Wilson's surgery

Wilson has never had a clear eye since the day he was born.  He had a clogged tear duct and his poor eye was always red and irritated.  It turned into pink eye a few times.  It was always sealed shut in the morning and he hated me to rub it.

Every time I would approach it with the dr.  I was always told that I had to wait until he was 1 before they would even see him for it.  At his 9 month appointment, Dr. Cook gave me a referral and also some more drops for his infected eye.  So I called and made an appt with Primary Children's Eye Center for January.  I was told that they wouldn't do surgery until he was 1, so they scheduled the evaluation for closer to his birthday. When I started the drops, his eye had an opposite reaction to the medicine.  It swelled up and was really red.  I called the Eye Dr in a panic. I was worried that the bacteria would damage his eye because of the way it was responding to the medicine.  They got us in a few days later.  Dr. Kuo cleaned out his eye and dialated it and then said that she would come back in 20 minutes.  When she came back, his eye was all clogged again.  She was surprised that it clogged back up so quickly.  Since Wilson was 21 lbs, the size of a 1 year old, she agreed to do surgery the next week even though he was only 10 months old.  Here are some pictures of his eye before we did surgery.

On December 13, we went to the Primary Children's Riverton Hospital.  Wilson of course was happy and glad that he got some one on one time with mommy and daddy.  I was really nervous because he had never been put under before and I wasn't sure if they would let me go back with him until he was asleep. They didn't let me! Dr. Kuo came and talked to us and let us know that he would be under for about 30 minutes.  They go in through his tear duct with a wire and feed it down.  The wire has a little balloon on it that they inflate to stretch out the canal and clean it.  The wire also punctures the bottom of the canal, so that his eye will drain into his sinuses instead of coming back up.  Gross, huh?! I can't think about all of the details or it makes me kind of sick! When they were ready, they came and took him from me and I had to stop at the "line." When they got to the door, they turned around and Wilson gave me one more smile.  I kind of lost it at this point.  I just cried as I went out to the waiting room.

When he came out of surgery, Dr. Kuo came and talked with us and let one of us come back.  Of course I went back, I needed to see my baby! He was crying cause he was confused and groggy.  But as soon as I got him, he calmed right down.  After about 10 minutes, Will was able to come back but Wilson wouldn't go to anyone but me.  They told us his eye would be red and swollen for a few days and that it would also be sealed shut when he woke up.  He also had a little bit of a bloody nose, but Dr. Kuo said that it was because they had to puncture the canal really hard and that it was a good sign that it worked.

By that afternoon, his eye was already looking better and less red.  He was back to his normal happy self.  The most amazing thing happened. When I went and got him the next morning I was ready to see a sealed eye but his eye was clear.  There was no redness or swelling, You couldn't even tell that he had had surgery.  It was AMAZING! To this day, his eye looks awesome and we are so glad that we did the surgery. 

Before Surgery

Waiting for Dr. Kuo

They put a dot so that they know which eye

After the surgery, he only wanted his mommy!

The day after. AMAZING!!!