Samantha & John

Samantha & John's Story:

My husband and I got married in the fall of 2016, and just a few months later we decided we wanted to try for a baby. We got pregnant very quickly, we were so excited! Unfortunately, we experienced a miscarriage at about 10 weeks. Our healthcare providers encouraged us to try again and explained that most people go on to have perfectly healthy pregnancies.

We decided to try again a few months later, we got pregnant quite easily again! I began the pregnancy by taking progesterone as a precaution. Leary this time, and although we were hopeful, we miscarried again around 9 weeks.

My doctor felt it would be a good idea to speak with a high-risk specialist going further with pregnancy. So we met with a local high-risk OBGYN, who ran many, many blood tests & cultures. He recommended treatment with Heparin, baby aspirin, and progesterone. We followed this protocol with a 3rd pregnancy, I felt so different that time and finally experienced some nausea!! I was excited to think the treatment was working. Again, another miscarriage around 8 weeks. The high-risk specialist had done all he could for us and recommended we go to a fertility specialist out of the area.

We discovered CNY, and after hearing some testimonials we decided to set up an appointment. Dr. Kiltz and other providers ran more blood tests, cultures, and performed a hysterosonogram. Everything again, on paper looked good!

My husband and I decided to take a little bit of time off from our fertility journey to have some fun and regroup. About 5 months later we were surprised with a 4th pregnancy. We immediately called Dr. Kiltz who quickly ordered prescriptions for me. I proceeded with a keto diet, Lovenox injections, progesterone injections, Plaquenil, Low dose of Naltrexone, and weekly intralipid infusions. We were very happy that CNY monitored me very closely with weekly ultrasounds and bloodwork. Unfortunately, my body began to miscarry again around 11 weeks. This time we decided it was time to have a D&C with some testing on the fetal tissue...and hopefully get some answers. Dr. Corley performed the D&C, he was amazing! However, the pathology read "normal" and unfortunately, the tissue was insufficient for genetic testing. Usually, you want results to be "normal" but we were just hoping to get a diagnosis at this point.

At that time, Dr. Kiltz and Dr. Corley recommended a Laparoscopy Hysteroscopy. We decided to move forward with this, as we thought there may be something going on inside that could not be seen with the testing that had already been done. Dr. Luthringer performed the surgery, he made me feel so at ease going into this procedure! Although, again the results were "normal". Our 3 providers had all recommended either trying an IVF cycle with preimplantation genetic testing or try treatment with Lyrica and all previous medications 3 months prior to another pregnancy.

My husband and I were unsure whether we wanted to go through with an IVF cycle due to cost (although CNY is the most affordable around)... and I was unsure if I wanted to take the Lyrica knowing some of the side effects that could happen. We were so mentally exhausted that we decided to take another short break from the fertility journey.

About 9 months later we got pregnant a 5th time and had thought that since we gave it some time maybe we should let my body do what it naturally was going to do. We prayed and prayed for a healthy pregnancy and for my body to stay healthy, however, we did miscarry again around 10 weeks.

Feeling defeated, exhausted, and angry I had a "fight" with God while I was praying one day. I asked, "why???" "Why is this happening to us and why have we had to experience so much sadness for these 5 long years?!". That is when we decided to explore fostering, adoption, or possibly surrogacy...but everything seemed so expensive and so out of reach financially.

Just a week or so later and as soon as we started to accept the fact that we may live a life without children, God blessed us. Our long-time friend had come to my husband's birthday party with his fiance Shannon. We had only met Shannon a couple of times, and that day she told me that she had heard what we were going through and that every good person deserves to be a parent. She said that she wanted to carry a baby for us. We were very appreciative and planned to discuss it more, but inside it really felt too good to be true. It wasn't. The next day Shannon followed up with me to tell me how serious she was and that she wanted to get the show on the road as soon as possible!

Over the next month or so, I began an IVF cycle with CNY, had my egg retrieval and was blessed with 20 eggs! Most of which were able to be fertilized with my husband's sperm. Shannon completed her pregnancy screening and transfer medications, and became pregnant after the first transfer! We were so excited, nervous, in disbelief, etc. Here we are, 9 months later with our beautiful baby girl.

I've realized that I had prayed, cried, begged, and fought with God for all the wrong reasons. I use to pray that the pregnancies would sustain, or the medication would work when all along I needed to trust I'm God's plan. His plan brought us Shannon, and this sweet girl of ours.

Favorite Team Member at CNY:

Dr Kiltz took time out of his busy OR schedule when he saw me crying in the hall walking out of the building, he sat with us and answered questions.

Dr Corley was very sympathetic and encouraging when I had to have my D&C.

Dr Luthringer was so knowledgeable, funny, and really put me at ease when going into my surgery.

Helpful resources Samantha & John found:

Yoga really helped me stay energized and focused to keep going on our journey.

Unique Moments:

A high point in treatment was that CNY watched me closely (weekly) early during pregnancy. This made us feel hopeful.

A low point was when the medications and treatments did not work for us.

Our story is unique because although after all of our treatment I didn't end up physically birthing our baby, CNY still made the impossible, possible for us.

Hope, Inspiration and Advice:

Trust that your visualization of what should be happening for you is not always the answer. You could pray and hope for things to go your way until you're blue in the face, but at the end of the day your higher power or universe has a better plan for you.