Dawn and Todd Reed
biomedical field engineer

Oct 2002

We drove from Florida to Pharr. Aside from post-hurricane/tropical depression clean-up along I-10, the drive was boring and uneventful -- thank goodness. We made a "dry run" into Mexico to find the hospital. To the ladies making the trip: the directions were perfect, stick to them :-). In my case, it was the person interpreting the directions (that would be me). In my excitement I had DH getting off the highway too early, taking the wrong turn, then not being patient enough to drive to the end of the block where the hospital was. Anyway, we wound up in down town Rio Bravo totally lost and rapidly brushing up on our defensive driving skills -- fortunately for me, hubby took it all in stride.  I ran into a corner pharmacy and asked the lady behind the counter for directions in my near non-existent Spanish (showing the picture of the hospital I printed out from the webpage -- invaluable!); from my high school Spanish (from *many* years ago), I was able to make out the lady's directions. Finally, we got to the hospital and one of the nurses called Levy. In just a few minutes, Levy was there and he asked me how would I feel about having the surgery that evening. I was thrilled that they could take me in that night as I have never been so ready for the operation! So we set it for 8 pm so that DH and I could go back to the hotel and get my things.  Coming back in that evening we were stopped and our vehicle was inspected. For future travelers, if you get the red light, you need to pull over to the right side so they can inspect your vehicle. The inspection consisted of nothing more than a cursory glance inside the car and the trunk.

I was prepped and in the OR, and chit chatting with Levy and Dr. Moreno, the anesthesiologist, when I mentioned I never had an epidural before but I preferred the epidural to general. Then Levy injected something into my IV and said, "This will make you relax." During the surgery when I came to because I knew I was snoring -- but I was snoring so loudly that periodically my hubby would tap me on the shoulder. I knew I was asking a lot of questions because every now and then he would go, "honey, let Dr. Perez concentrate." The atmosphere was relaxed and easy going and you could tell they have performed the procedure many times together.

The surgery took about 2 1/2 hours. My right side had to be totally reconstructed, but my left side was fine insofar that it was a routine rejoin. My husband said that the filaments they used to rejoin the fallopian tubes were so fine that they were smaller than the human hair and could actually float away! Also, hubby said that Dr. Perez used a cauterizing scalpel to cut down on blood loss.

I'm so impressed with Dr. Perez and his staff. My husband isn't a medical professional per se, he's a biomedical field engineer, but he was also impressed with the hospital and staff as a whole. He is a skeptic and if he had any doubts about the hospital and the staff's capabilities, he would have pulled the plug in an instant. He's been running around boasting over Dr. Perez. .

The post-op care was wonderful, the best hospital experience I ever had. The food was great! Throughout the whole time Levy came in and checked on me. Before I was discharged, he came back in to answer any questions, give me instructions for post-op care for my incision. While my hubby and Levy were wrapping up my midsection in a huge bandage, they were cutting up so much back and forth that they nearly had me crying from laughing so hard. I know I couldn't wait to get into the shower -- I felt a little bit better after showering and washing my hair. I met Loretta B before we drove into Rio Bravo, so I went to her room to visit just before I was discharged. There was another American lady there, I wasn't sure if she was on the list or what, but DH was shooing me out to the car so I didn't have an opportunity to ask.

I would make the trip again, both my hubby and I were impressed with the staff and our treatment. I am so thankful for finding RioBravoReversals without which, my reversal would not have been possible.  While I would be thrilled to conceive, I'm am happy to be whole once again.

Dawn Reed