Melissa & Torrey

Melissa & Torrey's Story:

I met Torrey in the beginning of 2015 while I was still in college. Years before I met Torrey, I was in a 6 year relationship. That's when my concerns of infertility started to spike some curiosity. A little background story where it all began with the ex of 6 years. Around 2008, I had already been with my now ex partner for 3 years at the time. I brought up my concerns to a nurse about not being able to get pregnant since I was around 22 years old at the time, she brushed it off.

Her comment to me was, "You sound like a 12 year old saying she can't get pregnant." So I brushed it off and dropped the whole idea of being infertile. Fast forward about 3 years later still with the same partner. I go to another OBGYN, and this time I bring it up to him and asked if I could be tested. I told him that I wasn't wanting a baby right now, but we wanted to know if I have any infertility issues because I have never been pregnant. His comment to me was, "If you don't want a baby right now, why do you want to know?" Once again I let it go. Years go by and I don't seek any more help wondering if I have any infertility problems. Fast forward to where I met Torrey.

We met in February of 2015. After a couple of months, we started dating. I was in college when we met, so having babies wasn't in our plans at the moment. Things started to get more serious, and we started talking about marriage and having children but wanted to wait until I was done with school. I eventually found a different OBGYN who actually listened to my concerns about infertility. He started off by doing blood work, and everything came back normal. He did an ultrasound of my pelvic area to see if he could find anything on there. Come to find out, I had hydrosalpinx. After the ultrasound, he performed a hysterosalpingogram to check for patency of my fallopian tubes. Concerns for endometriosis came up fall of 2016. I was hospitalized with Pelvic Inflammatory Disease and a severe kidney infection. The Doctors wanted to perform a CT scan, and that's when they saw adhesions. After the concerns for endometriosis, I ended up having an endometrial laparoscopy done January 2017. I had stage 4 endometriosis, adhesions stuck to majority of my organs, and what my doctor described as a frozen pelvis. My fallopian tubes were ruined and he said because of them being ruined, I needed IVF to get pregnant. I was devastated to say the least. How were we ever going to afford IVF? I waited my whole entire 20's to be told I needed IVF to have a baby.
I started my career and that's when we were more serious about wanting a baby but did not know how we were going to pay for it. A nurse I know was the one that told me about CNY, and how they monitor their patients at her OB office that she works for. I looked into CNY. Called CNY in late summer of 2019, and had my consult a couple of months later. I started to get ready for our retrieval. We had to save money for medicine and the procedure itself.
Dr. Corley did our egg retrieval in January 2020. We only had 6 eggs retrieved, and 5 fertilized, but Dr. Corley was very optimistic with the amount we had. The embryology team pushed our eggs to day 5, and three of the five made it to day 5. February of 2020, I had another endometrial laparoscopy done, and bilateral salpingectomy (both fallopian tubes removed), to get prepped for our transfer. The following month on March 31st, 2020, Dr. Kiltz did our first transfer. It was during the beginning of the pandemic, but we couldn't of been more excited because 2 weeks later I got my positive BETA. We now have a happy, healthy beautiful baby girl named Vear. She was born November 25, 2020. We are getting married in October, and are planning to do IVF again after our wedding.
Good luck to all of you who are still waiting for your miracle, it will happen!

Favorite Team Member at CNY:

Thansk to Dr. Corley for the egg retrieval.
Thanks to Dr. Kiltz doing our transfer.

Helpful resources Melissa & Torrey found:

I didn't seek other resources during my journey. I just spoke to other women who were struggling with the same issues.

Unique Moments:

Some lows was that I didn't produce a lot of follicles, and that made me nervous. I thought the whole time, we weren't going to get any eggs. Also, starting everything during a pandemic was beyond stressful! We only got to do our first cycle of IVF by 2 days! Two days after we started out first cycle, CNY stopped all fertility treatment temporarily.

Hope, Inspiration and Advice:

I believe timing is everything. I'm not much of a believer in a higher power, but I do believe there was a reason why I struggled to have babies with other partners. I was meant to have a baby with my fiance and for him to be my children's dad. There's a reason for that.

My advice is that you know your body best. If you think something is not right, go with your gut feeling. I wish I would of advocated for myself more while I was trying to figure out my infertility issues. One thing is to not compare your journey to someone else. Everyone's journey is different, and unique.