Austin has an appt Monday to get his tear duct checked out. Since birth, his right eye waters a lot, and our pedi said that he should outgrow it by age two. Well, he hasn't outgrown it...

How do they test his eye to figure out what the problem is? I'm not too nervous about the appt Monday, but I am scared of him having surgery. Since he is still having problems with his eye, I'm pretty confident that the dr is going to recommend surgery. I know in the grand scheme of things, it will probably be a minor operation, but I'm scared nonetheless. I've been extremely lucky that none of my babies have ever had any operations, so this is a first for me. It's an awful powerless feeling to know that something could go wrong, and there wouldn't be anything I could do to fix it.

Has anyone else been through this?

Jenny
single mom to spontaneous BBB 34w 2d

http://lilypie.com>

We haven't been through that exact surgery, but we have been through eye surgery - actually eye muscle surgery - for my daugher's strabismus.

Pediatric Opthamologists are great and very experienced with kids, so they have many ways of testing kids' eyes even when they don't cooperate Also, any type of surgery, even if minor, is going to stress you and make you nervous. Your doctor should go over all the risks (I was most worried about anesthesia) with you prior to surgery and bring in any questions you have, no matter how small they seem. It will help you get through the surgery by understanding everything.

Good luck and I hope the surgery is successful!

Nik
GBG triplets born 4/2/05
30w5d
www.thebestthingscomein3.blogspot.com

Two of my kids (one of the triplets and the full-term, completely typical singleton) have had surgery to open up clogged tear ducts. Before that, every time we got a cold, they got pink eye or another eye infection. They had eye infections about 50% of last winter. It was really nerve wracking - eye infections can impact vision long-term if they don't clear up. And putting those drops in little eyes several times a day is no fun for anyone. They also woke up many days with a lot more than the normal amount of sleep-sand in the corner of their eyes. Some days (when allergy season was in high gear), their little eyes would actually be matted closed.

We had the surgery last Februaryish. We have had numerous colds since then, and not one infection. Their eyes are clear in the mornings, and they don't water all the time anymore.

The surgery was not a big deal AT ALL. They went back, and my husband poured a cup of coffee in the waiting room. Before it had cooled enough to sip, the first kid was done. Seriously like 5 minutes. Apparently if kids would sit still, they wouldn't bother putting them to sleep. It's that minor. They don't even make cuts - they just insert a probe into the tear duct through the opening at the side of the eye. Really no big deal at all.

BGG born 4/25/05 at 31w1d




New baby girl born 9/19/06

Megan, that's exactly what Austin's eye does! There are plenty of days when his eye is normal, but if he gets even a runny nose, then his eye starts acting up. The last two weeks it has been pretty bad, lots of eye goo and watering.

Do you know the medical name for this condition so I can google it and read up before the appt? Thanks for telling me what your kids went through-it makes me feel a little better to know the operation is that quick. Like the PP, my biggest concern is the anesthesia.

IF he has a bad reaction to the anesthesia, does anyone know what they do to reverse it?

Jenny
single mom to spontaneous BBB 34w 2d

http://lilypie.com>

>Megan, that's exactly what Austin's eye does! There are
>plenty of days when his eye is normal, but if he gets even a
>runny nose, then his eye starts acting up. The last two weeks
>it has been pretty bad, lots of eye goo and watering.

Yeah, that's bad news, and way scarier than surgery. An infected eye is nothing to mess around with.



>Do you know the medical name for this condition so I can
>google it and read up before the appt? Thanks for telling me
>what your kids went through-it makes me feel a little better
>to know the operation is that quick. Like the PP, my biggest
>concern is the anesthesia.

Our opthomologist just called them "clogged tear ducts". On babies less than 1 year, you just massage the inside corner of the eye with a warm washcloth to get the clog out. By the time they are older than 1 year, the ducts are longer and a little deeper under the skin, so you can't just massage it out.



>IF he has a bad reaction to the anesthesia, does anyone know
>what they do to reverse it?

I don't know what they would do, but keep in mind that there are different depths of anesthesia. If the baby were having open-heart surgery, for example, that would take hours and require extensive cutting, they would put the baby WAY under. But for this minor of a procedure, they don't use as much anesthesia. The child doesn't need to be in a coma-like sleep. They are barely under. They only need them asleep for a few minutes, so the anesthesia is minimal. Like the amount they would use for ear tubes.

Meredith is the triplet who had this procedure. She has a history of apneas (stopping breathing), long after she should have outgrown them. If this child had to have major surgery with major anesthesia, it would be a big problem. Our doctor didn't hesitate to do this surgery on Meredith anyway for 2 reasons. 1) the minimal amount of anesthesia and 2) the risk of NOT doing the surgery, getting an infection, and losing vision. So truly I don't think you have to worry too much about the anesthesia.

BGG born 4/25/05 at 31w1d




New baby girl born 9/19/06

Thanks so much. I hadn't thought about different depths of anesthesia for different operations, and what you said makes a lot of sense, and eases my mind.

I used to do with warm washcloth thing with Austin, but now that he's older, it just makes him furious and won't sit still enough to let me do it! I didn't realize it wouldn't work anyway since he is older.

I totally agree with you about losing vision vs risk of surgery. Eyes aren't something you mess around with! My biological mom was legally blind, and my vision is pretty bad, too (not nearly as bad as hers). I worry about the boys' vision b/c of that. It's too precious a thing to lose.

How old was Meredith when she had the procedure? It makes me feel better that your dr was okay with the anesthesia even though she had a history of apnea. Poor thing, I bet yall were both scared! Thank you so much for your input and easing my fears.

Jenny
single mom to spontaneous BBB 34w 2d

http://lilypie.com>

Yeah, don't even bother with the warm washcloth at this point - it's useless other than for the comfort from having clean, unsticky eyelashes.

This was this spring that Meredith had the surgery, so she was 2 3/4 years old. Elise was 1 1/4. Meredith had had eye tube surgery twice in the past (once before she was even a year old). That first time, I think half the hospital was on hand because her most recent apnea was like a month before that. But she HAD to have tubes because they were worried about permanent hearing loss due to ear infections that they couldn't get cleared up with multiple rounds of antibiotics. They wouldn't let us have the surgery at the outpatient center - we had to go to the actual hospital because of the risk.

You have to realize that the hospital and doctor are more scared about risks of anesthesia than you are. One major lawsuit can send them out of business. So they weigh the risks VERY carefully. You have to trust that they would NOT do surgery if they didn't feel it was necessary. They use the absolute bare minimum anesthesia that is necessary for the procedure.

The anesthesiologist attends the surgery, and his sole job is to monitor vital signs. I can remember thinking it was absurd how many people they had on hand for such a minor procedure, but because of lawsuits they have to take every possible precaution and be overly careful.

BGG born 4/25/05 at 31w1d




New baby girl born 9/19/06

My niece (a singleton), 10 months old, just had this surgery done last Tuesday. She also had a very watery eye and discharge from it since birth. The doctor had my sister do the warm washcloth and massage thing for a few months but it was just getting worse and worse so they scheduled the procedure. It was a VERY short procedure, her appointment was for 7:30am and my sister was here at my house with her by 8:45am. She had no swelling, no redness, no bruising, nothing. She does have to have antibiotic eye drops 3 times a day for 10 days. The info the doc gave my sis says it is a small metal wire that is threaded through the tear duct to unclog it. There may also still be a membrane there that did not open before or shortly after birth but they can open that with this same procedure. Her eye looked better that same day and after she took her nap I commented to my sister that it was the first time I think I have ever seen her with dry eyelashes. Bela had no side effects from the surgery besides she was sleepy and a little upset stomach due to the anesthesia but she was completely fine immediately after.

Good Luck with your decision.

ETA: The testing was very easy. They dialatd her eye and they used a dye to see if the dye fushed through the eye like it should have. Not invasive at all.

The name of the condition is Congenital lacrimal duct obstruction and the name of the procedure is Nasolacrimal duct probing.

Here is the link to Wikipedia but you will find more information just bu googling it. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Congenital_lacrimal_duct_obstruction

HTH!!!

We also had the surgery, and it was great. I knew it would be fast, but I didn't really realize how fast. The hardest part was keeping him occupied before he went back. I left as soon as he went into surgery to get us a much needed cup of coffee, and DH was called to recovery before I got back. We had been warned that toddlers usually wake up from anesthesia screaming and thrashing. We were prepared for the worst. The nurse was hovering as he was waking up and she let me hold him. She shoved a juice box in his hand as soon as his eyes were open. He had never had a juice box at 20 months old becuase I would always dilute it in a sippy. He took one drink and then sucked it down. He literally was acting like a drunk person barely moving and he said in a deep troll like voice, "moooore juuuuuice." She shoved another in his hand and gave me one for the road and we were discharged 10 minutes later...i'm not exagerating. He was running around before lunch. Eye was a bit red that day and then no more goopy eyes...EVER!


Stephanie

BBB triplets born at 35+ weeks