Campaign Story

Hello! My name is Ashley Hammond & my husband is Sean. I am 35 & he is 37. We got married on June 10, 2017.

Prior to our wedding my husband had been having severe back pain since January 2017. He tried massages, chiropractors, X-rays, etc to no relief. Finally in August 2017, insurance approved him to have an MRI. The results of the MRI showed he had a tumor at the base of his spine that had ruptured causing his pain. Surgery was scheduled almost immediately and it was removed and sent away for testing. Unfortunately, the tumor came back cancerous. Ewing Sarcoma. A rare aggressive cancer that is usually found in the bone in children. The whole situation was crazy bc it wasn’t in his bones and he wasn’t a child. However, because it’s such an aggressive cancer, chemo and radiation was a must to be safe.

So here we are 3 months into newlywed life with major surgery and 8 months of chemo and radiation ahead of us. Not exactly how we pictured it. My husbands oncologist warned that his treatment could cause infertility so we THANKFULLY froze sperm samples before he started.

By April 2018, chemo and radiation was complete and everything looked great and has ever since, thank the Lord. We waited a year before trying to get pregnant as recommended. After 8 or so months (2019), I feared the worst and that the oncologists warning of infertility had happened. So at his next check up, he asked to be referred to a fertility specialist. As expected his sperm analysis came back with devastating results: zero sperm.

*HELLO COVID – 2020 was a bust*

I went to my first fertility appointment in August 2021. After a saline ultrasound, it was found I had uterine polyps so I had surgery to remove those before any fertility treatments. After that, we did two IUIs over the next few months that failed. It was suggested we move on to IVF and we did.

July 2022 we were finally financially ready to start IVF. I had egg retrieval which resulted in 10 eggs which gave us 4 embryos. We transferred 2 on August 5. Another heartbreaking fail. We took a break and did our second transfer of our last 2 embryos in November 2022 which ended in an even more heartbreaking chemical pregnancy.

Emotionally and physically, I needed a break after that. We took time for us to spend together, traveling and living life. Something we really hadn’t had a chance to do with the cancer treatment, recovery and fertility treatments.

Now it’s 2023 and my body & mind is ready to do a second round of IVF. This time we’re going to need some help financially because our insurance covers NOTHING.

Sean and I would be so incredibly grateful for any support, no matter how small. If you can’t financially give at this time, please share this fundraiser.

Thank you so much for taking the time to read our story and helping us in our journey for baby Hammond.