Our miracle . . .

Harrison and my mom, his Nonnie.

We celebrated my baby boys NINTH birthday on Friday night with a trip to our local Japanese hibachi place. I was thrilled when he picked that particular restaurant because we hadn't been there for a while. I had had a rough day and it was perfect end to an otherwise craptastic day. He is a joy. He is our miracle child. I love my boy!

For those of you who don't know our story, I had tried to get pregnant for several years. The reason I have a son and a daughter today is due to an eye exam. You see, my husband went to get an eye exam since we had brand spankin' new insurance (which we had not had for many years). While there, the optometrist noticed a problem with his peripheral vision. She suggested we go see a neurologist. I thought she was crazy. A neurologist? We ignored her recommendation for several months. My husband began noticing that he really was struggling with his peripheral vision and thought we should schedule an appointment with an actual ophthalmologist. We did, and he said, "You need to see a neurologist right away. I think you may have a brain tumor."

We of course freaked out. It just so happens that ALL the neurologists in Fort Wayne are in the same group and they did not take our insurance. We scheduled an appointment in Kokomo (about an hour away) for the same week. He did some tests and said he thought that Robert had a tumor on his pituitary gland. An MRI confirmed it later that week.

The next week we were in Indianapolis meeting with a neuro-surgeon. It just so happened that he was the pioneer of the surgery for this particular problem that allowed them to remove the tumor without opening the skull. It was pretty amazing. Robert was his last patient. We had the man who pioneered the surgery AND his man who was taking over his practice as his doctors. We were blessed. The surgery was scheduled for the following week.

I remember standing in the doctor's office and telling him about our difficulty in getting pregnant. He said that since the pituitary gland regulates hormones it was likely that while Robert was creating "swimmers" they we probably not fertile. He said it that was our problem, I would be pregnant by Christmas. I was pregnant by August. The removed two tumors the size of walnuts off Robert's pituitary gland and he had a quick 4 week recovery.

It was a blessing that all this happened at the perfect time. We had new insurance which had awesome coverage. The surgery cost nearly $200,000 and we ended up paying $100 out of pocket. We were irritated with the neurologists in our city not being covered and we ended up with the best man in the country to perform the surgery. AND we got our babies out of the deal!