Campaign Story

Hi! 

We are Olivia and Ryan. We met in 2017, started dating in 2018, and were lucky enough to marry each other in 2020. We have four cute fur babies and are enjoying each moment together that life has to offer. We knew we wanted to have children as soon as possible, never imagining infertility would be a part of our story, but it is. 

After just a couple months of trying we were lucky enough to get pregnant with our first baby in November of 2020. I think we were in a little bit of disbelief considering it happened quicker than we thought, but we were overjoyed and blessed to know we would get to bring a part of each of us into this world. I had all the common signs of early pregnancy, which made me feel relieved, as miscarriage was a huge fear of mine. A couple weeks after our positive pregnancy test, at about six weeks along, I had some spotting like one would in the beginning of a period and some of these signs felt like they were slowly drifting away. We instantly became worried, so just to cover all our bases and put our minds at ease we called our doctor and she ran blood tests and we scheduled an ultrasound. Our first blood test looked great, so a couple days later we did a repeat. The second blood test revealed that my hormone levels were rising, but not doubling like they should in a normal pregnancy. An ultrasound was the only other way to see what was going on, however during our ultrasound our doctor did not see a baby present in my uterus. Because my hormone levels were still rising, I was definitely pregnant but I was having an ectopic pregnancy(a pregnancy taking place in the fallopian tube instead of the uterus). This was extremely dangerous because if the baby grew too big in my tube it could cause my tube to rupture and cause internal bleeding. In order to keep myself safe and not cause permanent damage to my body, I received two injections to terminate our baby. Knowing this was the only choice to keep myself safe was beyond heartbreaking. I could not wrap my head around the fact that I had a miscarriage. I blamed myself for the fact that my body couldn’t do what it was supposed to. Our doctors were very helpful in reassuring us that miscarriages are common and that it was not my fault. Although this was hard to hear, it made us more hopeful to try again. 

Due to the injections, we had to wait about three months to start trying for another baby. In April 2021, after a late period Ryan and I decided I would take a pregnancy test. We had little expectation that I would be pregnant again, as it had only been four months since our first miscarriage. So you can imagine our surprise when I took two pregnancy tests and both were positive. As much as we wanted to be excited, we were more nervous and anxious than anything. Right away we called our doctor and set up blood tests. This round of blood tests, my hormone levels were not only rising but they doubled like they were supposed to. This gave us so much hope and relief. About a month later at about five weeks along, once again I had some spotting only this time it quickly became very heavy bleeding. We knew in our hearts what was happening, but we scheduled an ultrasound just to be sure. During this ultrasound, again our doctor did not see a baby present. She was fairly positive this pregnancy was inter-uterine, but was sure the baby had already passed. We were experiencing our second miscarriage and were completely at a loss for words. It was clear that something bigger was going on, it just didn’t seem right to have two miscarriages six months apart of each other. 

After taking time to catch our breaths and grieve these two huge losses, our doctor set up an HSG test for me to take. This test was an X-Ray that would show whether or not my fallopian tubes were blocked by inserting dye into the tubes and seeing if it spills out. My left tube was completely open, however my right tube was blocked. This test was physically and emotionally one of the most painful things I’ve ever had to do, but we felt better having more information as to why I could’ve had an ectopic pregnancy the first time. Finding out this news, we had two options. Try again naturally, but it would take longer having only one good tube and I would still be at risk for another ectopic pregnancy or try IVF(in vitro fertilization). After a lot of long conversations, weighing pros and cons of each situation and a ton of prayer, we chose to try something different and do IVF so we took out a $20,000 loan.

In August 2021, we were referred to Dr. Meredith Provost at Indiana Fertility Institute in Indianapolis, IN. Right off the bat she was so welcoming and friendly and we could tell she would truly take the time to figure out our situation. She started out by having me take a full blood test panel to rule out any other issues we were not yet aware of. These blood tests revealed that I had PCOS(polycystic ovarian syndrome), as well as elevated prolactin levels. Prolactin is a hormone that when pregnant brings in your breast milk. When not pregnant, if your body is giving off too much of the prolactin hormone it is known to be a cause of infertility. PCOS is also one of the most common causes of infertility. Finding out both of these things was scary, yet relieving knowing that maybe just maybe they were the cause of our miscarriages and that they were things that could be fixed. I was put on medication to help level out my prolactin levels, which worked so we were very hopeful. 

Since we had figured out solutions to some of my issues, we were able to move forward with our first IVF cycle. In October 2021, we started the first process of the cycle which was me taking injections to the stomach once a day for eleven days to make my eggs grow. After those eleven days were up, we scheduled an egg retrieval. Those eleven days felt like forever, but we were so excited! Egg retrieval day consisted of Dr. Provost going in and taking all our viable eggs out of my body. After the egg retrieval we found out she was able to retrieve twenty eggs, which was a great number. Thirteen of our twenty eggs were mature enough to be injected with sperm to see if they would fertilize and become embryos. Going into an IVF cycle, most doctors will tell you in an average patient about 70% of your mature eggs will fertilize. We knew it was very unlikely all thirteen would fertilize, but we were still hopeful for a high number. You can imagine our confusion and sadness when we found out that only three of our thirteen fertilized eggs actually fertilized. Three was still a good number, that was three chances at a baby. After waiting another five days to see how each of those embryos progressed, we received news that only one of our embryos was viable and strong enough to be transferred. We just didn’t get it, how could we have gone from twenty, to thirteen, to three, to one. It was hard to wrap our heads around, but after awhile we knew god had to of made that one embryo special for a reason. We only needed one chance,so we took that one chance and transferred that little embaby to my body on December 9,2021 a day we will NEVER forget. That day was so full of emotion. To hear all the doctors and nurses say how beautiful the embryo looked and to feel the excitement coming from all of them for us was a true blessing. To physically be able to see our baby being transferred to my body is an experience like no other, we could not hold back our tears but they were tears of joy and blessing. 

After an embryo transfer, you have to wait ten days to take a blood test to find out if the transfer was successful. They tell you not to take any home pregnancy tests as they could give you false results if it’s too early. I did not listen, I took a pregnancy test four days after our transfer. The expectation of the test being positive was very low, but it was. The lines were very faint, but they were there. We couldn’t have been more happy finding out that news. I took a home test every day up until my blood test just to see if the lines darkened and they did. We got the results of our blood tests the same day and the numbers were crazy high for only being ten days post transfer. This only made us feel more hopeful and excited. Two days later I took another blood test, my numbers had more than doubled. We were on the perfect track to a successful pregnancy. We truly felt as though this was the baby god made for us to raise. We had prayed so hard for this. 

December 26,2021 I was about 4 weeks and 6 days along. I felt great, I had a lot of early pregnancy signs. At a friends birthday party, I went to the restroom only to find a lot of red blood. This blood was different than our two other pregnancies, this wasn’t spotting. This was like a period, and I knew in my heart something was wrong. I could barely get the words out to tell Ryan what was happening. We decided it would be a good idea to go to the hospital to get checked out. I cried the whole way there, as much as I didn’t want to believe it I knew, I just knew we were experiencing our third miscarriage. The hospital doctor ran more blood tests, all great. We did an ultrasound and they were able to see our gestational sac and yolk sac which was perfect. Those couple of things gave us a slimmer of hope. We prayed in that hospital room A LOT. My bleeding was heavier the longer we sat there, I passed multiple large blood clots. One of the blood clots contained the sac carrying our baby, and we physically saw it come out of my body. All of our miscarriages were hard, but seeing that made this one the hardest. 

It was now clear to us, that we were no longer just dealing a couple miscarriages but we were truly dealing with infertility. We took some time to reflect and after doing so we had another meeting with Dr. Provost to figure out next steps. She suggested doing a laparoscopic surgery on me to take a closer look at my fallopian tubes and uterus to see if there was any underlying issues we hadn’t found yet. It didn’t take much convincing for us to say yes as we wanted answers so badly. February 2022 I had this surgery which revealed, not one but both of my fallopian tubes are severely damaged and I also have endometriosis(abnormal tissue outside of the uterus). Endometriosis is another very common cause of infertility. Going into this surgery this was the news we were fearing the most. She was able to remove my endometriosis, however we now know it would be very dangerous for us to try and get pregnant naturally as I am at high risk for another ectopic pregnancy if we do so. That is why we’ve chosen to try another IVF cycle. With IVF the risks of ectopic pregnancy are taken away because the tubes are completely bypassed, and the embryo is implanted straight into your uterus. We want more than anything to grow our family and feel this is the best and safest way to do so. 

With our first IVF cycle, we took out the $20,000 loan that unfortunately we are still paying on. With that we can not afford another cycle on our own. That is why we are asking for help via this fundraiser.

Not many people think about infertility when trying to start a family, we certainly did not but now we are battling it everyday. Infertility is a lot of pain, tears, doubts, fear, and anger but we wouldn’t change our journey for anything because we know god is just waiting to deliver us our perfect little miracle. Until then we have three beautiful angels watching over us everyday. Infertility is something that isn’t talked about enough. Our hearts go out to anyone dealing with infertility, past, present or future. 

We hope you find it in your hearts to help us. Any donation is a huge blessing. If you are unable to donate, that is ok. Your thoughts and prayers mean the world to us. 

This is our life, our story. 

God Bless

Olivia & Ryan