Eye Can See You

Today was Simon's eye surgery. The technical name for Simon's eye problem is right eye dacryostenosis (i.e. clogged tear duct). This is a very common issue in infants that commonly clears up in the first 6-9 months. However, since Simon is almost 15 months old and has had a gunky right eye every day of his life and numerous eye and skin infections, it was time for surgical intervention.

The actual procedure was fairly simply - wire probing to open the clogged duct. He was under anesthesia for 30 minutes tops, with the actual probing taking only 5 minutes. Simon is such an easygoing boy that I know things could have gone much worse. He was NPO (cut off food and drink) after midnight, so we were not sure how the morning would go. The little stinker (whose normal rising time is 5:30am) had to be awakened at 6:45am so we could make it to the hospital on time! On the plus side, he did not realize that we had neglected to feed him breakfast until about 8:30am. After exploring his crib, the hunger grumpies did set in (add to the fact that four of Simon's molars cut through overnight) so the next hour was spent passing the crying toddler from parent to parent. Once the nurses came to get him, though, he went willingly into their arms and they carried him off without a fuss. After surgery, the recovery nurse told us that he didn't make a peep when they put the anesthesia mask on them. He just stared at the doctor with his big eyes, then fell asleep.

(The weirdest part for me was that I just couldn't shake the feeling that we had brought the wrong kid! Comforting him in the crib, pacing the pre-op area with a crying baby, seeing Simon with leads on his chest, it all felt very surreal.)

Once the surgery was over, we were brought back into recovery where we could hear Simon crying. The nurse passed him to me, and we sat in the chair rocking for about fifteen minutes. He was inconsolable - did not want to eat or drink and could not get settled. Finally, he fell asleep again. They monitored his vitals and said the best thing was for him to sleep off the remainder of the anesthesia. After about 45 minutes, Simon woke up. Blinked twice, broke into a huge grin, and was his normal sunny self. He ate Pirate Booty, downed some water, charmed all the nurses, and proclaimed good-to-go. Erin was with Jamie and Clare, and we made it home about 15 minutes before they arrived home from picking Clare up from school. They were happy to see Simon home, then he went down for a four-hour nap! We had a quiet afternoon, delicious dinner brought to us (thank you, H!), and when Simon woke up, his eye looked terrific. You would never know he had surgery on it hours before.

It is too soon to tell if the surgery was long-term successful. If Simon's duct clogs again, it will eventually require the placement of an artificial drainage tube to relieve the chronic tear duct obstruction. However, right now, his eye looks great - a little pink around the edges, but other than that, nice and clear! I am glad everything went so well, and it is all behind us now.

(Shawn laughed at me for bringing the camera, but I like to document this stuff! The top photo is Simon enjoying the hospital crib when he was still happy. The bottom photo is on the way home. A little groggy, but looking good.)