Monday, Ben had his long-awaited eye appointment. We had one scheduled in January, but we cancelled it because we thought the problem had resolved itself. You see, Ben has had a blocked tear duct since birth, and for the first 14 months or so, it was really noticeable. His left eye was almost constantly “goopy.” Then, suddenly, in December, it stopped. Or so we thought. The goopiness stopped, but soon after we cancelled his January appointment, we noticed he was still having clear drainage from that eye. And apparently, appointments with these specialists are hard to come by, because the earliest they could fit us in was July 20!
So we went to the Eye Institute and waited in their lovely, but kid-unfriendly waiting room. Then we went into the little room and waited some more while I tried to keep Ben from examining the high-dollar eye equipment. Finally a nurse came and took a look and left. We waited some more. Ben was being VERY patient, all things considered. Finally, the Dr. came in. Apparently, this doctor is one of the head eye doctors at the hospital and NOT a pediatric specialist! She only looks at kids if all the pediatric measures have failed and they need major surgery! So the doctor left and went to see if peds could “squeeze us in.” ARGH! Are you kidding me?? Our pediatrician’s office made this appointment for us with the wrong person!
Anyway, the pediatric eye people had time to see him, so we went and waited in their wonderful kid-friendly waiting room. Ben had a blast playing in the 2-level playhouse and following around older kids. I actually had to climb up to the 2nd floor of the playhouse to retrieve him when they called us back. Then they took us back, a nurse looked at him, then a resident, and FINALLY, the Real Pediatric Eye Surgeon came in. They were all great with kids but Ben was starting to lose patience. They did a full eye exam and then gave him drops to dialate his pupils. We went to ANOTHER waiting room, waited for about 10 minutes for surgery scheduling, and finally got to see the scheduler. At this point, Ben had had all he could take. He had a breakdown when I wouldn’t let him grab a highlighter off her desk. The scheduler gave him a highlighter and paper and he settled down to draw on the floor.
THEN, we had to go BACK to the waiting room and wait for the doctor, so she could look into his dialated pupils. He played some more before we were finally called back (and I had to go up into the playhouse again to retrieve him). She showed me how to restrain him while a nurse pulled open his eyelids and she looked in. Gee, that was fun.
I was going to take him to Chik-Fil-A for lunch but at that point, I knew he needed sleep more. We were there for two. full. hours.
The end result is, Ben will be having a minor surgical procedure next Thursday (7/30) under general anesthesia. If you look at the picture at the top of the post, you can see there is an opening at the bottom of the duct into the nose. There is a flap of skin there that doesn’t open in some kids. They stick a thin probe down to “punch it out.” Since there is a lower success rate with kids over 1 year, the doctor will also insert a tiny balloon down the probe to stretch out the skin.
It is very minor, and when you consider what other kids with major problems have to go through, we are extremely fortunate. I am of course nervous about the anesthesia, but it turns out that it is not IV- just a puff of gas, so it is very light and he will wake up right away. I am happy to finally have this taken care of!
