no more one eyed boy

since charlie was born, his left eye has had a clogged tear duct causing drainage that looks identical to pink eye. he would almost always wake up with his left eye stuck closed and so we would start every day with washing his eye. he hated us messing with his eye and due to the fact that it was always gooping we were washing it, rubbing it, etc all day long! it would get red and look like he was sick.

most tear ducts clear on their own, but if they don't you need to have the membranes probed by an opthamologist in surgery. we had basically decided that charlie would need to go to surgery to be probed, but mayo will not refer you to see a pediatric opthamologist until the child is 9 months old. there were many times we were frustrated by this rule. finally at 9 months i took charlie to see a pediatric opthamologist. he did a full eye exam and confirmed that charlie's eye was perfectly normal except for the tear duct. mayo also does not usually probe children until they are 1 year of age, but our opthamologist said he could get charlie in in 2 weeks. we were pumped! we were not excited about having charlie go under anesthesia, but it was his best option.

4 days before his operation, bill and i noticed that his eye was not gooping. we thought - do you think that his tear duct cleared up?? no. it couldn't have. another day went by - no goop. another day. then we realized that in fact his eye might have cleared on his own!

so charlie's eye did clear up on it's own. we think that the cold he had had a few days before had put enough pressure on the membranes and broke through. either way we were so grateful that he did not have to go to surgery. what a blessing! i also love that i don't always have to be wiping his eye or explaining to nursery workers that he is not sick he just has a clogged tear duct.