Help Grow Our Family

Hello everyone. Thank you so much for taking the time to read about our story. My name is Connie and my husband is Joe. Both my husband and I were born and raised in Iowa. Joe and I met at a fairly young age; I was 19 and he was 21. It was love at first sight and we moved in together after 3 short months but we were engaged within the first few years. Like so many, we had plans on how life was supposed to play out before we wanted kids. I was in no rush to have a child of my own without being fully prepared.  Once I was done with school, we had bought a house, our careers were taking off and the wedding was just a few months away, so we started talking about when to try for our own bundle of joy. We had decided that I would continue my depo shots up until the wedding to avoid potentially getting pregnant before and I would simply cancel the follow up appointments. We felt as prepared as can be and was going to let nature take its course. Our wedding was small and simple, approximately 35 of our closest friends and our loving family. It truly was one of the best days of our lives. 
As you may or may not know, it takes 8 to 12 weeks for Depo-Provera injections to leave your system but on average can take 4-5 months for your periods and ovulation to return to normal. Knowing this, my husband and I thought nothing of it when we didn't get pregnant right away. My last Depo-Provera shot was in Oct 2011 so I wasn't expecting everything to go back to normal until mid Summer 2012 anyway. However, as we approached our 1 year anniversary, I started to think that going with the flow just wasn't going to cut it. I then attempted to track my ovulation. I tried the kits but never could seem to get an accurate reading and using aps on my smart phone didn't increase my odds either. Every at home test I took never showed the positive results we wanted to see. It was at my annual follow up with my doctor that she proclaimed, "Why are you not pregnant after over a year of no birth control?" Thus, our infertility journey officially began.
The first steps were to identify what was causing the delay in conceiving. Ultrasound and scans came first to look at my uterus. Results showed that I have two fully functioning ovaries but I have unicornuate uterus
 - my right side is underdeveloped... meaning I had no right fallopian tube and only have half a uterine cavity. To add icing to the cake, my left fallopian tube was blocked by what appeared to be scared tissue. The doctor suggested an Hysterosalpingogram - HSG test to see if there was any potential opening on the left side. I'd never experienced so much pain in my life as I did during that test. As you may have predicted, the test showed there was no opening in my only available fallopian tube. I was then give two options - surgery to try to open the blocked tube or seek help from an fertility specialist. 
We felt the laparoscopy would have a happy outcome and we would move on from this difficult chapter in our lives. It was an outpatient surgery so I wasn't off work for long but of course, the laparoscopy was not successful. The surgeon was not able to successfully open the blocked tube and once again, we were given two options. Option A) a salpingectomy which required the surgeon to actually remove a section of the fallopian tube or Option B) talk to fertility specialist about In Vitro Fertilization. The IVF process  was definitely both a physically and emotionally challenging time for both of us. Thankfully, our health insurance covered a decent chunk of the cost of the IVF procedures and we were able to attempt 3 rounds. One fresh cycle followed by two frozen cycles. The 1st two rounds did not take and the 3rd round gave us a false positive... after the two week wait, I had a very faint level of HCG that they stated I could be pregnant and asked me to come in a week later for a follow up. The follow up test was negative. At that point, I was so drained emotionally that we decided to take a break from the process and focus on paying off the outstanding medical bills that wasn't covered by insurance.
In April of 2015, I was offered a promotion and asked to move to Pennsylvania for the opening of our employer's new fulfillment center. Despite the stress of opening a new building, things were actually going well... we were hopeful as our future suddenly seemed a bit brighter.  The chaos of our work load slowed down after Christmas and life started to feel somewhat normal again. Unfortunately, on February 24th, 2016, I suddenly doubled over in pain in our small kitchen while cooking that night. I asked my husband to rush me to the emergency room as I knew something was clearly wrong. I had to have emergency surgery for an ectopic pregnancy that had ruptured and was bleeding internally. I lost 4 liters of blood and if my husband hadn't taken me to the hospital when he did, I very well could have lost my life that night. We were told I'd never be able to conceive naturally and it somehow miraculously happened.  I have been given a clean bill of health since February and we are ready to continue on with our journey to grow our family. We are asking for your help to fund  the next steps in our journey.  We are in the process of meeting with new doctor's at a near by fertility center here in Pennsylvania. We do not know what kind of options they will give us... Can we attempt more IVF or is it's too high of a risk for me to carry the child myself? If I am unable to carry, then we will need to move onto exploring surrogacy or adoption, both of which are just as costly. Regardless of what our options are,  my husband and I don't want to go into it unprepared. We will be forever grateful for whatever help you are able to provide. Again, thank you so much for taking the time to read our story and thank you for your help!