Tear duct Surgery

On Feb. 29, 2012, Boston went in for eye surgery. From about 1 month until surgery Boston had a clogged tear duct. This is very common in newborns and typically goes away by the age of one. If the tear duct doesn't open up by itself by the age of one, surgery is generally recommended. This was the case for Boston. His poor eye always looked so gooey and red, and would always chap his cheek from having the tears run down his face. People would always comment how he must be sad or does he have pink? It was kinda frustrating. We decided to go forward with the surgery at the start of the new year and had his surgery scheduled for January 12th. Unfortunately, little B man came down with a viral infection and had to be in the hospital overnight. Due to him having a fever, the anesthesiologist will not work on a child within a 6 week period. So we had to wait.

The day finally came. He was not allowed to have any food or liquids after 6 AM and his surgery wasn't scheduled until 9:15. That was one of the toughest parts. We got to the hospital and he got all gowned up, so cute, and he played with toys. He was having a riot. They decided to give him an oral sedative to get him relaxed and it made him loopy. That's pictured in the top left picture. Once, that kicked in he was wheeled back to the operating room in his wagon. I wasn't allowed back at the point, but the team of people at the Primary Riverton Outpatient were wonderful. There was so many people that had contact with us and they were all very caring.

The surgery was approximately 30 minutes. The doctor went in a put a probe down in the tear canal. The opening was really tight, so she made the decision to put a stent in the duct to have a more successful rate of keeping the duct open. In 90-95% of the operations the canal stays open and no further procedure is necessary.

After surgery, I was allowed back in the recovery room, and Boston was not happy. He was loopy and hooked up to a bunch of machines and just wanted his mom. He had a bloody nose for a few days due to the drainage. The whole process was about 4 hours long start to finish. I actually handled my little baby being put under anesthesia a lot better than I suspected I would.

Unfortunately, only 3 days after surgery, Boston was rubbing his eye and the stent came out. The doctor claimed she had never had a patient be able to get the stent out, but had heard of others this had happened to. The stent was suppose to be in place for about 2-3 months and be removed in the office at that time. We are just hoping that the probe did the trick and he won't have to go back under. So far his eye looks amazing and we hope it stays that way.