Campaign Story

My name is Katie and this is my husband Chase and our daughter Sadie. Our daughter was conceived through IVF (in vitro fertilization). Chase was born with double hernias and at just 2 months old, had to have surgery on them. This was always in the back of my mind as something that could hinder our ability to have children in the future. And, after about a year of trying to conceive naturally, I knew that something wasn’t right. I researched local fertility clinics and decided on Carolinas Fertility Institute due to its excellent ratings and very high success rate. After a months long wait to get an appointment, we met with the doctor to go over our history. Chase and I each had individual tests done to determine what could be the problem. My tests came back with flying colors, however Chases showed a count of zero. We were diagnosed with male factor infertility.

It turns out that the surgery Chase had as an infant was effecting his ability to have children. Whether a mistake was made, essentially giving him a vasectomy, or there was just a build up of scar tissue, nothing was able to get out. Chase had to have an invasive surgery in the hopes of finding what we needed in order to have a biological child. I was thrilled when the nurse came back and told me that they had struck gold!

Now it was my turn to have an egg retrieval, so that we could create embryos to transfer. I was so grateful that the first transfer was a success and I was finally pregnant! I stayed with my fertility clinic until about 8 weeks, and then I graduated and transferred back to my OB/gyn, where I was considered a typical pregnancy from that point on. Everything was going pretty good until the day of my 38 week appointment. I had been up all night the night before with severe pain in my side, but I had chalked it up to my hiatal hernia and didn’t think it was anything more serious. After the routine blood pressure check and urine test, my levels were very high and I was immediately sent to the hospital.

After some additional testing, I was diagnosed with Pre-eclampsia and HELLP syndrome (hemolysis, elevated liver enzyme’s, low platelet count). I had never even heard of HELLP until this day, but later learned that approximately 1 in 4 women with it, die from the condition. This condition occurs in less than 1% of pregnancies. This was also the cause of the pain that I was having the night before.

I was then taken back for an emergency C-section, to get the baby out as soon as possible, as this would make the other issues go away. Unfortunately, I did have to be under general anesthesia for the surgery due to my low platelet count and would not be able to see my daughter being born. Thankfully, our daughter was born healthy and strong, but this is when things took a turn for me.

My placenta was not detaching from the uterus as it should, causing extreme blood loss. The placenta should come out with ease, but mine had attached itself to my uterus and required a lot of effort to remove, it even came out in pieces. I had to receive 12 units of blood product.  In order to save my life, the difficult decision was made to remove my uterus. I then spent roughly the first 24 hours of my daughters life in the ICU. I will never forget waking up in that room and being very confused as to what had happened. Soon after, my husband came to see me and I was able to meet my daughter for the first time. I could not have been happier to be able to leave that room and be taken to the mother baby floor with my husband and daughter.

I am so thankful to have my daughter and that I survived the birth. However, I am also devastated at the loss of my fertility and the inability to give my daughter a sibling and have the family that we so strongly desire. The silver lining to us needing IVF to conceive, is that we have many embryos frozen. Because of our beliefs, we want to honor those embryos and give them a chance at life. We are hoping to have a gestational carrier bring our dreams to life. Unfortunately, surrogacy is a huge expense, not covered by insurance, and is unattainable to the average family.

We are trying to raise money to be able to start the process. Thank you for taking the time to read our story. We appreciate everyone’s prayers, love and support on this very long and difficult journey!