factor Infertility and he was the best in the field and people from all over the world come to Houston to see him. So he gave us his information and faxed over a referral for us.

As soon as we got into the car to leave I called to make an appointment. When I tell you that this doctor was booked for months, he was booked SOLID. This was June and they told me that they had no appointments until the end of November. So I took the first available appointment and she put me on hold to verify our insurance. She clicks back over maybe a minute later and says “ma’am, we just had a cancellation for this Friday. Do you want it?”. Honestly I just couldn’t believe it. I took the appointment , OBVIOUSLY!

Finally y’all, a feeling of relief. We haven’t felt like this in almost 2 years and we just finally felt like we were getting some answers and being guided in the right direction. So Friday comes and we get to Baylor College of Medicine in the Houston Medical Center and we are nervous as hell. And not to mention a little irritated because we sat in the waiting room for 3 1/2 hours. But thank god we did. We first meet the student doctor. He goes over Stephens file and looks at us with a blank stare. He looks so confused. He proceeds to tell us that Stephen’s previous doctor did 2 unnecessary surgeries and that if anything had happened to Stephen physically, we would have had grounds to file for malpractice. We sat there in shock.

Next Dr. Larry Lipschultz comes into the room, asks a few questions, consults with his student doctor, goes over Stephens file and within 20 minutes says “alright are you ready to get this done? I’m 80% sure I will find sperm for you”. He told us that he would be preforming a MicroTese surgery and that it’s normally about a 30 minute procedure but little did we know that it would take them much longer because of Stephens diagnosis. This surgery is where they go through the testicles layer by layer and go through every vein and tube until they find sperm. I about lost it in the room. I could not believe this. We left there feeling so great. We had an answer. Now granted it wasn’t 100% but it was 80% and that’s 100 times more than anything else we’ve received in the last 2 years.

Of course it took us a few months to get everything set up financially, but here we go with round 2 of IVF. I went in for some blood work and another Hysteroscopy because mine had expired since the last one. Then I had to transfer all of my frozen eggs from our previous doctor to our new doctor. I was so scared that the courier service would misplace or damage my eggs so my mom and I picked them up and took them ourself to the lab downtown. (See pic above).

We set Stephens surgery date for October 18th, so my eggs had to be there 10 days prior. After that was set in stone my doctor decided to wait on starting me on any medications, just in case things didn’t turn out great. I’m extremely grateful that he did this. Not because I thought things would go south, but because this would have saved us tons of money the first time around had the previous doctor done the same thing.

The night before Stephens surgery I think I slept maybe 30 minutes, him as well. Our plan was to drive there and have his dad also drive there because if they did find Sperm I had to immediately take the sperm and rush it over to the lab that was 10 minutes from the hospital. So we get there and get him all checked in and I could tell his nerves were shot. Mine were too but I tried to hide it as best as I could. They take us to the back pre-op room, get him hooked up on his IV and we waited around an hour. A nurse came into the room and said, “you’re in great hands, all the doctors follow Dr. Lipschultz as soon as he walks through these doors just to gain some of his knowledge.” Stephen was not sure about this surgery at all, and I’m sure from being let down 2 times before it’s kind of hard to trust someone to do this again. But I think hearing what the nurse said made it a little better for him.

The time came for him to be brought back and I was told I would have an answer in about an hour and a half to 2 hours at the most. I went back and sat with his dad and we went to Starbucks at the bottom of the building, talked for a while and decided to go back up and wait. This was the LONGEST 2 hours of my life. At one point I walked down the hall and called my mom and just cried. I was so scared for Stephen and for myself. Were we really not ever going to have children? I went back and sat down and just prayed. I have never in my life prayed so hard. I could tell his dad was getting restless, we both were. We were both freaking out.

I’ll never forget this next moment. I saw both doctors walk down the hallway and he had a large medical tub in his hand and he looked at me and said “we got them!”. I literally jumped up and hugged him. His dad and I were both sobbing. This is what we have been waiting for. This moment right here is something that will be imbedded in my mind forever. I grab the medical tub, literally ran to the elevator, got into the truck and drove as fast as I could to the lab. Obviously on the way I called his mom, my mom, my sister, my dad, my best friend, my grandmother, literally everyone. I cried the entire way to the lab and just thanked god. I have never been more grateful at that moment, grateful for all our ups and downs and grateful for the awful road we’ve been down. Stephen knew that if he woke up and I was there that they didn’t find anything but if I was gone that they did. His dad called me as I was on my way back and said Stephen was asking for me. I got back to the hospital and went into his recovery room and just hugged him and cried. This is what we needed. God knew all along that this tough road would bring Stephen and I closer together, he knew that it would make our marriage rough and then make it the best it’s ever been.

So the next steps for IVF are to make the embryos, that started the day of Stephens surgery as soon as I dropped off the sperm at the lab. Next week I’ll go through the week wait for the number of embryos that made it through and our final steps of IVF!

Xoxo Macey

Once we decided to move forward with this IVF cycle I was taken in for a Hysteroscopy. This is a small procedure where your doctor takes a look inside your uterus to make sure you have no abrasions, cysts or anything else that could interrupt the cycle. Once they saw that it was clear we met with a nurse who gave us our schedule(posted above).

I started with a birth control pill that I took for 2 weeks so that way the doctor could control my period cycle so everything could line up with our Egg Retrieval. Once that was over I started daily injections and pills. I went in every other day for blood work and ultrasounds to make sure that my ovaries were producing multiple eggs and that my hormone levels were rising. And trust me they were rising. They don’t tell you that you will experience mood swings (big ones), hot flashes, insomnia and some skin irritations.

By the end of the 2 weeks my body was ready for the egg retrieval. Normally a woman’s body releases 1 egg per period cycle. The medication you take during this time makes you mass produce and release eggs so they can get as many as possible. At this point our doctors decided that it was best to do what they call and “fresh transfer”. This means that Stephen would go into surgery the same exact time that I would go in for my Egg Retrieval and they would immediately take the eggs and sperm into the lab to make the embryos. That was the plan anyway. Stephens surgery was called a TESE (testicular sperm extraction). This means they would go into the testicles and take large tissue samples and put them under a microscope to see if there were any mature sperm they could use.

The morning of both surgeries, Stephens step mom took him to his surgery and my mom took me to mine. We both went in at the same time and it would take a few hours until we knew any results on if they found any sperm from Stephen. So we both get home and are resting, well trying too because our anxiety is through the roof, when my doctor calls. I was not expecting what was coming because I’m honestly annoyingly positive. Stephen is the realist and I’m the optimist. I always believe that things will happen and get better. So I had convinced myself that this was it and that this WOULD work. Mind you we still had no diagnosis for Stephen at this point.

She told us that they got 24 mature eggs from me but unfortunately they found no sperm in the tissue samples they took from Stephen. She then told us that we could come in to discuss further options and that we should also make another appointment with Stephens doctor who preformed his surgery. Both of us lost it. And when I mean lost it, we didn’t speak for the rest of the day, all we did was cry. At this moment I had never been more thankful for my mom, sister and best friend. They listened to me cry all day long, seriously just sat on the phone with me while I cried. Stephen is more of a quiet mourner so he just sat in our media room for the rest of the day.

The next morning we just started googling. EVERYTHING. We found some articles that said maybe it could be his thyroid so we immediately made an appointment at his primary doctor to get him tested. We went in the next day and had him tested. We had a nurse practitioner come in and talk to us and ask us what was going on, so we told her everything we had been through and been told by Stephens urologist. I kid you not this lady looked at us and said “well have you thought about adoption?” We both said no it just isn’t something we want to look into right now. She then proceeded to say “I adopt dogs and I think it’s a great idea, it’s pretty much the same thing”. I think if I hadn’t been in such an emotional fog I would have punched her straight in her face. Not only is it not ok to push your opinions onto others, it’s NOT ok to compare adopting a baby to adopting a dog.

At this point his test results for his thyroid came back normal so we made a follow up appointment with his surgeon. He gave us his synopsis of what he thought was wrong with Stephen, but did not have a for sure diagnosis and told us that Stephen would never be able to father his own children, that there was nothing he could take, no surgery to fix this, nothing. We left feeling hopeless, sad and extremely pissed off that they would put us through an entire IVF cycle when they couldn’t give us a diagnosis or an answer on what was wrong.

For the next 6 months we didn’t really look into any other options. Here and there we would talk about our options and we decided that at this point in our life adoption wasn’t for us. Our marriage went through a big bump and it was just a lot for both of us to process. It wasn’t until I decided one day that I was going to just give this up to God and if this is his path for us then we needed to make the best of it. I have always prayed but this felt different. I felt a big push towards him and I finally started praying for our marriage and for a clear mind and how to cope with all this , instead of praying for a baby. If God wanted us to have a baby then he would lead us into the right direction. Once we both had a different mind set and decided to let things happen how they were meant to happen, everything became more clear and our marriage took a turn for the good.

One morning around May 2018, I woke up and saw that someone had posted something about their infertility journey and the doctors they had used. I told Stephen and he wasn’t 100% sure of it because of everything we had already gone through. We thought on it for a few days and ultimately decided that we would make an appointment just to get a second opinion. Little did we know that this appointment would change our entire life for the better and it was the best thing that has happened to us this far.

Next week I will go through this appointment and how these doctors completely change our lives!

Xoxo

Macey