Becki & Kevin Hawbaker

November 2005

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Tubal reversal

Nov 19, 2005

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4 cm both

January 2006

When my husband and I got married I had a lot of ideals. I wanted only 2 children and I didn't ask Kevin what he thought or how many children he wanted. I called myself a Christian when we got married though I wasn't living it and Kevin was not yet saved.

By the time I was 23, I was back in church building my relationship with God. It never occurred to me that God wanted to plan my family size which seems very silly now. So I insisted in getting “fixed” or “broken” and I didn't talk to Kevin about it first. I just told him I was going to schedule an appointment. One year after my son was born I had the tubal ligation. The only person that tried to stop me said, “You need to be 150% sure before you do this.” I said, “I am!! I am 200% plus sure I don't want anymore kids!!” Nothing was going to stop me. So I went through with it. Kevin supported me and didn't say much. I was as happy as could be. I was in control.

To my surprise several years later I started longing to have another baby. I didn't say any thing to anyone because I was ashamed that I actually wanted another child. I tried to stuff my feelings to no avail. So I started praying for a baby. It was a couple years later that I talked to my sister about it. She gave me the book “Quiver Full”, by Rick & Jan Hess. I read the book and at first I was completely overcome with sadness and feelings of guilt. I couldn't believe what I had done to my husband, my family and myself. My husband had found salvation in Christ at this point. I went to Kevin and asked him to forgive me for not asking his opinion first and pushing my own way.

It was then that I started seeking a reversal. I was sure I couldn't get one anyway because my doctor had told me I was irreversible, but I searched anyway. In my first search I found a doctor in North Carolina and ordered his video. I sent him my records and he told me I was reversible!! Kevin was still unsure about it so I just kept researching. The fee seemed impossible. Then I came across Dr. Perez's website and saw that he was in Mexico. I completely disregarded it and kept searching.

Kevin finally agreed to the surgery through the doctor in North Carolina. I was so happy. There was still one problem; we had no money. We prayed and asked everyone we thought would be supportive to pray also.

After a year I started looking into adoption. Again I got ahead of myself with excitement about it. I went to Kevin and asked him about adopting a child, he said, “Not now, I really think we need to seek the reversal first and go from there.”

Back to the reversal research I went. I revisited Dr. Perez's website and started reading the testimonies and thought that we should at least consider him. Kevin said, “No way” at first. Then we found a The Lords Heritage Ministry. We applied for funding and were accepted in April ’05. We were 2nd on the list. Kevin agreed after much reading of testimonies and talking to people that we would indeed go to Dr. Perez.

To our shock and amazement 8 months later our reversal was complete.  We are whole again.

As soon as funding came through we prayed and we were able to get all the arrangements made. It all went so smooth. We booked our flight right after we called Dr. Levi and made the appointment. Then we emailed Marcos for transportation and booked our hotel for the night we got out of the hospital.

When we arrived in McAllen we were not really sure how we would find Marcos but he found us all without a picture. He had another couple in the truck already. So we were on our way. When we got to the hospital Marcos was great. He helped us with the paper work, took us to our room and asked repeatedly if there was anything more he could do for us. He then left to get his next pick up. Four hours later he was back. He helped check them in and took them to a restaurant, then came back and took us to the same restaurant.

We had a great dinner with another Christian couple. It was very nice to get to know them. We walked back to the hospital; it was a nice walk. When we got back to the room they had put our supper in our room but we were too full to eat so we went to bed.

The nurse came in about 6:00 A.M. to prep me for surgery. It didn't take long and they were wheeling me to the operating room. They took Kevin to get into scrubs. I was scared to death of the epidural and was quite nervous about it. They asked me to roll to my side and I asked, “Where is the sleepy meds?” They said, “It is coming.” I remember them putting the sleepy meds into my IV and I don't remember anything until after they started and my husband was standing by my head. I don't remember much from the surgery other than at one point when I opened my eyes I saw smoke and could smell a weird burning smell. It was when they cauterized the blood vessels to stop bleeding.

After surgery Dr. Levi came to our room and explained everything to us. He told us I have 4 cm on both sides and I have small amounts of endometriosis but both tubes are open. Dr. Levi sat in our room 3 times for a ½ hour or more each time chatting with us about everything. He was very thorough about making sure he answered our questions. We didn't have much trouble with the nurses and our language barrier. They understood the word pain very well.

I had a lot of back pain the night of surgery and so in the night when I couldn't sleep they called Dr. Levi. He told them to disconnect the epidural, IV and everything. My back pain subsided and I was able to sleep.

The next day I was able to get up and shower. Marcos came in the afternoon and took us to our hotel in McAllen, TX. Our flight left the next morning. We had one lay over in Houston, over all the flights were not bad. I was pretty tired after all the travel.

All in all everything went great I would go back and I would recommend Dr. Perez and Dr. Levi to anyone having this surgery. I would also recommend hiring Marcos whether you fly or drive. It was very nice not having to worry about directions and customs. 

Becki Hawbaker