Our Story
Hello and thank you for stopping and viewing our page. My name is Erin Kathleen (Lehan) Dennis and my husbands name is William David "Dave" Dennis Jr. We got married on November 25th, 2006 in Crofton, Maryland after dating for 2 1/2 years. Dave and I decided in December of that year that we would "let nature take it's course" and see what happened. On March 28th, 2007 I took a at home pregnancy test and it came out positive! That same day I went to the hospital and had it confirmed-- I was definitely pregnant and our due date was 11/25/07-- our first wedding anniversary! Soon after, we found out our expanding family was being transferred to Guam with the Navy. We arrived on island August 4th, 2007 and quickly settled in to island living. I checked into the hospital, started my OB care immediately, and was scheduled for a C-Section on 11/19/07 which was coincidentally my original birth date in 1980. We both agreed that one child was all we wanted and Dave had said he was more then willing to get a Vasectomy after the birth of Aubrey but I felt that I was already going to be "open" so it was no biggie for me to have my tubes tied... our family was now complete with Aubrey’s birth, so why not? Little did we know what fate had in store for us.
On 11/30/2007 our lives changed forever-- our beautiful baby girl was gone. It quickly came to our realization that, with my tubes being tied, future pregnancies where out of the question. Upon arriving back to Guam we scheduled a meeting with the OB that followed me through my pregnancy and whom also delivered Aubrey. On 12/19/07 we met with the doctor and he gave us our options: 1- Tubal Ligation Reversel & 2- IVF. We opted for the reversal and on 1/25/08, after more delays that day then I care to remember, I was wheeled into the O.R. at 1900 (7pm) and came out around 2300 (11pm). After surgery the recovery was not so bad, much easier then birth since there is no uterus to contend with! The doctors felt very good about the procedure and gave me a clean bill of health so that I could fly from Hawaii (I had the procedure done at Tripler Army Medical Center) back to Guam and try to resume some sort of normalcy in my life... easier said then done that's for sure! ANYWAY the doctor said that they know everything with my right tube was connected and since the dye that was flushed into the tube went right through they knew it was free flowing as well. Because my body had absorbed the blue dye they pushed through the tubes, by the time they got finished with my left side and flushed it through, they were unable to see it's path leaving them unsure of if it was free flowing or not BUT they did believe everything went well on that side too and gave it a 90% clearance.
My recovery was fast and I probably did more then I should have but I really did feel good and stopped if I was hurting or if it seemed like it could hurt me later that day. I was up and walking, even geocaching (www.geocaching.com), the next day... go me!
On Friday March 7, 2008 I was scheduled to have a Hysterosalpingogram (aka HSG) test done. For those of you unaware of what an HSG test is, it's when they do an X-ray that allows the doctor(s) visualization of the inside of my uterus and fallopian tubes. The X-ray picture will reveal any abnormalities of the uterus as well as tubal problems such as blockage and dilation (hydrosalpinx).
They wanted to check me and see if the reversal surgery I had done 1/25/08 was a success so I had the test and it showed that my right fallopian tube was closed and the left one was open which came as a shock to me since they had said both had looked pretty good upon completing my surgery at TAMC (Tripler Army Medical Center) on January 25th.
To be double sure they scheduled me for another HSG test on 6/6/08 and upon injection of the dye it was noted that my right side had NO dye flow at all (again) and that after several minutes of waiting you could slowly see a spiral of dye through my left side. Sounds positive? Not really! With the force of which they injected the dye into my fallopian tube, it should have had an immediate coil, instead it traveled along its merry little way but it made a very slow appearance which means that my fallopian tube does have an opening but they do not believe it's very big. So that means that even if a sperm was able and or willing to make the trek through the "rough terrain" and implant with my egg more than likely the fertilized egg would not be able to make it back through that opening leaving me with an ectopic pregnancy. So now I stand a 5% chance of getting pregnant and a 95% chance of it ending up ectopic.
I went from being able to have a baby normally to the realization that I could, for the lack of 5%, never conceive naturally again. How much more can one person take? Had I not already been through enough and now I find out that the surgery was a failure? To say I was devestated is putting it midly.
After the second HSG test we sat down with my doctor and he filled us in on the IVF process...
