Well hello there!
Sure has been a while.
I won’t bore you with excuses.
I'm a slacker...
Truth is I
didn’t have much to say.
But boy do I now!
After my last miscarriage in November I finally did an RPL Panel
(Recurrent Pregnancy Loss). A slew of tests that tried to figure out if my
multiple miscarriages could be attributed to a number of blood clotting
disorders. It came back negative (surprise, surprise).
This of course left me extremely frustrated. I know something
else is going on and at that time didn’t know what else to do. I had asked my
doctor to test for Natural Killer Cells (NKC). Cells that can be present in the
body and have been known to be the cause of multiple miscarriages. My very
little knowledge of them includes that natural killer cells have been known to
attack a growing fetus because it mistakes it as a disease or infection.
My doctor said she could not run the test because they weren’t
something she believed in, and therefor wouldn’t know how to read the results
of the test. (Or treat them, I so assume.) She did however recommend contacting
a Dr. Sher in Las Vegas and ask him to run the test for me. At the time I
thought that was a ludicrous idea and decided to drop it.
January rolled around, when I should have been starting a third
FET of the remaining three embryos. I wasn’t feeling confidant at all and
started dreading the upcoming start of my cycle. I decided that those feelings
were a huge red flag, and kyboshed the entire thing.
After a few more weeks of depression and self-loathing, I
decided to take another look at Dr. Sher. I had of course heard of him (since I
am an info-fertility junkie!) And knew that he was one of the leading doctors
in the country dealing with infertility, who also believe in immunological
factors playing a role (primarily NKC). I spent some time on his website and saw that
he offered Skype consults for $150.
That seemed reasonable enough for me so I started pursuing a
consultation. It took some time but we finally had one with him earlier last
month. It was only 15 minutes long but it was definitely a turning point in our
journey. After asking a few questions and going over our medical history, he
agreed that there must be some immunological reason as to why this keeps
happening to us. (We’ve ruled out everything else.) He agreed that we needed the
testing but said that he could not do it. He referred us to a lab that is
filled with some real angels here on earth.
Reprosource lab in Massachusetts set up the entire thing. They
found a collection site, got the lab orders, sent the collection kit, had fed
ex pick up the blood and didn’t ask me for a single thing! The whole thing was
prearranged and ran so smoothly. Even better, they covered over 90% of the
cost!! All of the testing combined would have been around $13,000. We paid less
than $1,300 out of pocket.
Our blood samples were separated to two labs; one in Massachusetts
and one in California. These two labs are some of the best in the world. It
should be another few weeks before we get any results.
When they come in, Dr. Sher will call us and let us know what he
thinks. I don’t mean to jump the gun but I think we will be moving our embryos
out to Las Vegas for a future transfer. I have no idea what this will cost/
entail and it is definitely nerve racking.
But when I was speaking with him, I knew he understood my pain
and frustration. He promised me that he could get me pregnant if they can find
out what is wrong. It was one of the best conversations I’ve had in a long
time.
I will link his website below. If you are dealing with multiple
IVF failure or multiple miscarriage, and your doctor doesn’t know why; do
yourself a favor and read his blog!
I will update when we get back our results and what our game
plan is.
Please feel free to contact me with any questions.
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