“Ten Years to Tyler”
The Johnson/Dickason family and their little miracle, Tyler; China Township, MI

On 13 April 06, Tyler Johnson was born to Julie Dickason, 41, and David Johnson, 43. Our story spanned approximately 10 years of negotiating through personal medical issues, doctors, and military separations. My husband and I met during the 1990 Gulf War as Army soldiers and married in 1992. Since my husband had a vasectomy in 1986, having children was not important to us at the time.

While stationed at Fort Polk, Louisiana, we were both deployed to Bosnia in 1996 for 9 months, where we agreed we would attempt to conceive a child and expand our family. I was elated, but David would have to undergo a vasectomy reversal after 13 years; success was uncertain. The surgery was conducted in 1999 and the following year he was promptly sent to Korea for a year while I continued to live at Fort Polk.

In 2001, while David was deployed to Kosovo, I was diagnosed with fibroid tumors. The tumors grow on the outside, inside, and/or within the walls of the uterus and can cause difficulties in getting pregnant. I did my research; I bought books on fibroid tumors and spent countless hours searching the Internet for anything concerning the matter. I was determined that I would have the tumors removed. I was completely discouraged with the doctors and hospital at Fort Polk that I went to live with my mother in Dallas, Texas. I began looking for a civilian doctor who specialized in removing fibroid tumors and, in the meantime, had a frustrating crash course in dealing with the military insurance company.

The first civilian doctor I went to told me that my uterus was corroded with tumors and that I would never have any children. I would need an immediate hysterectomy and stressed that I schedule it that day. I responded that I would get back with her and left the office devastated. I recouped, it was only one doctor’s opinion. After seeing 2 more doctors I admit I was getting discouraged. So I pulled off every doctors name in a 50-mile radius to my mother’s home address from the military insurance online directory. I called each doctor’s office to find out if they still took Tricare and ended up with 30 possible doctors. I prepared a 20-questionnaire letter and sent it to each doctor; only 5 letters were returned. I made appointments with 3 of the doctor’s offices that seemed most promising from the questionnaire. Then I found Doctor Endelman, who was very receptive to removing the tumors without having to do a hysterectomy. On 18 February 2003, I had 7 tumors removed and 1 was the size of a grapefruit. Now we had renewed hope of conceiving.

During the same time I was undergoing treatment, I had been mobilized to Fort Hood, Texas, for the next year and a half as an Army Reserve soldier. January 2004, I was referred to the infertility clinic at Lackland AFB, Texas, to undergo insemination treatments with their prescribed fertility drugs. The treatments were unsuccessful. I was then sent to Selfridge ANGB, Michigan, to be stationed for the next 3 years. I was referred to Doctor Magyar for infertility and spent the next year undergoing more insemination treatments using various fertility drugs. The treatments were also unsuccessful. Finally, my husband and I decided to go for the IVF treatment, and I was prescribed BRAVELLE^® and MENOPUR^®. Due to the fertility drugs, I developed 11 sacs on my ovaries. The nurse at the doctor’s office was discouraged with the low number of sacs and suggested I undergo another insemination procedure instead of following through with the IVF. I knew this was my only chance to become pregnant; the blood work was promising and David’s sperm count was high. It was my last hope to conceive. I underwent the egg retrieval procedure and ended up with only 4 viable eggs; 3 of the eggs fertilized and they were transferred to my uterus in August 2005.

The odds of my conceiving declined as I grew older; even the research stated that the odds were against me. I could not find that many over-40 pregnancy success stories of other mothers, only those televised extreme cases. I was determined to overcome each obstacle and even now I look back at our journey and wonder in awe that we stayed true to the belied that we could have a baby. I delivered my son by C-section 6 weeks early after undergoing a very difficult pregnancy. I am thankful I went with my instincts, even though I was considered a high-risk pregnancy due to my age and medical history. My husband and I now have a healthy baby boy and we enjoy watching Tyler grow every day.