Since day one Sydney's left eye has been constantly gooping up and teary. Whenever she would wake up from a nap or from her night of sleep, her eye would be crusted shut. Every time we would wipe her eye, it would immediately fill back up with green gunk and tears. Our doctor kept telling us that it would clear up on its own...which is what should have happened. But, because Sydney is Sydney...and nothing is ever easy (okay, so it's easy, but not medically speaking sometimes!)...she is one of the very few where it never did that. We took her to a pediatric ophthalmologist and he said she was at the age where it would just continue to get worse and not get better and that a tear duct stent was the way to go. On top of telling us she needed to have this surgery he also said that her left eye is rather far-sighted and that at one year she will most likely need glasses to help correct that.
Anyway, the surgery was done on Thursday, June 10th. We had to get her up at 5 a.m. and head out the door...with no bottle! We were stressing about that but she was fantastic. She was happy and smiley and chatted up all the nurses who were getting her prepared. (She had to put on a little hospital gown...cute, but peach is definitely not her color! haha) She started to get fussy, but not for a bottle...for some more sleep! (Her 11 hours of beauty rest were so rudely interrupted!) Once it was time for her to go back they came out with a red wagon. We were to put her in there and make a few laps for her to get used to it and then we would do the hand-off. How clever...no handing over a screaming baby! She loved the wagon...it was cute.
After she went through the doors, we were shown out into the waiting area. We headed down the hall to have the admission desk make a copy of our insurance card and then headed back. As we were sitting down, someone said that Sydney was heading out of surgery and someone would be with us shortly. We corrected her and said that she just went in...then she corrected us and repeated what she just said. We weren't even out of there for five minutes and it was done already. Brian proceeded on breaking down the numbers and figured out how much this thing cost us per second...he's so helpful.
I was on my way back a few minutes later and as I went through the doors I could hear my girl screaming. Once I rounded the corner I realized why she was screaming...they were trying to give her Pedialyte. She wasn't having it! They finally broke down and let her have her milk and she was a happy camper until that ran out. Again, poor girl.
Technically we were supposed to be there for 45 minutes after that, but once three people came and double checked with us that we thought she was screaming because she wanted to get back to her own surroundings and not because she was in pain, they let us go. We were thankful. As you may recall from previous blogs...Sydney and strange settings do not really go hand-in-hand.
So, once we stepped out of the hospital doors and she was in her car-seat she was out cold. She pretty much slept most of the day and when she was up, it was as if nothing ever happened. We have to keep the stent in place for four weeks and then can just cut one end of it and pull it out after that. (You'll see what I'm referring to with the pictures below.) It has been absolutely amazing to see our little girl with a clear eye! And it isn't swollen anymore. What a difference. We are so happy.
(The pictures of the pre-surgery were from my phone camera...obviously not the best quality. Sorry!)
And after...
She has a little 'string' going across the bridge of her nose, and then one underneath her nose.
