The Finale

Dr Bowman phoned to tell us we had reached the end of the line in our Fertility treatment. We cannot make quality embryos most likely because of my eggs. Therefore we did not qualify for surrogacy. In most cases like this he would recommend trying with donor eggs but because we had already done this and were unsuccessful he would only be prepared to try once more using donor eggs.

It had been almost 2 years since Rach first donated her eggs to us. She couldn’t wait to jump in and do whatever we needed her to do. Looking back now at what she went through she possibly would have hesitated just a little bit before saying yes.

The logistics of organising a donor egg IVF cycle can be quite involved let alone when your egg donor lives in WA, your clinic is in Sydney and you live in Tassie.

Rach probably remembers this cycle more vividly than I do. The regime was a little different to last time and what could go wrong, did.

 Firstly, the medications get lost in transit. Then Rach’s bloods end up in Darwin, and then apparently they are lost, so she has to go for more tests. At this point we were liaising with several different nurses at the clinic and getting mixed messages.

The day Rach had to fly out was a disaster for her. She lives over an hour from the airport and was to have a scan and a blood test in the city before she left.

 Lesson learned: never organise anything the morning of your flight.

The next sequence of events goes something like this:

• Caught in heavy traffic on the way to the city
• Arrive late for scan
• No sonographer working today ( nurses forgot )
• Flight time looming
• Go to another clinic
• Can’t find reception
• Nearly twists ankle running around the hospital!
• Panic about missing flight
• Scan and bloods done
• Car crashes into Rach as she is leaving car park
• Cutting it fine, but makes it in time for her flight

Sounds stressful huh? Then try adding in IVF medication. I felt so bad for Rach. It was such a relief when we all arrived in Sydney. We had such a great time and Rach was such a trooper. I could feel her nerves before the egg collection (without sedation) like they were my own.

We all had such a great time, Mum and Madi joined us for that last part of the trip. Things were looking really good. We ended up with 3 Grade A Blastocysts (5 Day old Embryos) and we transferred two. This was the first time we had transferred such strong embryos and we were all feeling very positive.  Thanks to Rach, we had the best possible chance of pregnancy we were ever going to have.

“Dear Rach

Foo and I will be forever grateful to you for the hope and support you have given us.

You are an amazing person and deserve so much good in your life.

I am sorry for both of us that we haven’t been able to make it happen.

We can never tell you how much what you did for us means. You gave us hope when we didn’t have any. You will always be so special to us and we will never forget how much you tried for us.

Thank you with all our heart.

We love you very much.

Love Ange xxxxxx”