What a Differece a Probe Makes

Let me back up a little bit. Maddox has had clogged tear ducts since she was born. Her eyes would mat shut when she would sleep, water excessively, and always have gunk (that's right, gunk) in the corners of her eyes. She would constantly rub her eyes and it made her look, as Cody puts it, "Like she had gone a round with Mike Tyson" See Below:









These are just a few examples of her clogged duct.  These don't even show the half of it, because we usually had cleaned her eye or given massages before pictures were taken.  We had to give her tear duct massages several times a day and she had grown to hate it! We had also given her two different types of eyedrops to help with the redness and infection that the clogged ducts would cause.

At 4 months, Dr. B told us that the tear ducts usually correct themselves by 6 months and if Maddox's hadn't cleared up by 6 months he would refer us to a Pedi Opthamologist.

By her 6 month appointment her right tear duct had cleared up, but her left eye was worse than ever. We immediately took the referral and made an appointment.

We knew there was a big chance that Maddox was going to have to have her eye probed, so I immediately started researching the procedure. Basically, after some numbing drops are placed in the eye, a thin rod is inserted into the tear duct and it opens the blockage. If the procedure is done before a certain age, anesthesia is not needed.

On Monday, June 28th we took Maddox to the Pedi Opth. He checked Maddox's eyes and he gave us a couple of options: A) we could try another eye drop with a steroid in it (which he gave a 10% chance of working at this point) or B) he could perform the eye probing procedure in office and have a 90% success rate. We opted for the latter of the two.

He recommended that Cody and I stay out in the hall, but we aren't wait and see kind of parents. We simply told him that we would like to be in the room with our baby. Watching them wrap her snugly in a blanket then strap her in a little contraption was pretty hard. The procedure took around 2 minutes; however, when Maddox let loose a loud cry as they inserted the rod it seemed like FOREVER. Cody and I were both in tears, but it lasted mere seconds and then she was giggling in our arms.

Since that day, her eye has done AMAZING. It hasn't matted, watered or given her any troubles. We are soo happy that we chose to fix it. Her beautiful blue eyes are definately brighter :-)  Thank you for all your prayers!!!