In April with the approval of my oncologist, I went off my hormone-blocking medication. At my oncologist's recommendation, she suggested I give my body at least 3 months off my medication before beginning to try. There are various opinions on the half-life of hormone-blocking medication. But I was comfortable airing on the safe side.

Simultaneously, we began meeting with the same fertility clinic we used for Mason. But unfortunately, my doctor and all of the staff were leaving. The process of finding a new doctor was difficult and frustrating. And sadly the clinic we ended up at was horrible. The staff was callous, insensitive, and incompetent.

Luckily, I have learned to be my best advocate and in spite of the medical staff we struggled with here is how we ended up pregnant.

• July 4th my cycle returned and we immediately began Clomid at the fertility clinic's recommendation
• Mid-July Ultrasounds - doctors dismissed my follicles as too small and cancelled out IUI
• Early August - I still hadn't gotten my period and was sad and frustrated
• August 10th - My period started and we began another round of Clomid at a higher dose.
  • I later learned from my more trusted fertility source that I should have been on Letrozole instead of Clomid. Clomid is known to spike Estrogen very fast and high which is not good for hormone-positive breast cancer patients.
  • I also later learned my cycle was much longer than expected. And the window to check my follicles properly was missed.
• 2 weeks later the clinic saw me for a mid-cycle follicle check and canceled our IUI saying they were too small.
• 1 week later after checking ovulation daily, I knew I had not ovulated and requested another ultrasound to check my follicles. I was told "an ultrasound cannot tell if you ovulated" which is a complete lie because if they saw the follicles again (which they did) it confirmed I had not ovulated.
• After the ultrasound, I was not spoken to or consulted by a doctor or nurse. So I took matters into my own hands. I went home with the follicle size from the ultrasound and began my own research on the ideal size for the trigger shot. And timed intercourse/IUI via other IVF/fertility moms and fertility specialists.
• I confirmed my follicles were a perfect size and we decided to do the ovulation trigger shot at home (since we had everything from the 2nd canceled IUI cycle).
• 14 days after the trigger shot we took a pregnancy test and confirmed I was PREGNANT!!!!
• We had no additional contact from the fertility clinic and refused to tell them our good news. We would not count for their quotas as they had no part in our success!