Avery's Eye Exam

Today Avery had an appointment with a pediatric ophthalmologist.

When she was born, her tear ducts in both eyes were clogged. This caused her eyes to tear a lot and then the tears would dry up and get crusty. The duct in her right eye opened up on its own, but the left eye is still clogged up. When she had her 12month doctors appointment, they said it was time to get it looked at by a specialist.

So, today we had the appointment. The doctor came in and talked to us a bit and took a look at Avery. Then he put some fluorescein (bright yellow drops) in her eyes to see if the eyes drained at all. Of course the right one drained fine, but the left one did not. Avery did well until they started putting stuff in her eyes...after that anytime someone walked in the room, she screamed her head off!

They also dilated her eyes. When they did the drops, they missed getting it in her right eye, so they had to do another round of dilation drops on her. You can imagine how happy Avery was about that! Once she was dilated, they checked out the back of her eye to make sure things were draining properly back there (which they were).

So we got the news that she has to have surgery done on her left eye. They put a probe in the tear duct then insert a tube to keep the duct open and stretch it. The tube is left in place for about a year, then it gets removed. Hopefully that does the trick...if not, she'll have to have a different procedure done.

I'm a little anxious about the procedure because she has to get knocked out to have it done. The good thing is that it only takes 5-10 minutes to do, so it won't be long, but still. I worry about her having the anesthesia. At least they give her a gas mask first, then insert the IV...I was having nightmares of them strapping her down to put an IV in her. I know she needs to have it done and it's a very routine and minor procedure. And it'll be nice for her eye to be normal and not leaky, goopy, and crusty all of the time. So right now we're just waiting for the office to call us and set up the surgery day. They said it'll probably be in September sometime. More news to come on that!