"My baby's eye was like that forever. We wiped it and cleaned it all the time then one day it just cleared up"
I'd heard it so many times. From so many mom's.
"What age did it clear up?" I'd ask
" I don't remember. Just one day it was gone."
Surely this would happen to me too. Just one day it would be over. All the wiping and rubbing and wiping again. Done.
And when he'd wake up like this I would sing in my head "Today's the day!"
But nope it never was...
It made me so sad to see his eye gooped half shut. Then came the questions. "Why is he so sad?" "Why have you been crying, little man?"
Am I the only one who didn't know that tear ducts don't make tears. They actually drain the tears away and our eyes are always making tears to moisten the eye. Who knew?! Since his was clogged the tears just dripped down his face and gooped in the corner of his eye.
Then there were the infections. Angry and red, goopy and miserable. This had to end soon.
Time went on and on with no difference. Then I started to hear rumblings of a tear duct probe they typically do for babies when it lasts beyond 9 months. And sure enough at his 9 month check up I was given a referral to a pediatric ophthalmologist.
I procrastinated, I waited, I put it off. Then after he turned 11 months I finally made the call. We went in to see the doctor on Saturday..."Yup it's a clogged tear duct nothing else does that. What we do for babies this old is take the equivalence of a unwound paper clip and slip it down his tear duct to the nose and clean it out. Any questions?"
"What are the risks?"
"Driving to the hospital"
So just like that Hyrum has an appointment at the Hospital on May 7th to go under the paper clip. I guess that truly will be "the day".
I'd heard it so many times. From so many mom's.
"What age did it clear up?" I'd ask
" I don't remember. Just one day it was gone."
Surely this would happen to me too. Just one day it would be over. All the wiping and rubbing and wiping again. Done.
And when he'd wake up like this I would sing in my head "Today's the day!"
But nope it never was...
It made me so sad to see his eye gooped half shut. Then came the questions. "Why is he so sad?" "Why have you been crying, little man?"
Am I the only one who didn't know that tear ducts don't make tears. They actually drain the tears away and our eyes are always making tears to moisten the eye. Who knew?! Since his was clogged the tears just dripped down his face and gooped in the corner of his eye.Then there were the infections. Angry and red, goopy and miserable. This had to end soon.
Time went on and on with no difference. Then I started to hear rumblings of a tear duct probe they typically do for babies when it lasts beyond 9 months. And sure enough at his 9 month check up I was given a referral to a pediatric ophthalmologist.
I procrastinated, I waited, I put it off. Then after he turned 11 months I finally made the call. We went in to see the doctor on Saturday..."Yup it's a clogged tear duct nothing else does that. What we do for babies this old is take the equivalence of a unwound paper clip and slip it down his tear duct to the nose and clean it out. Any questions?"
"What are the risks?"
"Driving to the hospital"
So just like that Hyrum has an appointment at the Hospital on May 7th to go under the paper clip. I guess that truly will be "the day".
4 comments:
Holly said...
Ok- gross! Putting the end of a paper clip in any hole on my body makes me want to hurl. It will be so much better once the procedure is done though. Easy fix. We will keep the little guy in our prayers! (AND you!!)
Sunny said...
Whew I'm glad that you won't be in the hospital then! I don't want to clean that up! :) They say the procedure is 90% successful. If it doesn't work they'll have to put tubes in. :( So let's hope it works!
Nikki said...
Strange. Poor baby. I hope it's painless and works on the first try!
Pam said...
I am so glad there is something that can be done so he won't have that sore looking eye anymore. Sounds like it will be a non-event, but you just worry when they are having anything done to these little tykes. We will keep you all in our prayers.