Congenital nasolacrimal duct obstruction.

In human terms, a clogged tear duct.

Yesterday I mentioned we were taking Emma to the eye doctor.

She has always had eye issues. They have never been severe {thank goodness}.

When in the NICU at 32 weeks, she tested positive for bacteria in the eye. They would put all kinds of goop on/in/around her eye. "Do big deal" the doctors said.

At about 4 months, she had green goop in her eye all of the time. It drove us crazy. Green is never a color you want to see so we went to see Dr. H. "Just a clogged tear duct. No big deal. Most babies outgrow it by a year." I was sent home with special instructions to massage the duct with a warm wash cloth. It cleared up the green but her eye kept watering.

"Awww! Have you been crying?" people always ask Bug. "No." I answer. "She just has a clogged tear duct."

So, a year has come and gone. We are on month 14. Bug's left eye still waters excessively. She has clear/white goop all of the time. Dr. P referred us back to Dr. F, the opthamologist.

You may remember my last visit to Dr. F. I can't find the link right now. It involved crazy looking paperclip type things that held Emma's eyes open. Dr. F poked and prodded to the point Emma's eyeball looked like it was going to pop out. SCARY! This was how they tested to make sure Bug didn't have retinopathy of prematurity.

Anyway, this appointment wasn't bad at all. Emma freaked out a little. There were no paperclip things. Dr. F didn't even touch her eyes. He did tell us some not so great news.

Emma's tear duct and passageways never opened. Being that this didn't fix itself, Dr. F is going to have to surgically fix it. We will go to the hospital early one morning. He will use a gas mask to put her to sleep. He will insert a balloon catheter into the passageway. He will pop the tear duct. Dr. F told us it would take about 4 minutes for him to finish. Of course, the paperwork, anesthesia, etc. will take the longest of all. He will finish the "surgery" and we can go home that day.

Dr. F says this is super common. He has at least 3 patients a week with a clogged tear duct. He does about 15 surgeries of his surgery days. Emma will be one of his first surgeries... if not his first surgery.

Dr. F says that this surgery is no big deal. Of course to Ryan and I, it is a great big deal. It is scary to know that your baby will be put to sleep and she is only 14 months old. I am 24 and I have never been put to sleep.

We have a few weeks until the surgery. We are waiting until after Christmas to have it done. Nothing like having surgery to put a damper on the holidays so we feel like it is better to wait. I will keep you posted.