Surgery

Eliza is scheduled for surgery on February 5th. Poor little Eliza (yeah, I know she's never been little, but for having surgery she is definitely little).

Since we moved to Illinois, Eliza has had "sad eyes." Her eyes get goopy and matted all the time. Between the moisture dripping from her eyes and the red irritation of the skin around her eyes, everyone always thinks she has just been crying. She hates to have us clean her eyes, which has to be done many times each day.

Eliza's sad eyes on Christmas.

Since the problem started only after moving here (not since birth), her doctor initially dismissed the idea of blocked tear ducts. He figured it was just conjunctivitis (pink eye) and figured the antibiotics he prescribed for her ear infection would take care of the eye infection. Knowing that pink eye loves company, I was pretty sure she didn't have it. Mike and I, who are constantly wiping her eyes, hadn't gotten it, neither had anyone in the family we were staying with (and the way that kids are fascinated with a baby's eyes (read: poking), they surely would have gotten it). My initial guess was some sort of allergy to Illinois. Then, the seasons changed. Twice. Eliza's poor eyes didn't. She had good and bad days, but there didn't seem to be any rhyme or reason.

The antibiotics (both oral and eye drops) would clear her eyes up for the time we used them, but the day after we stopped, her eyes would go back to being sad. This perplexed her pediatrician, so he referred us to a pediatric ophthalmologist with the suspicion that her tear ducts were blocked. We had to wait a while for an appointment, but we finally got in last week.

The day of her appointment, Eliza's eyes looked really good to me. I figured that Mike had cleaned them right before we went to the doctor, but he told me he hadn't. I was hoping that she would be having a bad eye day so the doctor would know what we were talking about. I was afraid that he was going to look at her and say that she was fine.

The doctor had Mike sit in the exam chair and hold Eliza. He took one look at her and said, "Wow, these are really bad. Her tear ducts are definitely fully blocked." I wonder what he would have said on one of her bad days! I was glad that he had a diagnosis and was confident about it. No more guessing!

The doctor was able to answer our questions and fill in the blanks for us. He said she probably has had narrow tear ducts since birth. When we moved to Illinois, she probably got a cold or infection that caused her tear ducts to become completely obstructed. What normally drains from the tear duct to the nose is pooling in her eyes, creating an ideal environment for bacteria (mostly the good kind, but the bad kind, too). This creates the discharge, eye boogers, crusties, etc. The antibiotics killed all the bacteria, even the good kind, so that's why her eyes were better during that time. As soon as she was off antibiotics, the bacteria came back (enter eye goobers).

The solution, unfortunately, is surgery. He said the actual surgery is quick and pretty simple. What makes it complicated is the anesthesia. It's just scary for babies to be anesthetized. There is a 90% success rate with the surgery. In about 10% of patients, the tear ducts scar over and the surgery is attempted again.

We expect that all will go well. Eliza has a pre-op physical tomorrow to make sure she's healthy and fit for surgery. She has had a cough at night for a while now. I've taken her in for it, but have just been told that it will go away eventually. I am curious if it will mean postponing the surgery. On Monday we'll meet with the anesthesiologist so he can answer our questions.

Eliza is excited to have happy eyes again. She will be so glad to not have her eyes scrubbed at bath time and wiped incessantly during the day. She's eager for people to see her beautiful blue eyes without being distracted by the tears, goop, and redness.

Eliza's sad eyes back in September.