Surgery for Steven?

The short answer is, "no."  But if you want more information, keep reading.

For those of you who have met Steven, I am sure that you have noticed his chronically "goopy" eye.  For as long as I can remember, Steven's eyes, especially his right one, have had difficulty draining.  It got to the point that I looked at Steven's eyes as an early warning system for when he was getting sick!  If the watery eye became goopy, then he was probably getting sick.

Steven at 10 months.  You can see the "eye boogers" under his right eye.

His pediatrician said that it was probably a blocked tear duct, and that it usually clears up after about a year.  At Steven's 18-month well child visit, his eyes were still watery and goopy, so the Dr. suggested that we visit a pediatric ophthalmologist to have his eyes looked at.  Because I was about 8 months pregnant at the time, I put off making the appointment until after Samantha was born.  To make a long story short ("Too late!") Steven finally had his Ophthalmology appointment on July 2, where the Doctor said, yes, Steven has a blocked tear duct and should have surgery to have the duct probed and opened up.

Steven at 22 months.  Eyes still goopy and boogery.

Eek!  I wasn't sure how I felt about that!  I wanted my son to be better, but I didn't like the idea of Steven being knocked out with anesthesia and having probes shoved into his tear ducts.  I think I was more nervous about the surgery than Steven, but then, he probably didn't understand what we were talking about.

So we scheduled the surgery for August 5th, and made preparations to get Steven's tear ducts opened up: babysitting for Sarah, time off work for Ian, and attending a surgery prep class.  The class was fun (for the kids) and informative.  It made me feel better about what was going to happen.  The class was an overview of what would happen when we came in for the surgery and included a tour of all the places the children would go during their visit.  They also familiarize the children with some of the things they would see  (stethoscopes, otoscopes, face masks, hospital "pajamas"), and gave them a "hospital buddy" doll that they could take home.

Sarah sporting the hospital cap and mask she was given at the class.

 August 5th has come and gone, and we didn't do the surgery.  Almost immediately after the appointment with the ophthalmologist, Steven's eyes started to clear up.  For the last month, Steven's eyes have been almost completely clear, even though he got sick a couple weeks ago, his eyes didn't get goopy at all.  I agonized for a time about what I should do:  Do I go through with a surgery that Steven doesn't really need, or do I cancel a surgery that really would have helped Steven?  I finally realized that I could reschedule (duh!) and give myself another month to keep an eye on Steven's eye to see if it goobered up again.  So far, so good. 

Steven at the park on his birthday