My Path to InVitroland - Pt. 2

Basically I started by going to Google and just typing in "Cystic Fibrosis and PGD."  Then I just read a whole bunch of stuff.  And when I was done, I had decided a few basic things: 1) Cystic Fibrosis was something I really, really did not want to put a sweet, innocent child through, so 2) if I wanted to have another child, it was going to have to be through an IVF/PGD cycle, and 3) PGD was still considered "experimental" and wouldn't be touched by an insurance company even IF (and that, my friends, is sadly a very BIG "IF") I was able to get insurance to cover any part of an IVF cycle.  So next I Googled "Insurance covering IVF" and came across an interesting web page that listed some companies that "may offer infertillity benefits including IVF."  (That link can be found on the right-hand side of my blog.)  And to my surprise, Deloitte Tax was listed as covering infertility, including IVF, up to a $25,000 lifetime maximum.  Well, conveniently I am married to a CPA.  So although the process was more complicated than I am making it sound, because of the infertility benefits my hubby changed jobs to become a staff accountant for Deloitte Tax. 

The next step was to find an IVF center.  I came across Reproductive Care Center and liked what I found.  (I also liked that Dr. Heiner served as an LDS missionary in Paris, France.  Not that this fact has anything to do with his qualifications, I am just enough of a francophile to let this information give me warm fuzzies about him!) So my hubby and I went and met him and discussed our situation. He understood our desire to take steps to have another child that wouldn't be affected by CF, and seemed genuinely interested in helping us make that happen.  And a huge bonus  -- RCC was listed as a "network provider" for our Deloitte health insurance plan, so they did work with them to pay for the IVF treatment!  We discussed our timeline with Dr. Heiner, and left with an IVF cycle calendar that outlined everything we needed to do.

We next needed to find a place that did the actual PGD testing.  From my research I found out there are two main places in the US that do this:  Reproductive Genetics Institute (RGI), and Genesis Genetics.  I don't remember why now, but at the time something about RGI made me gravitate towards them.  (Unfortuately, even though we had insurance coverage for IVF, they still wouldn't touch the PGD costs because of the  "experimental" status.  So that was a solid $5,200 we had to come up with no matter what.)  RGI was wonderful to work with and even though we were technically starting our cycle sooner than they require to develop the necessary genetic test, they pushed it through for us.  We sent them blood samples from my hubby and me, and cheek swabs from Delia.  From that they created our personal CF genetic tests, and we were ready to go.

I am not going to discuss the whole IVF process here, because that is what this whole blog will be about.  So I will just summarize it like this:  our first cycle didn't go so well.  I was naively optimistic because my hubby and I weren't infertile, just genetically flawed. (ha! ha!) I quickly learned that being "naturally fertile" didn't necessarily help.  On the morning of our scheduled embryo transfer, Dr. Heiner called me and asked, "Have you had a virus  lately?"  Let me tell you, that is not the question you want your fertility doctor to ask you on the morning of your scheduled embryo transfer day!! He then went on to inform me that though the embryos hadn't exactly died, none of them had grown at all since day 3.  They had all just stagnated, which is NOT good.  Basically after everything we'd done, we had nothing to transfer.  (And just to prove how naively optimistic I was being, we DID have him transfer two embryos anyway...just because I wanted to have the chance for a miracle to occur. It didn't, and I wasn't suprised, but at least I know in my heart I gave it a chance.)      

I took a few months off for my body to rest, and then we tried again.  (We figured we had enough insurance coverage for two cycles, even though that meant coming up with another $5,000 for the PGD portion.) This time we had much better luck, and here is a picture of the two embryos we transferred.  The one on the left is an advanced morula, and the one on the right is a hatching blastocyst.  We have no idea which one actually "took," but I have always thought that it was the one that was already hatching because it knew how much its mommy needed and wanted it... (At any rate, this is my baby's first picture--as a five-day-old embryo.  Pretty neat, huh?) 

Long story short, I did get pregnant and after some scary first-trimester bleeding, went on to have another beautiful daughter, Sophie. (Who is also a CF carrier...we didn't have any embryos to transfer that were totally CF-free.)  And after she was born, I went ahead and had a tubal ligation to prevent any accidental pregnancies.

So fast forward another couple of years.  Sophie is an adorable and healthy two-year-old (and Delia a healthy and cute five-year-old) and I am feeling pretty good about life.  But my hubby wants another baby soooo much.  It's not that I am anti the idea of another baby, it's just that I am not in the least bit baby hungry at all.  And somedays I feel like I have one hand for Delia and one hand for Sophie...how would I manage more?  But then I watch how darling my two girls are playing together; and I especially watch Sophie as she cuddles her dolly and says, "baby...sweet baby..." and a very tiny piece of me thinks that another baby would be fun.  But at this point, that piece is verrrrrry tiny.

So what do you do when your hubby wants another baby and you don't, (not really)?  In our case, I guess we try.  Since it very literally takes Divine Intervention for the whole IVF/PGD process to work for us anyway, and I do believe that children are a gift from God, I guess I figure we'll try it and see what God's will is for us.  Either He will see fit to send us another precious spirit to love and raise as our child, or He won't and we can close this door and know that our little family is complete with our two precious girls.    

So with that mentality we contacted Dr. Heiner at  RCC again.  Of course he said he would be happy to help us try for another baby.  My CPA hubby really would like to keep all the expenses related to the cycle and maternity costs in the same medical year, so we will be part of the March cycle batch.  That means that if all goes well, the baby would be due on Dec. 21st. 

At this point, I am really approaching this whole thing as an adventure, and will take it day by day to see how it goes.  But this time I want to blog about it.  The last time around I don't think I could have....I was too emotionally involved. But I want to record everything this time around.  I am writing this blog for me, but also for anyone who wants to know exactly what is involved in an "IVF / PGD cycle."  I think one of the hardest parts the first time is just the unknown.  I wish I could have found a blog like this and been more prepared for what I was getting into.  So if you happen to be reading this blog and have any questions I don't address, please don't hesitate to make a comment with your question!