Our story for wanting a child began 5 years ago. We were both 25 years old and thought it would be easy to conceive. Unfortunately, getting pregnant became very discouraging when month after month nothing happened. After sometime we began all the testing of checking my tubes and ovaries for cysts. Everything was good so, then came Clomid. Still no luck and the pain with my cycles was getting increasingly worse.
After switching OB doctors I had laparoscopic surgery where moderate-severe endometriosis was found all over my left side, so we tried to clear it with a few months of Lupron then try on our own for a while. Two years had passed and I was ready for the next step. Dr. Brown’s name was given to us from a friend of a friend and my OB did not object. My husband and I met with him and immediately felt like we were in the right place. We all thought the answer was simple, IVF. Our spirits were crushed that Christmas when it didn’t work, so we were back to the drawing board. Dr. Brown did exploratory surgery and everything looked good except that I had cervical stenosis that made IVF transfer difficult.
We geared up for round 2 of IVF in the spring and round 3 was done by the end of the year, still no luck. By this point the emotions we had were pretty rough. Sticking to our Christian faith, we knew God had a plan and he was in control. Dr. Brown’s next step for us was extensive blood work and surprise surprise PCOS was confirmed. At this point I was tired of the shots and hormonal emotions, so we took some time off hoping to get pregnant with PCOS medications.
By the fall of 2011 my pain had grown so severe Dr. Brown decided it was best to perform another laparoscopy and not only found very severe endometriosis but my tubes were now blocked and harboring toxic fluids, a condition known as hydrosalpinx. He was able to unblock one tube so we tried IUI twice and both times it failed. Sadly, it looked as if the only solution to have a child was to have a tubal ligation preformed. With much research, a lot of praying, and the wisdom of Dr. Brown we decided to go through with the surgery.
By Spring of 2012 we were ready for IVF #4. My eggs were harvested the week of Easter and to our delight 2 weeks later we FINALLY got a positive test. Baby Eli was born in December on his Daddy’s birthday. We could not have done it without the help of Dr. Brown and his staff. He never gave up on us and encouraged us to never give up on ourselves or God’s plan. We owe everything to him and the Lord above for sending us our wonderful miracle Baby Boy. We will definitely be back in the future to try for baby #2.
Eric and Emily Tillman