Seth has beautiful smiling eyes. I can see love in them when he looks at me and Luke, excitement when he's discovering something new, and I can see the look for reassurance from me when he's scared or hurt. There are so many things his little eyes and expressions tell me, it's such a blessing.
In about a week my son will be going to see an ophthalmologist about his eyes. For those of you who don't know, Seth has blocked tear ducts in both eyes. We were hoping that his eyes would clear up by now, on their own, but they haven't. This will be our first visit with this doctor and I pray that we wont have to wait months more before getting his eyes cleared up.
The procedure that will probably be done is, as far as we know, performed by the ophthalmologist and he'll use a small probe and pass it through Seth's tear ducts to open them up, while Seth is under anesthesia. I'm anxious about having this all done to my little guy. But I also hope that it will clear up his constantly irritated eyes. He's had repeated eye infections, raw eyelids and skin around his eyes because of steady tears running down his face and his little fists rubbing at them.
There are several reason we've waited so long to take care of this problem. First off, our doctor (whom we are no longer with) casually told us to go see the eye doctor when Seth was about 6 months old. There was a brief, 'Oh, it's just blocked tear ducts, nothing serious' comment as we were hurried through our appointment. So I didn't feel the need to add extra doctor's visits for something that wasn't a big deal.
I later looked up things we could do to try and clear them up on our own, including warm damp cloths, pressure/massaging the corner of the eye, and keeping them clean. Most of the research I did said that the ducts should clear up on their own by the time Seth turns one. I also thought it might be allergies.
However, if anything, his little eyes have gotten worse. People are constantly asking, 'Was he just crying?' or 'What's wrong with his eyes?' We had drops for his eyes, which cleared them up for about a week, but since then it's been rough. One or both of his eyes is always filled with icky green build-up, making it hard for Seth to open his eyes at times.
I am looking forward to when he can see without all the goop around his eyes and I wont have to constantly wipe away the tears that aren't draining properly. I want to see his smiling eyes without seeing the redness and irritation.
I know it's a very small problem, in the grand scheme of things, but I'm still praying for healing for my little boy.
