The Duffy Family

The Goop is Gone

Today, Noah was old enough to have his tear ducts probed. He has had blocked tearducts since shortly after birth and no amount of warm compresses or massaging was unblocking them. The procedure is pretty simple from what I'm told and takes minutes. If it is done between the window of 4 months and 6 months no anesthesia is needed. After 6 months, they require a trip to the OR to do it. So...we were booked about 6 weeks ago for today to have this procedure if his tear ducts remained blocked. I loved the opthamologist. She was very confident and assured me that if she got back there and felt any hesitation or found any reason that it was going to more complicated, she would bail out. She assured me that she hadn't had a child lay there and "take it" yet, so she had gotten pretty good at chasing her targets :) They don't use a papoose board but have one person hold his head and one hold his body while she does the procedure. Basically, a guide wire is passed through the tear duct and saline is flushed through to dislodge and pass the blockage. She said I could expect a very mad baby come back as well as blood tinged tears and nasal drainage. There would also be swelling of the eyes from tugging/keeping them open during the procedure. Basically-short term pain:long term gain. So she left, I signed a consent and prayed for Noah. A lady came and took him and within 5-10 minutes he was back...screaming like a banshee!!!!! I can't say that I blame him. I've never heard him cry that long ever. He had every reason to though. It was hard to see him so upset, but as soon as we were out of the office and on the way home he calmed down. He took a good nap this afternoon. He was a bit restless and fussy so I gave him Tylenol. That seemed to help. I figured that had to not feel good and maybe he was having some discomfort at the very least. He hasn't had anymore blood-tinged drainage but he has some pretty significant swelling around the right eye. The doctor said that there was more blockage on the right and it took a bit longer to get the guidewire to go in as a result so I'd probably see more swelling there. The left eye swelling seems to mostly be resolved but the right eye definitely is gonna take a couple of days.

The good news though is that once all this subsides we can count it as done and be glad our days of chasing him down (he's a fiesty thing!) to get his eyes unmatted with a warm washcloth are OVER!

In the meantime...check out his pitiful little eye :(

Oh yeah...I have to do antibiotic eye drops three times a day for 5 days to prevent any infection. He did ok with the first afternoon dose I did. Luckily, he kept his eyes open so I didn't have to touch them but just drop the drops in. Let's hope it's that easy for 5 days!