History up till now...

This blog is written mainly to be shared with family, friends and workmates as a way of keeping you updated in our soon to begin IVF cycle. Please feel free to post any comments or questions in reply.

As most of you know, in December 2004 while on holiday in Maryland, our much hoped for pregnancy ended. This pregnancy had come as a surprise as we had been trying for a long time, and we were so very excited about it - however, our hopes were dashed when the pregnancy was found to be ectopic (growing outside the womb). I was given a chemotherapy drug to dissolve the pregnancy before it could burst the tube and do any major damage. A week later the hospital let me fly home.

As you can imagine, and know, it was a devastating time. To be in such emotional pain on the other side of the world, so far from home - but so well cared for by Kelly and Lori who truly became part of our family at that time. To have the uncertainty of changing plans as we weren't allowed to fly for a week until the hormone levels dropped. To have the unpleasant task of phoning my boss (who didn't know I was pregnant) and explaining why I would be a week late back to work. In all things by all people involved we were shown nothing but kindness.

To those who supported us then - you are supporting us now. And we appreciate it so very much.

So...we tried for another year before we went to see our GP and asked for help. A battery of tests later, we were sent to a well known medical group here in NZ where we saw a specialist. He decided that the best thing to do would be surgery to check my insides (laparoscopy and hysteroscopy) - so that was booked for February 2006. It wasn't a comfortable recovery by any means, but it did feel good to finally have some concrete answers - one tube was leaking badly, the other was fine. They weren't sure if the damaged tube was caused by the ectopic pregnancy, or if the tube was damaged prior to that and actually caused the loss of the pregnancy. There was also no endeometriosis which had been a concern.

However the tubal damage happened, we now had only a 1 - 2 % chance of a successful pregnancy and live birth if we continued trying naturally. So in March 2006 we made the decision to try for IVF, which would give us a 30% chance if two to three embryos were implanted.

This journal is our way of sharing the process we are going to go through with those we love. Hopefully, we will be updating this page regularly, so feel free to check back!

Pixxiee