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Darla
& Jason Flores
February 2004
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Tubal ligation Oct 1, 1999
Tubal reversal Feb 14,
2004
Pregnancy #1 edd
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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
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