TAC surgery to cure IC
Donation protected
Hi everyone!
Many of you have followed the crazy long and traumatic story of my husband and I trying to bring home a baby through my blog. I will explain briefly:
Will and I were married in 2011. Will is a paraplegic, and we knew we would have to do IVF to conceive. We started our journey shortly after we were married. Our first IVF sadly was unsuccessful. We then tried multiple IUIs, with the same result. In 2014, we decided to try IVF again, and were blessed to conceive 2 beautiful baby girls, Zoey Jane and Piper Ivy. We were so excited! I woke up everyday for 20 weeks in absolute bliss, ready to welcome my long awaited babies into the world.
On October 30th, my world was rocked. Will and I went to our anatomy scan appointment, overjoyed and ecstatic about seeing our babies during a 30 minute ultrasound. Unfortunately, the nurse quickly found a shortened cervix and funneling. We were sent to labor and delivery, then transferred to Vanderbilt hospital to monitor contractions and cervical length. After 10 heartwrenching days, I went into labor. My cervix was gone and I was fully dialated. Our baby girls were born on November 9th, 2014 at just 20.3 weeks gestation. They were absolutely perfect, healthy, and alive for 20 glorious minutes.
I have been diagnosed with incompetent cervix. This is when your cervix painlessly shortens and dialates prematurely. In order to carry a baby to term, I need a cerclage.
There are 2 types of cerclages: a transvaginal cerclage and a transabdominal cerlage. A transvaginal cerclage is placed low on the cervix and is placed during the 12th-14th week of pregnancy. This cerclage has a 75-80% success rate, requires strict bedrest from the second trimester until delivery, and often only lasts until 32-35 weeks, meaning a lengthy and sometimes risky NICU stay. It also does not work in twin pregnancies, which is a very high probability with fertility treatments. The transabdominal cerclage is placed high on the cervix, and has a 97-99% success rate. It does not require any bedrest and women almost always carry to term. I was on bedrest for 10 days and it was excrutiating!! So the chance to carry without this burden and be able to have a baby shower, set up a nursery, take maternity photos, etc. is huge for me. It also works in twin (and triplet) pregnancies. My doctor says with a transabdominal cerclage (TAC) I can "cross incompetent cervix off of my list of worries"
We are so very blessed to have insurance cover most of this procedure. The procedure costs $7800 out of pocket. Our insurance will cover 80% of the cost. Our new insurance will also cover 90% of another IVF, which is a huge blessing. Our out of pocket expense for the TAC surgery will be $2200.
Will and I have spent upwards of $30000 on fertility treatments. We have spent $3000 on the birth and death of our girls. We are working diligently to save the $2200, but know it will take over a year to reach our goal. It will also add lots of stress to our already difficult budget as we are still paying medical bills and fertility loans.
If you can, please help me cross incompetent cervix off my list of problems. I feel guilty every day that my body failed my girls and I am solely responsible for the death of 2 perfectly healthy, amazing children. I pray we are blessed to carry a child again, and I really do not think I can handle losing another one.
Thank you for reading. If you are interested in hearing my complete story please visit my blog: thejourneytoparenting.blogspot.com
Many of you have followed the crazy long and traumatic story of my husband and I trying to bring home a baby through my blog. I will explain briefly:
Will and I were married in 2011. Will is a paraplegic, and we knew we would have to do IVF to conceive. We started our journey shortly after we were married. Our first IVF sadly was unsuccessful. We then tried multiple IUIs, with the same result. In 2014, we decided to try IVF again, and were blessed to conceive 2 beautiful baby girls, Zoey Jane and Piper Ivy. We were so excited! I woke up everyday for 20 weeks in absolute bliss, ready to welcome my long awaited babies into the world.
On October 30th, my world was rocked. Will and I went to our anatomy scan appointment, overjoyed and ecstatic about seeing our babies during a 30 minute ultrasound. Unfortunately, the nurse quickly found a shortened cervix and funneling. We were sent to labor and delivery, then transferred to Vanderbilt hospital to monitor contractions and cervical length. After 10 heartwrenching days, I went into labor. My cervix was gone and I was fully dialated. Our baby girls were born on November 9th, 2014 at just 20.3 weeks gestation. They were absolutely perfect, healthy, and alive for 20 glorious minutes.
I have been diagnosed with incompetent cervix. This is when your cervix painlessly shortens and dialates prematurely. In order to carry a baby to term, I need a cerclage.
There are 2 types of cerclages: a transvaginal cerclage and a transabdominal cerlage. A transvaginal cerclage is placed low on the cervix and is placed during the 12th-14th week of pregnancy. This cerclage has a 75-80% success rate, requires strict bedrest from the second trimester until delivery, and often only lasts until 32-35 weeks, meaning a lengthy and sometimes risky NICU stay. It also does not work in twin pregnancies, which is a very high probability with fertility treatments. The transabdominal cerclage is placed high on the cervix, and has a 97-99% success rate. It does not require any bedrest and women almost always carry to term. I was on bedrest for 10 days and it was excrutiating!! So the chance to carry without this burden and be able to have a baby shower, set up a nursery, take maternity photos, etc. is huge for me. It also works in twin (and triplet) pregnancies. My doctor says with a transabdominal cerclage (TAC) I can "cross incompetent cervix off of my list of worries"
We are so very blessed to have insurance cover most of this procedure. The procedure costs $7800 out of pocket. Our insurance will cover 80% of the cost. Our new insurance will also cover 90% of another IVF, which is a huge blessing. Our out of pocket expense for the TAC surgery will be $2200.
Will and I have spent upwards of $30000 on fertility treatments. We have spent $3000 on the birth and death of our girls. We are working diligently to save the $2200, but know it will take over a year to reach our goal. It will also add lots of stress to our already difficult budget as we are still paying medical bills and fertility loans.
If you can, please help me cross incompetent cervix off my list of problems. I feel guilty every day that my body failed my girls and I am solely responsible for the death of 2 perfectly healthy, amazing children. I pray we are blessed to carry a child again, and I really do not think I can handle losing another one.
Thank you for reading. If you are interested in hearing my complete story please visit my blog: thejourneytoparenting.blogspot.com
Organizer
Tifani Powell
Organizer
Hendersonville, TN