“Chase and I have been married for 9 years and had been trying to have kids for 7 of those. We did 3 IUI’s with an OB, who wanted us to do 6 IUI’s before moving onto using IUI’s with medication. Since we were paying out of pocket for these it started adding up quickly. And those all resulted in a negative. After a few years we met with an RE, and he told us that our only option was IVF. We didn’t have the money for IVF, and didn’t feel the care that we were looking for with this doctor. So the following year we switched clinics. With this new doctor he said to try 3-IUI’s and see if you get pregnant. Before meeting with this new RE, I started marathon training (not the best idea) and was running high mileage while going through these 3 IUI cycles. We met back up with him after all 3 failed, and said we needed to proceed to IVF. I had told myself that if I could run a marathon, I could do IVF. While running the Dopey Challenge in 2016, I was undergoing injections for our IVF cycle (days 1-4). At the end of 2014 I started blogging (Running with Infertility) as a way to cope and as a way for me to share my love of spreading infertility awareness, fitness and running. That IVF cycle resulted in 8 eggs retrieved, 6 fertilized and 2 made it to day 5. We did a fresh transfer, and put my running on hold. We found out I was pregnant for all of 2 weeks after Embryo Transfer. Our IVF cycle resulted in a miscarriage.
Our RE wanted me to be put on Depo-Lupron for 3 months, which essentially puts you through medicated menopause. He was 99% sure I had endometriosis, so this drug would stop the growth, while we prepare for our 2nd IVF cycle. My insurance through my work covered $5,000 of fertility treatments, with a lifetime max. Knowing that we wouldn’t have infertility coverage, we started saving (like crazy people) for our next cycle. During that time we held a fundraiser and in the process we created this nonprofit: The Hope for Fertility Foundation. It’s intention at first was to help us be able to pay for our IVF cycle, but we quickly learned that we could save up and pay cash for it ourselves. Instead of the nonprofit helping Chase and I, we started focusing on helping others battling infertility.”
After our 2nd failed IVF cycle, I was told I would never become a biological mother, so we decided to take a much needed break. One of our goals during our break after IVF was to become debt free. We focused on that while I did some research to hopefully get a 2nd opinion in January/February of 2017. In October after my first real cycle and after the failed IVF cycle, I found out I was pregnant. It was truly a miracle. Our little super hero, Kason, was born on June 25, 2017. Through all the heartache and years of infertility, what has brought me through toughest of times is the quote “You can do hard things.” Infertility has brought so much heartache, but now I have a deeper love and compassion towards those whose struggles are hard. My encouragement to all those still struggling is to never lose hope, even in the face of despair, anything can happen.”
You can find Tedi here:
https://runningwithinfertility.com
Instagram: @runningwithinfertility1
