Tear ducts

As I mentioned in my last post, Rolin had a surgical procedure Friday to open his tear ducts. Things went fine and he seems just about back to normal today. 

In the prep room, wearing his "one size fits none" hospital gown. They even gave him little hospital socks with the grippers on the bottom.

Poor baby didn't know what was coming.

We had to check in at 6 a.m. and were there until about 10:30 a.m. or so. We stayed about an hour and a half longer than expected as he had a rougher than expected recovery from the anesthesia. I wouldn't have been able to tell you that on my own, but the nurses and doctors kept saying so. 

I know everyone's prayers helped with our nerves -- I felt just fine the whole time. Tears were shed though: mostly tears of joy that it worked and he woke up, but they were mixed with a little sadness for how mad, sad and completely out of it Rolly was in recovery, and how hard it was to get him to calm down at first. Plus, it was sad seeing blood in his tears and coming from his nose. 

Snuggles were about all that helped. 

I also had an unfortunate snot-string incident happen when the ophthalmologist came to chat with us again... I said, "oh I'm fine..." [wipe nose with hand...something comes away with hand...doctor and husband give  me a 'ew, gross' look...someone hands me a tissue]. But I suppose I'm not the first mom he's seen in that situation. At least I'd like to think that. 

I was pleasantly pleased with the way the ophthalmologist, anesthesiologist and the recovery room nurses kept coming by to check on him and explain things to us. He had to wear an oxygen mask on and off for a while to get numbers back up to a good level. Things were looking ok so we thought we'd go, but then the nurse asked if I was sure about three times, which made me think I wasn't, so we stayed longer. I'm glad we did. After another 20 mins or so, his numbers were even better and he stayed awake on his own for about five minutes. By that time you could tell the nurses felt better about his status, which, of course, made me feel a lot more comfortable going home. 

He slept most of the day away, ate a little bit and played a little before bedtime. On top of all his daytime sleep, he slept from 8:30 p.m. to 5:22 a.m. in his room. Tired babe! He still has some blood-tinged boogs and tears today, but he really seems back to his normal, active self. 

Snuggled with the bear the hospital gave him. He carried it around and hugged it all day. So sweet!

Couch cuddles are uncommon since he's usually on the move, so we enjoyed a day of snuggles with the little bug. 

What they did: They put little tubes in both of his ducts that go down into his nose. The tubes poke through the membrane in the duct that was either completely blocking the duct or was just making it a tight squeeze for the eye goop and tears to drain properly (so he had a goopy, crusty eye most of the time). They'll either work their way out or be taken out in three months. Hopefully that does the trick and we don't have to go back in to try again or try something different. 

When we were there, we met a family with a 14-mo-old boy. This was his eighth surgery. Eighth! The sweet little love. He was born with Spina Bifida, something they didn't know until he was born. They were in good spirits, considering, and were joking a bit about how on top of everything, their baby had bad tear ducts too. I wish we could have chatted with them more -- they seemed like a strong, kind couple.