Hope by Christine

My husband I share a long journey together that started when I was just fifteen and he was seventeen almost eighteen. We spent many years dating and planning to marry someday and have a somewhat large family. We were blessed with our first born, we conceived the first month we tried. We thought this was so easy. After our son turned a year we decided to try for another baby, we tried for a year and nothing. Then we tried for another year and still no baby. After feeling sad a lot and hopeless I decided to mention it to my OB/GYN that we were having trouble for whatever reason. It was difficult to comprehend because it was so easy the first time. We finally had a fertility work up with my regular doctor and spent a year having uncomfortable procedures and a lot of IUI’S, still no baby. I was then sent to a fertility doctor and resumed some of the same procedures and some new as well. We finally decided to undergo IVF because I had unexplained secondary infertility. I felt angry all the time and sad. I hated the fact that friends would say relax your trying too hard and other hurtful phrases. No one knows what it is like unless you have been through it. We started with all the shots and the extreme worry of having multiples and something wrong with them as well drove me crazy.

Through all of this there was our hope that got us through it. Finally after over four years of infertility and many shots we were blessed with the news of a second baby, finally! We were thrilled to say the least. We told both sides of our families and many friends. All who were so excited for us, then at seven and a half weeks we learned that I would be having a miscarriage. I was devasted. I left it up to my husband to break the bad news to everyone. I was then at my lowest point of sadness. We then did not give up hope we had many frozen embryos to try again. We waited three months and did a FET cycle transferring three back, we were blessed again and this time it worked! We have a beautiful second son and he is now turning seven in march. We somehow, during his first year, conceived another son, which to us felt like a third miracle and he was born eighteen months later. He is not yet five. We have always wanted more but we felt we had enough going on at the time.

We started thinking about the fourth a year ago and nothing happened again after trying. My OB/GYN said “if it does not happen, you always can fall back on your other frozen embryos.” We decided to take that route because I was approaching 37 years of age and felt it was time. We contacted CNY Fertility Center, a new place for us, and made arrangements to have another FET cycle, from my embryos that were fertilized seven years ago. We were all set until we got a call and were told, we no longer had embryos left. Some how they were discarded without our consent I was devasted again in a different way and wondered how this could happen to us. We went through years of treatment and to have that opportunity taken away from us was heart breaking. We were not giving up this easy, if it took more shots we wanted it no matter what. We went straight to IVF and were very pleased with having a great egg retrieval at a much older age than before. We were delighted to hear that a pregancy was achieved but the HCG levels were at a very low number to begin with, which had us very scared. We ended up with an ectopic pregnancy that was very hard to take. Again our hearts were broken but we still had a few more embryos to use for another try. We just were not giving up!
I have looked at my journey and feel there were a lot of sad times but it was hope that brought me the brightest of my days and closer to my love as well. We became a stronger couple. We are looking to start another try in the next cycle and will keep our hopes up high. I hope my story has brought hope to others that have not yet achieved any pregnancy at all or for those going through secondary infertility. Just try and try until you can’t try anymore, keep the hope going like I do! You just never know what can happen.
~~
Christine

Our Journey

We have been trying to figure out the words to express our gratitude we have for Dr. Kiltz and his whole staff up at CNY Fertility. I have never met such friendly caring staff, they made me feel very positive about everything and were truly some of the nicest people I have come across. I was referred to Dr.Kiltz from my OB/GYN after laparoscopic surgery determined I had stage 4 endometriosis. In November of 2008, I started with injections of Lupron and Gonal F for IVF. The first round did not work out, my levels were too high so we had to wait a month and then try again, this time it worked. Nine eggs were retrieved and only one worked, so on February 14, 2009 the ONE was transfered and on February 25th I had my confirmed pregnancy. On October 30th I had my beautiful 7 lb 8 oz baby girl. I could never fully express the thanks I have for everyone at CNY. But thank you Dr. Rob and everyone for all your help and support!
~Colleen and Daniel

Our family is complete!!

My husband and I married 15 years ago at a very young age, we had 3 children in our first 3 years of marriage, and then I had my tubes tied. 10 years after the birth of our last child, we realized the mistake that we had made. It felt like something was missing,we wanted another child. We looked into having my tubes repaired, but they were too damaged. IVF was our only hope. On our 3rd attempt, it was successful, and I became pregnant with identical twin boys!! On Mother’s Day, our boys were born 13 weeks early. They had a hard fight to survive, but are now both strong healthy boys.

Thank you Dr. Rob and the CNY Fertility staff for completing our family!!

~Sarah

First Born

After two years of marriage my wife decided it was time to start a family. I was still working for a new Corvette. You can imagine how that went, so starting a family was the new priority. After a frustrating year without success we decided we needed to see if there was a problem. Counts were a little low here, this was turned a little off here, nothing huge. Luckily, my wife’s OB/GYN is a gifted doctor and also did artificial insemination (AI). After three failed attempts over the next 12 months we were getting crazy. Not to mention the emotional ride my poor wife was on, due to the injections for weeks, prior to the procedures.

We sat down with Dr. Brown and he said it was time for something else. He said we should try, In-Vitro Fertilization (IVF). He suggested going to Rochester at first as their facility was highly regarded nationally. He then mentioned a young OB/GYN doctor who had just set up a fertility office at a practice in Auburn and was very promising from what he had heard. We decided to go sit and INTERVIEW this upstart from California.

Even though we expected sandals and surfing shorts we were very excited about meeting Dr. Robert Kiltz. He greeted us as David and Suzanne and introduced himself as Rob. Looking very professional and just a touch of gray we immediately felt comfortable. After only twenty minutes of talking we looked at each other and new, if we were going to need help starting a family, Rob was the one to make that happen. We started immediately with excitement and zeal that we would have a family by next Christmas.

It would be eight Christmas’ and eight IVF procedures, along with an emotional ride that nearly destroyed us. Throughout everything we found such encouragement and sincerity at a soulful level from Rob. He truly could feel our pain and worked painstakingly with us, as though we were his only patients, which by now, he had moved on his own and was working 22hrs a day to keep up with every new patient. Because, with Rob, every patient is treated like they are the only patient. Rob laughed and cried with us when the news was confirmed. Nine months later, the most precious GIFT was bestowed on Suzanne and me. Maxwell, our First Born, had arrived. There is nothing in this world I would take over that GIFT, made possible through the life energy gifted to Rob.

Four years later and an incredible 4 year old, the Universe GIFTED us, unassisted, our angelic Emily. We still believe Rob put in a word with the Universe on our behalf. Max and Emily are now 8 and 4, I have happily decided that someday Max will drive me around in his Corvette.

Endless Joy

The emotional roller coaster

At the ripe age of 18 I found out that I would never be able to conceive a child naturally. I never really understood how much of an impact that would have in my life until I finally settled down and wanted to start a family of my own. I never really understood the struggle that I was going to go through.

Here’s my journey:

I went thru, 3 Fresh IVF cycles & 4 Frozen all failed.

I had such high hopes with each and every stage. I was emotionally connected to each follicle, embryo and blastocyst. They were all my babies! I had names for each and every one of the surviving blastocysts. I had dreams of doing things with them; raising them, going to the park, teaching them to walk, hugging them and telling them I loved them. I would hang the picture of the blastocysts on the refrigerator and would talk to them everyday and say “I love you” before heading out the door for work. The devastation I felt upon receiving the negative pregnancy results was always unbearable. I felt that my dreams and hopes of being a Mother was taken away (yet again) with every negative result and my chances of becoming a mother was slipping through my fingers. What had I done wrong? What could I have done different? Why me? Why couldn’t I be one of the lucky few? Then the anger would set it in. Although it was an unfortunate thing to have to receive this devastating news, the only thing that kept me going and gave me some kind of hope was knowing that I had some frosties on ice (term used in IVF for embryo cryopreservation). This emotional roller coaster was going down hill but it would soon climb up again (I would tell myself). I wasn’t ready to get off this ride.

After changing clinics, I met with Dr. Kiltz at CNY Fertility. During my consultation I explained my journey (3 Fresh IVF cycles & 4 Frozen all failed) he asked if he could examine me (right then and there!!!). After my examination, he explained that my fallopian tubes may be full of hydrosolpinx (spelling?) and that could be the reason why the embryo’s weren’t sticking. He wanted to check and make sure: if his theory was correct, he would suggest removing my tubes and going through another fresh cycle with CNY Fertility.

Removing my tubes was the best thing he could have ever done for me. Not only do I no longer suffer from painful menstruation periods, my very next fresh (4th IVF) cycle resulted in a live birth.

~Cooper Daniel was born July 20, 2007

Dream come true

A little over a year and a half ago, My husband and I didn’t think we were going to be able to have children. After many months of waiting and being referred to a clinic in NYC, we decided to visit CNY Fertility Center and Dr. Kiltz. Within 4 months I underwent IVF and soon after found out I was pregnant. Everyone at the fertility center helped to make our dreams come true. On March 30th , I gave birth to a beautiful baby girl. Thank you to all who made this a success story. We look forward to coming back next year to try for another bundle of joy.

~Christine

Katie turns 1!

Dr. Kiltz,
Our blessing, Katie Rose, is about to turn one and I can’t help but sit and think about the joy she has brought to our lives. While we weren’t with you as long as some of your other patients, we were always made to feel like family from our first visit. It’s amazing to think that we were basically a fertile disaster. We had everything going against us and very little in our favor except for you and the power of positive thinking. With that and your help we were able to get pregnant with our daughter on our first try of IVF. Within a span of 30 days we went from having to consider never having our our children to hearing the nurse say we had a positive result. Very few people in this world can appreciate what it means to be a parent when you’ve once been told that would not be an option for you. You are the one who makes that dream come true for so many people and as I sit and watch my daughter flourish every day, I offer up a prayer of thanks for not only my beautiful gift but for you and your staff at CNY Fertility Center who helped us get there.

Love,
Gretchen and Jason

A very special Valentine!

After more than 3 years of trying to have a baby we finally found Dr. Kiltz through our GP. After two failed IVF’s we were ready to give up, the heartbreak was more than we could bear, but Dr. Rob was not ready to give up. He told us about a experimental treatment called IVIG. Since we decided we were only going to try one more time why not try it. Well it worked and we welcomed a beautiful little girl into our world just before Valentine’s Day! We cannot express in words the joy we feel or the lifetime of love that we have been blessed with. Thank you Dr. Kiltz, your belief that dreams come true is infectious and the positive vibes that you project are truly addictive. We are still numb, yet every time we look at our baby we melt!

A miracle and a friendship

September 18th, 2003 will always be the most special day of my life. This is the day that I held my beautiful daughter Emily for the first time. This was the day that my prayers were answered and that I held a precious gift that I never thought I would ever have.

I was born with a congenital heart defect and had been advised by my cardiologist not to attempt a pregnancy. This was not a shock to me because I had been told that I should not get pregnant since I was a teenager. One day at work I was telling my story to a co-worker and my charge nurse Doris, overheard and came to me later and offered to carry a baby for my husband and I. I had not even really thought about gestational surrogacy until that moment. My heart got so excited about the possibility of going through this with my friend and after having five of her own children Doris knew she was up for it.

Doris, my husband and I met with Dr. Kiltz and began working on project baby. We attempted IVF two times using the embryo’s from my husband and I. Doris and I grew closer as we worked together to regulate our cycles so that she was ready to have the embryo’s transferred a couple of days after retrieving my eggs. Both attempts did not take, but a beautiful friendship between Doris and I flourished. The three of us being very religious people prayed and decided to give it one more try. We decided at that point that if it did not take this third time we would explore other options in the future. Doris and I believed that God had a plan and we just needed to listen and have faith that in the end it would be fine. Read more

IVF/ ISCI

I feel hope in my path, It has been a long one but, I am thankful for some of the up’s and down’s. My husband and I are going into our 4th IVF/ISCI we are hopeful… I will keep going until my sixth… I am hopeful that’s my word for today… The task have been hard and often times unfair, but hopeful… I have peace in the future..

Felisha