Darla & Jason Flores

February 2004

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Tubal ligation  Oct 1, 1999
 

Tubal reversal  Feb 14, 2004

Pregnancy #1 edd

August 2004

Just wanted to let everyone know that I am pregnant!! My reversal was on Feb 14, 2004. I went through 3 months of trying and decided to just leave it in Gods hands. Whatta ya know!

To everyone who is pregnant, congrats, and all who are still waiting, be patient and best wishes to you.

Darla and Jason Flores

February 2004

Hello everyone! I am back from a long trip and it was just great! Here are my stats, I had 4 small and 3 medium cysts (fibroids) on my left tube which he removed. That is what was causing so much of my pain. Instead of my tubes being clamped, cut and burned, they were just cut in half and burned. I have 7-8 cm on each side. He gave me a 90% chance of conceiving, yeah!

We headed out on Friday night about 7pm from a small town close to Houston. It rained and rained the whole entire way to Mexico. But it wasn't too bad, not a lot of traffic. We did have a close call as we got out of Victoria. We were first on the scene of an accident that very well could have been us if we hadn't stopped at the 4 way stop. The person who turned in front of us came over the hill to a jack knifed truck with no lights whatsoever and ran right into it. That was very scary. The man was ok but was taken to the hospital.

Anyway, we were looking for the turn to the Pharr International Bridge and there was some construction. We exited at this little sign that just said "Mexico". That wasn't the way according to the directions, but it still took us to the same place. Thankfully! We got across the bridge fine and at the second checkpoint the man asked where we were going and we said "Rio Bravo, hospital" and he said "oh, ok", and let us go. This is where it gets tricky if anyone else is driving. It was dark so we couldn't see well as to where to go. We came to what looked like another checkpoint with some roads off to the right. We saw a sign that said Rio Bravo -> so we went that way. I'm guessing we should have just gone straight or some how turned back towards that checkpoint but we just kept going. It was a single road, very dark, not many houses. I just figured we can always go back the way we came if its not right. Well, we ended up in Rio Bravo alright, but we came in from the wrong side. We were not on the highway, which at this point we weren't sure what the highway even looked like over here. We drove around and around, dark, raining, couldn't find any street signs. Lots of 7-elevens though. There were some very beautiful houses! We stopped at a store and my husband talked to the person there. He understands Spanish some, but doesn't really speak it much. We got directions, but still we were lost. We found the highway! We stopped to ask two police officers on the side of the highway which way to go. The told us 3 lights down. We went but we still couldn't find it. It was about 5 in the morning and I was thinking well we have plenty of time to find it. We kept seeing a lot of the same things so we weren't too lost. Finally we just stopped at the 7-eleven again and asked the guy to call a taxi. A guy came in a transit truck and we followed him. He took us right to it! I don't know why we didn't think to do that before. I was so relieved and grateful. The man was very nice to us. We gave him money for showing us the way and he seemed very appreciative of it.

The hospital was all dark and we found out that a branch had knocked out the power. There were people there waiting inside and the nurses were trying get the power on. We walked around outside (it had stopped raining) and come to find out we were right by the hospital the whole time! If the front had been lit up we would have seen it. We got a laugh out of it.

We were really sleepy from driving all night but we waited around till daylight and Dr. Levi got there and realized the lights were out. They had to check people out, check people in, and get everything situated. We talked to some really nice people who were from Texas too (hi Sabrina!) and some others that we didn't get to talk to as much. There was a baby girl in the nursery and they delivered another baby too! It was a little hectic at first. And I felt so bad for that poor lady who mopped the floor. She mopped and mopped and because of the rain, the next person to come in got mud on the floor. She just mopped again. She was not going to let that floor stay dirty. It was very clean there and everyone was very friendly. I felt extremely comfortable.

We finally got to our room and Dr. Levi said to try to sleep a little. We would be next. I got into surgery about 11. The nurse came in to put in my IV. She was very nice, but she had a hard time and after two tries Dr. Levi came in a put in my IV. He is so funny and easy to talk to. They wheeled me to the OR. I got on the table and Dr. Moreno talked to me about the anesthesia. I was already falling asleep when they rolled me over to put in my epidural. I didn't feel a thing. I kept waking up during the surgery. I couldn't feel any pain, only tugging. And I could hear them talking. I am a talker too of course every time I woke up I was talking. They were getting a kick out of me because I kept saying off the wall stuff.

My husband was there during the whole thing and he was so very impressed by all the doctors. He is a paramedic and he was thrilled at being able to be right there with me. Dr. Perez explained things to him as they went. My ovary on my left side was very big because I was about to ovulate and other one looked like a grape. I think someone asked about how he stitched the tubes together. My husband said that he stitched through each layer.

Anyway, once I got back to my room I felt really weird because I had never had an epidural before and I had tingling in my legs but couldn't move them. But I got a lot of sleep after that. Another girl from the group came to our room to visit, her name was Jeanna I think. I was so out of it. She talked to us for awhile and I couldn't believe she had come by herself.

The nurse came in and gave me meds in my IV throughout the day and night. I think the nurses are starting to learn Engish a little because of so many people going over there. She new a lot of what I was trying to tell her. When I told her "pain" and pointed to my stitches she went right out and got pain medicine. I woke up that night at about 2am and couldn't sleep. My husband went and told the nurse and she gave me something in my IV and I was out. The next morning very early the nurse came in and gave me the rest of my meds and started taking out my IV, catheter, and epidural. I was so glad to get all of that out!

Dr. Levi came in later and went over my folder with me and we paid him. He said I needed to shower so they could change my bandage. I didn't think I would want to take a shower but I felt so much better after. The nurse came in and showed my husband how to wrap me up with the bandage. I got my antibiotics and pain meds to take home. We drove right to the highway and straight home. No problems crossing the border.

Overall it was a great experience! I have had some very uncaring and downright rude doctors and nurses in hospitals here in the US and I can't express how wonderful the care I was given at this hospital. Sorry this was so long! I wanted to make sure I got it all, and I probably left some out!

Best wishes to everyone waiting their turn.

Darla Flores

P.S. Our surgery cost was $1970 and we spent about $150 on gas and food. Pretty good !

February 2004 - Update!

When we got home I was concerned because my incision had swollen a lot and we called Dr. Levi and he said to put ice on it and go to bed. I know probably did too much moving around on the drive home. He called the next day to make sure I was ok!!

I was feeling much the next day but I had a lot of bruising on my right side, and it was starting to spread. At Dr. Levi's urging, I went to the ER and they said I had busted a blood vessel on that side and that was the reason for all the black bruising. In the ER the doctor said he has seen this before with c-sections. All I was supposed to do was take is easy and do absolutely nothing for about 2-3 weeks, and it would start to fade away. I was so relieved and thanked God that I did not have to be reopened. They said my blood count was really good and everything else looked fine, so they sent me home. The next night I was still feeling not quite right about it all. They told me it would heal on its own but I was in such pain. Just as I was discussing it with Kathy T via email, Dr. Levi called! My husband told him what was going on and he asked if we could drive back down. We said "YES". So we made arrangements and left that night back to Mexico. This was Sunday night and it took us till Monday morning at 7 I think to get there.

They put me in a little exam room and Dr. Levi and Dr. Perez looked at my incision. When I had gone to the ER I had bruising on my right side about the size of a half dollar. By the time I got to Mexico it was the size of my hand. Dr. Levi said it was the blood coming to the surface. All the pressure from the trapped blood was causing my pain. They got me situated, pulled out my stitch, numbed the area and cut open a small hole in my incision. I didn't feel that, but he squirted saline into the opening and started squeezing and pushing the blood out, that hurt. My husband was like "wow" when he saw it, the Dr.'s laughed. He said it came out like a water fountain, I couldn't look. Thankfully the blood was kind of thick which meant I wasn't still bleeding. It was a lot of blood though. I thought they would never get it all out and it hurt so bad. Finally he put a drain tube in and showed my husband how to give me shots in my rear. Yikes! Had to have a shot once a day for 3 days. So, that was done and we only had to pay $200 for the hospital and the medication he gave me. The Dr.'s didn't charge anything, they are so wonderful!

Dr. Levi was very dismayed at the fact that the ER just sent me home and didn't do anything. He said it might have healed, but not for a very long time and without lots of antibiotics. Thank heaven's for Dr. Levi and Perez! I wish I had just gone to them instead of the ER, now I am waiting on that bill. As we were leaving we saw Jenell and Nicola in the waiting room getting ready to leave. I wasn't aware of who they were at the time, I figured it out later. I would have said hi and talked a little to them. I'm pretty sure they didn't know who I was. We drove back to McAllen and stayed at a Super 8. I was amazed at how great I felt! The pain was gone. I had been in pain for 2 weeks and it was gone. I actually got a lot of sleep. I am doing really great now. We took the tube out on Friday and put a butterfly stitch on the opening.

I keep thinking this is the way I would have felt if I had healed like everyone else did. Anyway, just wanted to let you know how things were going. I am so truly grateful for all the help I received from the website and being able to go to Dr. Perez.

Thank you so much, Darla