Hello! This is my personal tubal reversal story; the testimony of my personal tubal reversal journey and subsequent pregnancies. It is meant to offer encouragement to other women considering tubal reversal surgery.

My name is Sophia (Soph for short). I've created these pages to keep a record of the events in my personal tubal reversal journey, and to share my experience with other women considering tubal reversal. I appreciate you stopping by to visit! I hope you find inspiration and encouragement, as I share my experiences and acquired knowledge. My story is nothing short of a fairytale. The story is a bit long and complex so I will try to break it up into sections.

HISTORY
After a rotten first marriage and subsequent divorce, (a marriage which by the way yielded no good other than my three beautiful children prior to my tubal ligation or TL) I met a wonderful man - my now husband Alan. The TL proved a very effective mode of birth control, but as time went on I began to experience subtle health issues related to my menstrual cycle that I later came to realize probably all pointed back to having my tubes tied. That isn't the focus of my story, although for those curious about the after affects of tubal ligation (the stuff the doctors don't tell ya) I must tell you it can reek havoc on your body. You can learn more by researching that topic on your own, but I will share that some of the damage I suffered from the ligation was irreparable. So if you are reading this and considering having your tubes tied, I highly recommend you reconsider and find an alternate form of birth control.

Now back to how Alan & I met, we met at church and became friends before we started to date. Later he asked me out and we became inseparable. We learned that we'd each had crushes on each other for some time although we never told any of our church friends. We dated for only a couple of weeks before we realized that we were destined to be together forever, and we started talking about the possibility of us getting married. We became officially engaged after our fifth month of dating. During our courtship, we spent time bonding he & I, and him and my kids. I found him to be great husband/father material, and he seemed very happy to be with us despite all my offers to let him let him escape. I had found my soul mate. So on May 15, 1999 exactly one year after our first date we were married in the same church that brought our lives together.

The twist in the story is that although he had been married for twelve years before meeting me, his previous marriage never yielded any children - despite years of trying. He had a strong feeling that this was all due to infertility on his part, although he never had any kind of testing to confirm it. He seemed to long for children of his own, but he was accepting of the fact that I couldn't bear children anymore. It broke my heart every day that I had chosen to tie my tubes and that I couldn't even begin to try to give him children.

DESIRING CHANGE
In the beginning, we were content to just be together, but as we grew closer and closer, I had an overwhelming desire for us to have a child together, and I started wondering about tubal reversals (TRs). In sharing my desire with him I discovered that he too had toyed with the idea. So, we started looking into what it would take to have my tubal ligation reversed. This is how I came to know about Dr. Berger (Dr. B from here on out). His name came up in various Internet searches I ran. Imagine my surprise when I found out his clinic was in NC. The same place Alan is from, to us this was like a sign we were on the right path. Although we currently live in CO, we go to NC at least once a year to visit Alan's family. Well the wheels started spinning. I thought we could easily kill two birds with one stone by doing my TR in NC (visit his family & have my TR at same time).

Not only had my research led me to Dr. B, but I was very intrigued by his method for TRs. It was microsurgery, out patient, two week recovery and we'd be trying to conceive (ttc) in no time. I soon had the operative reports from my ligation in hand and was faxing them to Dr. B. for his opinion. Dr. B said it would be no problem. He said the report showed that my ligation was done by using Falope Rings, of which I was assured was one of the easiest methods of ligation to reverse. He also encouraged us to seek a sperm analysis for my hubby, it was later determined he was perfectly fertile (just as I had hoped and suspected). I decided TR was a definite must for me, so I scheduled it with Dr. B on December 21, 2001. Of course I had to convince Alan a little, and we didn't exactly have the money-LOL. We ended up charging it on a credit card (which we are still paying on). But in the end it was worth every penny.

In researching all the information about TRs I found and joined an email support group that I found online. I wanted to talk to women like myself that were interested in TR or had done it. It's called The Tubal Reversal Support group on Yahoo! Groups. It was through the support of the wonderful ladies there that my questions, fears, concerns were all addressed. I found this group was a cut above the rest, and believe it or not I'm still a member of the group today - I find it so rewarding to help women as they embark on the TR journey, and to give a little back from all the support I received there. If you are reading this now and looking for support I highly recommend you stop by and visit our little group (I mean family). It is by far the best TR support group out there. Click on my LINKS to learn more about the group.

THE REVERSAL
I had my TR as scheduled with Dr. B in Chapel Hill, NC. I was blessed to be returned to a whole woman, capable of conceiving once again. After TR my tube lengths were 9 cm on each side, Alleluia!!! We stayed with Alan's family in NC while I recovered. Three months after the surgery my local OB/GYN scheduled me for an HSG, a dye test that shows if the tubes are open, the result were that both tubes were indeed WIDE OPEN. My testimony is posted on Dr. B's web site. See my LINKS page to access his web site.

TRYING TO CONCEIVE
After my TR I went all out and started charting my temperature, and doing ovulation predictor kits. I also started a web journal to keep track of our TTC journey. I created several web pages to share the journey with other women also ttc'g after having a TR, and I also wanted to be able to share our experience with our future children. After a while though, all the charting and journaling became way too stressful and my very smart husband convinced me to give it up for a while and just do things naturally. We tried to conceive for a total of 8 cycles, the last two were natural. I couldn't believe how hard those eight months were and how many tears I shed every time AF (aunt flow-otherwise known as my period) would show up. It was so disappointing to say the least, and even harder were all the people that kept asking if we were pg yet.

In the midst of our second natural cycle (late August of '02), I had some spotting that led me to believe AF was coming early. The spotting lasted for three days and then it stopped. The mysterious spotting made me very suspicious that the spotting was actually implantation spotting and that I was pg, so I started using hpt's like a crazy woman-LOL. It was so early though, and I kept getting a negative result, the kicker though was that I couldn't bring myself to throw the tests in the trash. I would go back and look at them repeatedly.

One day I went back several hours later and I thought I saw a very, and I mean very faint line. Well I was crazy thinking, "Could it be?' I was determined to test again cause my husband would not get excited until it was for sure. Again, the test came back negative, and I was very disappointed, but again I didn't throw the test away. An hour later I checked it again and there was that very faint line again. Finally, I decided to buy a more sensitive test (The First Response Early Detection or FRED), and I planned on testing with my first morning urine, I ended up testing at like 3 am, cause I just could not wait any longer. I followed the instructions to a tee and within one minute, a very dark second line appeared. So finally on Aug. 29, 2002 we were pg!!! Finally our prayers were answered.

WE ARE PREGNANT
Needless to say my dear husband (dh) didn't get too excited when I told him cause he was half asleep-LOL. He actually still wouldn't believe it until we had a blood test to confirm it, which we got in for right away and it did confirm it. My due date was calculated to be May 10, 2003. We were elated, but still nervous as we knew that the possibility of eptopic pregnancy was real. We worried every time I had a twinge of pain. We waited on pins and needles to see our precious little bundle in the ultra sound and confirm he/she was in my uterus. On September 8, 2002 we finally saw the gestational sac in my uterus. We would still wait to tell anyone, as we feared losing the pregnancy to an early miscarriage. This fear became even more real when I started spotting bright red blood, but the OB assured me that unless the bleeding was accompanied by cramping, it was most likely fine, and each u/s showed the baby was fine. My OB was right and we went on to have a healthy baby girl named Grace on May 14, 2003. Praise be to God. You can read about her story by clicking on my LINKS page.

THE ROAD UNENDING
You may be thinking the story ends there we surely did. We had toyed with the idea of trying for a boy a couple of years down the road, but we weren't too sure as we were getting older and we now had four children to raise. Let me tell you that God had other plans for us. When Grace was eight months old and I was still breast feeding her, my AF was really late - there was no reason to think I was pg as we were practicing a reliable form of birth control. Regardless AF was so late we decided to buy an hpt and test. Darn it if it wasn't positive.

PREGNANT AGAIN
Yep, you read right. We were pg again, and not even trying! We weren't exactly prepared for another child so soon, but we aren't the type of folks to sulk about it either, we had thought about having another baby down the road, so we decided to just be happy about it. We still feared the possibility of it being eptopic and we'd have to wait for an u/s to figure out my due date as I had no clue when my last AF was. The first u/s confirmed that the baby was indeed in my uterus, but it was still rather small my OB guessed maybe five weeks. She wanted me to come back in a couple of weeks when the baby was bigger to get a more accurate date. We did and finally they determined that I was about 6 and a half weeks pg, putting my due date around Oct. 3, 2004. This pregnancy wasn't as easy as the first one, but despite the complications - on Sept. 14, 2004 Sarah-Rose our second daughter was born. If you click on my LINKS page you can read her very SPECIAL story (this ones a very long one so grab a cup of coffee and a box of tissues).

SUCCESS
As you can see our journey was successful not once but twice. There were many ups and downs along the way, but we still call this our SUCCES story. We know that God was with us every step of the way leading and guiding us. We are living proof that God answers prayers, and that TR's work. The decision to have a TR is a very personal one that I believe each woman should evaluate based on her own personal situation. I was fortunate to have had an easily reversible ligation, there are other methods that are more damaging to the tubes. I was also fairly young (under 35) with no previous history of pregnancy related problems. I relied heavily on prayer and my instincts when picking my TR doctor. Although I needed the aid of medical technology, I give all the credit for these precious miracles to God. He is my rock and my salvation, and I will praise Him all the days of my life for the glorious things He has done in my life. He gave me this scripture to rely on when I became impatient along the way; I considered it His promise to me.

(Psalm 27:13-14)
Yet I am confident that I will see the LORD's goodness while I am here in the land of the living. Wait patiently for the Lord. Be brave and courageous. Yes, wait patiently for the LORD.

Thanks so much for visiting my web site and reading my story. My hope is that it will help other women journeying down the same road. I hope they will find encouragement in the lines. Please be sure to visit the pages for our girls, their stories are each beautiful and unique and my story wouldn't exactly be complete if you didn't read theirs as well. I wish each and every woman out there the best out come on their journey, if your future includes a TR whether it be because you desire another child or just better health, I pray that your dreams come true.

Thanks for stopping by! Please feel free to leave a note in my guestbook.

Sincerely,
Soph