I was hoping, while I was in Chicago, that I’d be able to write…Either we were busy exploring the city or I didn’t really “feel” like it…

We arrived early on Saturday, April 9th. Took our Uber from Midway to the Four Seasons with the expectation to just drop our luggage, but as we checked-in, not only was our room ready but they upgraded us to a city view suite…sweet! We admired the views for a bit and bundled ourselves up to head out for the day. We found a charming breakfast spot off Superior. We then popped into some shops on Michigan and then made our way to the Navy Pier and then down to the Bean for the quintessential tourist pics. After all that, it was about 2:30 and we made our way back to rest our legs and figure out where to go for dinner. Note to self…don’t try to make dinner reservations the day of at 3pm.
We did happen to find a cute modern italian spot called Il Porcelain off Hubbard. It was very good and since we never had lunch, a 5pm reservation suited us just fine. Ha! We then walked back up Michigan to try to get a drink at the top of the Hancock building…oh the crowds! No thanks! A nightcap at the lobby bar was perfect…
Oh my goodness I almost left the other crazy story out…this one is for my Cleveland family and friends…as we were heading out for dinner and as we were waiting for an elevator, a bell hop had stacks of suitcases and noticed one said FoxSports. Ok, so there must be some media staying here, I thought. As one elevator came, we noticed a rather abnormally tall man standing by the door and the car was full. As the door closed we were like ummm, who was that? The bell hop then said that the Cavs were checking out. Oh………OK!!!! Then walks up a guy with a Cavs labeled clothing bag and my chatty husband struck up a convo. It was their PR guy. I shared that I grew up in Solon and that he was a westside guy…as we hopped into the next elevator we made our way to the lobby. As we walked past the check-in counter, there’s Channing Frye. Holy fanatics, the place was hopping with people hoping to see LeBron of course. We contemplated staying ourselves, but knew we only had a few minutes to make our reservation, so we kept going. In order to get to the street level of the property you need to take another elevator. We hop onto that next one and join Dellavedova and Chris Broussard from ESPN. Someone cracks a joke to Dellavedova about how he actually looks tall in an elevator with normal people. We make it to the lower level lobby downstairs and Mason goes up to some old guy and says I have to shake your hand…it was Hubie Brown (don’t worry I had to google him too). It was so crazy and funny at the same time! We walk out and there are crowds of people on the street just waiting. Unfortunately, no LeBron sightings, but just so you know, teams check-out around 4:30/5pm before a game if you ever want to spot any NBA players! Ha!
On Sunday, we grabbed a light breakfast of coffee and pastries and made our way to the Art Institute to meet up with Mason’s Aunt and Uncle, Linda and Burnie. They are a members of the museum, so got to quickly dip into the Van Gogh exhibit and check out some Monet’s. Nothing like an art museum on a rainy Sunday morning. We then grabbed brunch at the Gage. Such a fun Chicago spot! We then made our way over to visit with Mason’s cousin and her husband. They live over near Wrigley in Roscoe Village and spent the afternoon with them. The last time we saw all of them was at our wedding back in 2009! Mason and I grabbed an early dinner back near our hotel at Doc B’s and then got to bed early for another 4:30am wake-up call…
Monday morning arrived quickly…I had to do some pre-op prep…no eating/drinking 9 hours prior and had to use surgical wipes basically head to toe the night before and the morning of surgery. We got to the hospital early (6:00am check-in). They got me back quickly and prepped. Full biometric blood draw. The biggest decision I had to make was anasthesia. I either go general or spinal. Dr. Haney prefers general mainly because the length of the surgery. They could do a spinal, but if the surgery lasted longer than 2 hours or so they could end up having to give me general if the spinal started to wear off. So I decided to do a general. Regretted that decision when I was fighting off nausea hours after. Ugh!
Surgery went beautifully. Dr. Haney was able to place 3 TAC bands on my cervix. Imagine wedding bands that go around the cervix at the base of the uterus and then two more below that. I had asked Dr. Haney to document the shape/size of my uterus. With my diagnosis of a bicornuate uterus, I always imagined I had this very distinct indention. He showed us what my uterus looked like and described it. “It’s not a bicornuate uterus”. My uterus from the outside was smooth and round. He inspected the inside by feeling the uterus, he concluded that it also didn’t have an interior septum which would have a hard almost cartilage feeling. It was soft, muscular tissue. He believes its an “arcuate uterus” which is the mildest forms of uterine anomalies.
Seriously! WHAT IN THE WORLD?! So either Jesus healed me, which was the first thing that popped in my mind, or the diagnosis of said anomaly is really a crap shoot. I like to believe I was healed! So this surgery made it ever more apparent that it was necessary and that I simply have an IC (incompetent cervix). He kept going on and on how I could even carry twins! Now, let’s not get ahead of ourselves, but we literally felt so incredibly encouraged. He’s an amazing doctor. He was actually older then I had initially thought. He has been in this OB world for 30+ years now and knows the ins/outs and even all the politics behind it, yet he’s so encouraging and gave us such great words of wisdom. The last thing he said before he left was, “My passion in life is to bring your own children to this world healthy and full term. I’m happy to make that a possibility for you.”

We still realize there will never be a guarantee, but knowing that my broken womb has been restored, I can’t help but praise the Lord for guiding us to Dr. Haney and to witness the impossible be possible through this man, who is not only an expert in his field, but is passionate about what he does and what he’s doing for families.
Recovery has been pretty easy so far. Minus the nausea which was a beast the first few hours and then holy digestive system. I will spare you all the details there. I have a love/hate relationship with Percocet. So life is trying to walk a little, stretch those ab muscles, drinking prune juice, water, advil/tylenol cocktail, and peppermint tea. Gosh I sound like an 80 year old woman! Thank you for all the prayers, notes, texts, emails, calls, etc from those near and far. This has been a healing step, not only physically, but emotionally as well.