Kristine D

August 2008

I would like to share my story. I had my tubal reversal on Thursday, July 10, 2008

First of all I had done quite a lot of research on tubal reversals around the country and even around the world. I chose Dr. Perez because of all the good things I read about him and honestly I felt led to that decision. The day after my husband and I decided to go to Rio Bravo for the surgery, we had an unexpected financial miracle. We literally got the EXACT amount of money needed for the surgery, the flight and a night or two at the hotel. The next morning I woke up, still having a bit of anxiety, I had this vision in my mind of Dr. Perez and Dr. Levi standing over me and telling me that everything would be fine. It was a dream I guess, but I woke up knowing that I would be in excellent hands. That same day I got a phone call from an insurance claim I had submitted and they had approved the amount of money I had requested (this was unexpected and entirely unrelated to the tubal reversal). When I got off the phone that day I reviewed our expenses and discovered that it was literally the EXACT amount needed. God was really wanting this to happen!

Marcos had our driver waiting for us within minutes of our arrival to the airport in Mcallen. Going through the border was no problem. I had been nervous about the cash, but we had no problems. We were driven to the hospital in Rio Bravo then brought to our room where we waited to talk with Dr. Levi. I cannot say enough good things about this wonderful man! Dr. Levi is like a family friend to us now. We really felt so comfortable talking with him and he really cares a lot about what he is doing. He took all the time in the world to talk with us, answer all our questions, he had a great, warm personality and I felt as if we were part of his own family!

I had been very nervous about the epidural and the catheter because I never had this before. I can’t specifically remember every detail of what happened next, but I know that my husband was extremely impressed with the food. They gave him lunch and dinner Thursday night (the night of the surgery) and they gave him breakfast and lunch on Friday. After a few hours it was time to go into the surgery room. I was still very nervous about the epidural and catheter. I felt a bit scared and they brought me into the room with the big overhead lights. It was getting very real now! My husband was brought in a bit later and I knew they would bring him in, but it was at that moment all my fear came in. I started to have big tears coming down my face and that’s when the anesthesiologist (I wish I could remember his name) stroked my arm and told me “no pain”, “don’t worry – no pain” I didn’t feel any pain with the epidural or the catheter, then the next thing I remember is my husband standing over me. I was so happy to have him there and I just looked up at him and said: “Is it you?”. It was kind of a magical moment. I mean, everything we’d been through together (he never had any kids before and I had 3 from a previous marriage) We were finally here in the hospital and the money came in to make the surgery possible and there we were. It was really happening.

The next thing I remember is I’m back in my room, begging for pain killers and then food! My legs were completely numb and it freaked me out a bit. My left leg took forever to get back to normal and I couldn’t move it at all. I had pain in my collar bone area but I didn’t feel much pain at the surgery area. The nurses were highly skilled. I mean, let me tell you, these nurses are HIGHLY SKILLED – if anyone has ever been in the hospital before, you can tell when someone knows what they are doing and that they care about you when they are doing it. The nurses were extremely professional, quietly compassionate and did the job they had to do in such a gentle and amazingly painless way. When the nurse took the catheter out I could barely even notice and I didn’t feel anything at all when she took out the epidural. (They took me off on Friday afternoon).
Dr. Levi was so great. He explained everything to me and he was honest. He didn’t sugar coat anything. I had to have some reconstruction done on one tube where Dr. Perez had to sort of “re-build” the “fingers” and this left me with 5 centimeters, then the other tube had good “fingers”, but was shorter, leaving me with 4 centimeters. (Well, that’s the best I can do to explain what I remember). Anyway, Dr. Levi wanted me to walk around the hospital on Friday afternoon and it took me several hours of walking, then resting, walking, then resting to feel like I was ready to go.

We got a shuttle to the pharmacy for some pain medications, then we got a shuttle to the Holiday Inn Express where they had an outdoor pool for my husband to swim in and an outdoor hot tub. (I put my feet in on Saturday). We stayed at the hotel until Sunday night. I wanted plenty of recovery time before flying. (I highly recommend at least a full day if not more time to recover before flying). Fortunately our flight was only about 5 hours in total, including the connection.

We’re back at home now and I am still walking very stiffly and needing to rest a lot. I’m not in any extreme pain, but there is a soreness and stiffness that tells me to rest and it would be crazy for anyone to think they can get back to normal activity in less than a week. It’s been 4 days since my surgery on Thursday, July 10,2008 and we are going to wait a full 2 months before we try to get pregnant because Dr. Levi said that the risk of an ectopic pregnancy is much higher if you try too soon. I will update everyone when we are pregnant (which I have no doubt will be in October 2008- stay tuned). Again, if anyone is having any doubts about Dr. Perez and Dr. Levi, just pray about it and follow your heart.

I didn’t really talk to Dr. Perez because Dr. Levi was the one explaining everything and he was the one checking on me (which he did many, many times). I never felt abandoned by the medical staff. The anesthesiologist, the nurses, Dr. Levi, the lady that brought the food, the lady that came in to the room twice a day to clean it, Dr. Perez, everyone – THANK YOU – THANK YOU – THANK YOU! I have absolutely no doubt that we will have our babies soon!

Also, two babies were delivered on Friday morning while we were there! A boy and a girl! That was pretty cool!

Thanks again to everyone.

Kristine