Campaign Story

My name is Jenna Alexander and my husband is Dustin Alexander. We have tried unsuccessfully to have a child for 9 years now and finally have secured a date to undergo IVF. This has been one of the hardest and emotionally intensive processes I have ever been through to get to where we are at now. My husband and I met on Craigslist, then in person on 9/20/2012. We married on 10/11/2012, 21 days after we met. We immediately started trying to have a child. I have a 13 years old from a previous relationship. My husband served for 10 years in the Army and deployed to Iraq from 07-08. He suffers to this day from PTSD along with issues with fertility. We have been waiting on the VA to make a decision on his case for 4 years at this point. I am a full-time student I was diagnosed with cervical cancer in 2016 that cleared up on its own. Then in 2019 I was diagnosed with severe hyperplasia along with a uterine fibroid. After the diagnosis, I had to have a IUD placed to keep from developing uterine cancer. We decided to see a reproductive endocrinologist in February 2021, and had the IUD removed to try to conceive again. It is potentially dangerous for me to not have the IUD due to the hyperplasia has a very good chance of coming back. This year we have done IUI 4 different times to no avail. We know that he has really good numbers, and motility of his sperm, the problem is that only 3% of them are morphologically shaped correctly. If the VA would approve his benefits this procedure would be covered, but we are stuck at moving at the speed of bureaucracy.

We have already begun the pre-IVF protocol and are scheduled to have the retrieval somewhere around February 15. We have unexpectedly lost an entire paycheck due to me testing positive for COVID and his work refusing to allow him to return until I had a negative test plus 7 days. He is back at work now, but this situation of losing an entire paycheck has put our procedure at risk of having to be cancelled. We have spent a very long time trying to get to where we are at right now, and to have all that be thrown away because I tested positive for COVID, and also his work and the short term disability provider leading us on about whether it is actually covered or not until it was to late to file unemployment for that time period would be absolutely devastating and completely crush our worlds. After 9 years of the rollercoaster of emotions, then having some light at the end of the tunnel, only to be taken away from you would be life altering. We really need this grant. We have been through so much during our marriage from living out of a truck with our son and 2 dogs, to cancer, then the hyperplasia issue to get to where we are financially stable and able to do the procedure.

We are trying to fundraise to cover our portion of the cost that has to be paid upfront to have the procedure done.