Follow your dreams, they know ways.
March 17, 2017
Using the donated eggs or struggling with my declined ovaries made me confused on this journey.
I slowed down, and heard the voice in my heart,
"What do you really want in the very beginning?"
"Having a child, my Lord."
"Just follow your dreams, they know the way."
In the summer of 2015, I got an email overseas.
This mail was from Hong Kong, and also the first connection between she and me. She was my first "pen-pal" at the Stork Fertility Center, but not the first overseas friend here.
Our dean always said that there were four stations during the journey of having babies. Each person gets on the different trains in different times, at different places. The speed, the duration, and the starting/ending time are different as well. Ideally, this journey would be better at the age under 35 years. The second one was at the age between 35 and 37 years. Then it was at the age between 38 and 40 years. The last train was at the age over 40 years. On the last train, the cost was high and the duration was pretty long, but the terminal became uncertain.
When I received her mail, she was on the last train:
[I have undergone the IVF several times, and the harvested oocytes were very few. In the last one program, I only retrieved one oocyte while the ultrasound monitor showed that there could be four follicles. The only one had poor morphology and possible poor quality. My fertility specialist recommended me to take the donation program, since the ovarian function seemed significantly declined. I was very disappointed and confused. My mother expected grand children so much, and she was quite old. I don't know how I can do now.
I sat in front of the laptop, and googled for the donated eggs. I tried to slow down my thoughts, and heard a voice from heart,
"What do you really want in the very beginning?"
"Having a child, my Lord."
"Just follow your dreams, they know the way."
One night, I discussed the donation program with my husband, and achieved a consensus. We decided to visit your fertility center for the donation program.]
She mentioned the limited ability of Mandarin, and would like to prepare all the required documents before coming to Taiwan. I replied her questions step by step, and arranged the related body exams. Thanks to the developed SOP for overseas customers at Stork Fertility Center, she completed all the prerequisite preparation soon.
She chose the fresh donated-egg set, which the donor undergoes the stimulation and retrieval operation, and then the eggs are fertilized immediately rather than being cryopreserved. When I reported the outcomes of oocyte pick-up, she said, "how about the recovery? Is the process bad to her body?" She knew that the process could be very uncomfortable to some females, since she already underwent the IVF so many times.
Fortunately, everything went well. There were 16 available eggs, and 9 good blastocysts cryopreserved. In the following year, she underwent the first cryotransfer with a Day 5 embryo graded 4AB. Not too surprisingly, I received her good news from Hong Kong, and the precious video of fetal heartbeat. We both saw the primary photos of the baby in front of the computers.
This year, the healthy baby was delivered, and the mother recovered very well. She has promised us to bring the baby back for celebration.
2017, is a brand new beginning for her family.
