Katie & Thomas
Ceri's Story
Hi Everyone
I hope my story can give hope to everyone who is on their IVF journey.
My name is Ceri I am 29 years old (30 in August!) and my wonderful hubby is Gary 30 years old. We have been together for nearly 8 years now and got married in July 1999. In the April of 1999 we decided to start trying for a family, we thought if I got pregnant before our wedding I would unlikely to show or I might even get pregnant on honeymoon! How very wrong we were!
I have an excellent doctor so after only a few months of trying we went to see him, thankfully he didn’t send us away to keep trying, instead I was put on Clomid. Through blood tests the Clomid was showing that it was working, I was ovulating no problem but I still wasn’t getting pregnant. Each month I was so hopeful and each month my period would come. Even back then it was the start of the roller coaster of emotions.
Everything was in working order with Gary so when I saw my doctor again he booked me in to have an exploratory operation (lap and dye) to check my tubes. I eventually had this in April 2001 after a few months on the waiting list. Anyway this turned out to be the problem, my tubes were blocked with fluid and there was practically 0% of conceiving naturally. When I got home after the op I was absolutely devastated with the news, I cried for the whole weekend, it was definitely one of my lowest points in my life, the blame I put on myself was huge, thankfully I had the love and support from Gary which kept me going. He has been by my side through this whole journey. I am so very lucky to have his support. IVF can just as easily tear your relationship apart as it can make you stronger, thankfully we have been the latter.
A month or so after the op we had an appointment at the BACC (Bath Assisted Conception Clinic) to discuss our options. Before we could even move onto IVF we had a decision to make. I would either need to have my tubes removed, or have the fluid removed from my tubes but was told they would fill back up again quickly or have my tubes clipped. We decided I should have them clipped, we were told this would stop the fluid interfering with our IVF cycle as the fluid could wash away the embryos. So I was back on the waiting list and went in on October 2001. It was quite a terrible experience, it felt strange that I was getting sterilised when I so desperately wanted a baby, also on the ward I was put next to a teenage girl who was in for an abortion! She had just had a baby and got pregnant again straight away after!
In the November of 2001 we embarked on our first cycle of IVF. We were both very excited, there was a light at the end of the tunnel. I got on ok with the cycle and responded well to the drugs and was happy that we even got 9 embryos to freeze. The test date was 2 weeks before Christmas! It was negative. We were gutted. Looking back I think we were very naïve, you have to be very lucky for it to work first time, even though it does!
In the January of 2002 I found the wonderful thing of bulletin Boards on the Internet. What a lifesaver they have been. I took great comfort in knowing that I wasn’t alone going through this but at the same time it really saddened me to know how many of us were going through this heartache. I have made some fantastic ‘Cyber’ buddies and have met 2 very good friends, Lily and Hope, I know we will remain friends forever.
In the February and May of 2002 I had FET’s (frozen embryo transfers) using up the 9 embryos we had in storage, unfortunately these were both a big fat negative.
Obviously this was beginning to take its toll on both of us, so we decided to have a break for the summer, we went away on holiday and started to enjoy life again, it really did us the world of good. I thought we could just keep going, but there really is only so much you can take emotionally, physically and financially! I'm so glad we had that break, we made the most of it!
In the autumn we were back on the roller coaster with our 2nd fresh cycle. This cycle was completely different to the first, I didn’t respond too well to the drugs and we only had 2 good embryos to transfer and 0 to freeze. The cycle again ended in a negative.
We made sure we had a good Christmas, and a couple of days before Christmas I started sniffing again for my 3rd fresh cycle! This cycle was probably in-between the other 2, I did respond well but my drugs had been upped for this cycle. We were also having assisted hatching in the hope that our embryos would hold on, our consultant was also happy for me to have 3 embryos transferred, all these changes to the cycle helped me to feel more positive about this cycle. As it was we only had 3 good embryos to transfer and 0 to freeze.
My test date was Valentines Day! But I couldn’t bring myself to test then, so I tested 2 days earlier, I was shaking and felt sick while doing the test, I had to force myself to look at the result, well for the first time ever in my life I had a POSITIVE result, I couldn’t believe it, I was laughing, crying and shaking! It was wonderful and the test was so clear too at Day 12.
Nearly 3 weeks later we went for our first scan, I had lost count of the number of HPT I had done to keep me going to my scan! Anyway, Gary thought it would be twins I thought 1, Gary was right! We are expecting TWINS! Couldn’t believe it!
At 8wks3d we went back for another scan, and it was just amazing, they looked like babies now! We could see the heart, spine etc they were even wriggling around!
Since then I've had another quickie scan at 12 weeks and it just amazes me every time.
Its now the 28th April and I'm 14wks4d today! My EDD is 23rd October but I'm sure they will arrive earlier being twins! The nausea has left the building! And I'm just looking forward to my bump and to feel them wriggling!
I really hope I have given just one person some hope out there to not give up and continue making their dream become reality.
Everyone's story is different and I haven’t been through half as much as some of my buddies, that is why I feel so very blessed and I will be around to support my buddies, as I will never forget what we went through to get where we are today…….
I also hope you will all benefit as much as I have and many others have from May B Baby, it is a fantastic, friendly supportive site, we do have the odd giggle too!!!
Thanks Deanne for all you do, you are a star xxxxx