Day of Doctors

As you read this, I am off and running on my day of doctors. Thankfully, we start off with Will's fun Jump & Shout class, but shortly after we are off to our doctor visits. I get to go to the Dr. to renew my allergy and asthma meds since my Dr. has to hold me hostage in order for me to go in. He only gives me enough refills for a year so I have to go see him at least once a year in order to breathe, quite literally... And things must be in bloom late this year because these last couple days without my inhaler have been full of sneezes that come in threes for me. Oy.

Then we end our day with Will's appointment. He's off to see an Ophthalmologist. One of his eyes has a tear duct that isn’t quite right. He’s had it since he was born, and our pediatrician wanted to keep an eye on it (excuse the pun…) for his first year of life because I guess sometimes these things work themselves out. This is not the case with our little bugger. His eye gets yucky and gunky and full of eye boogies from time to time. We try to put a warm wash cloth and hold it on there in hopes of opening the duct up, per Dr.’s suggestion, but come on! He’s been able to walk since he was 10 months old…you think he’s going to let me put something on his face for longer than 2 seconds?! You’ve gotta be kidding me.

Over the last couple months, it’s only gotten worse. The eye boogies gather more and more with each flare up. It breaks my heart to hear him screaming when we wakes up because his eye is sealed shut with eye boogies. It takes longer for it to go away, and we have less time of “clear” eye in between flare ups. Even when it’s “clear”, he still has a perpetual tear coming from that eye. I can’t count how many times we’ll be out and someone will say “Aw…was he just crying? He’s got a little tear!” No, Ms. Nosy Lady at the Grocery Store, he wasn’t crying.

I have to sing major praises to our pediatrician though. He has been awesome. Last week Will’s eye got especially yucky. Hubby and I were already discussing what to do next and then it flared up again. I called Dr. Chu. We kind of played phone tag throughout the week, but finally on Friday, we got to talk over the phone, and not to each others’ voicemail. He called me on his way home. Needless to say, I was impressed and extremely thankful for that! We were just in to see him for Will’s 1 year check up, and since his eye was “clear”, Hubby and I forgot to ask about it. Lo and behold a week or so later, it got yucky again.

Dr. Chu is great at answering my questions and putting worried parents with overactive imaginations at ease. He gave me the names of some Ophthalmologists to make an appointment with and gave me a few scenarios. He’s had a patient that had the same problem and the Dr. was able to manipulate the eye lid (as the kid is held down, kicking & screaming, I’m sure) and within two weeks the problem was gone. Then the other word came up…surgery… I wanted to barf. I got light-headed and told him to hold on while I sat down. It could be a possibility. The gist of it is they have to put him out for it and they lance the tear duct to open it up. Ugh…even typing it makes me nauseous. So we’ll see what happens. Hubby gets to escape the first appointment, since he has to work; otherwise I’d be trying to carry two babies out of the office…One screaming his guts out, and one who probably spewed his guts all over the office’s floor. Now it’s time to put on my tough guy hat and do what I gotta do to make my baby better! Wish me luck!