Update on Collin

Many of you may or may not know this, but my kids have ISSUES. No, not anything horrible, but they do have their own minor concerns. When he was born, Ethan had the jaundice really bad and was in a bilibed, both at the hospital and at home for about a week to get rid of the oompa loompa tan. He's also had his share of poop problems and continues to take a daily dose of Miralax to keep him regular. Collin has had problems with his tear ducts since he was born, so we finally got permission to bring him to an ophthalmologist to have them checked out. I was hoping it would be a simple fix-some eye drops, a wave of the magic wand. No such luck. Here is what we found out (sorry if it seems a little wordy. This is also what I sent out to the great-grandparents and great-great grandparents for info)-the appointment went well, but Collin WILL require a procedure to have his issue fixed. Here's the long and short of it: Collin has been diagnosed with overflow eye tearing, a problem that is common in about 1/3 of all infants. What it is is that his tear duct membranes in his nose failed to open properly before birth, causing his tears to collect in his eyelid and then spill over onto his cheek. This is also why his eyes get weepy from time to time-the tears have nowhere to go. Most infants have this problem clear up on its own-usually between 6-12 months, through massaging the tear ducts, warm compresses, and time. However, some do not, which is where we are at.

What is being recommended is a procedure called probing the tear duct, which is inserting a tiny probe into the tear duct to open the obstruction. This is a procedure you or I could go and have done today, if we wanted to. It takes such a short amount of time, and while it sounds painful, really isn't that invasive because we can sit still, occupy ourselves, etc. Infants, unfortunately can't do that. So for Collin (and for us), we will be going to Buffalo Hospital in the Same Day Surgery area right away in the morning (he won't be able to eat or drink anything beforehand). Collin will be put under general anesthesia (the same kind you would get at the dentists office), the procedure will be performed, and then he would go home a short time later. Recovery is minimal (lots of cuddling and some eye drops), and side effects would be minor (maybe some slight bleeding in his nose). This procedure works about 90-95% of the time. However, in some infants, when they insert the probe, the openings close right back up again. If that were to happen, he would have to have a 2nd procedure. It would involve the same thing, except the doc would insert stints into his tear ducts to hold them open. These would be left there for 3-4 months and removed later.

Dr. Oster (Collin's ophthalmologist), assured us that while Collin's eyes look great otherwise, judging from his tearing, looking at his eyes through a magnifier, etc., these tear ducts will not open on their own and we WILL have to do the procedure. Right now it's just a matter of when. To have this be successful, there is actually a window of time about 7-8 months long (from now to August) where it will take the best and we will likely only have to do the first procedure described. Therefore, Mark and I have scheduled the procedure for the morning of February 2nd. Mark will be taking a day off of work. I will likely take two days, if possible. Even though it sounds like a very common thing (I just talked to a friend last night whose son had the same thing done), it's still in the OR and it's my baby. :)

Please keep Collin in your prayers. February tends to be the month of not-so-great health for many in my family-surgeries, hospital stays, etc. so just pray that all goes well and that we only have to do this once (it's darned expensive)!!!