No More Tears?

Some of you may know that ever since Olivia was born she has had clogged tear ducts. I always thought that tear ducts were where tears originated from, but actually they serve as sort of a drainage system for the eye. This means if your tear ducts are clogged your eyes water a lot and tend to accumulate a fair amount of goop. So for the past year the doctor has been telling us that most of the time tear ducts unclog themselves. However, those times when they don't, you have to have a specialist probe them. I was really hoping Olivia would be one of those lucky kids, I would be one of those lucky moms, and her ducts would work it out themselves. Unfortunately that didn't happen. So on Wednesday I took her to an ophthalmologist to have an exam and decide if we wanted to have the procedure done or if we wanted to wait. So once we got there an assistant of some sort did a full-on eye exam, even dilating Livi's eyes. Olivia was less than thrilled with all of the poking and prodding. She was ready to get out of there, and we had only just begun. Once the assistant was done, we had to wait around for the doctor to take a look at her. After having a snack in the waiting room we were lead into the exam room. This was not at all what I expected. This dimly-lit room was decorated with seventies space decor; a photographic mural of a space shuttle, and the opposite wall was painted with an arrangement of planets that were too small for the wall. I got a bad feeling just being in this room. I guess I expected everything to look high-tech and state of the art instead of outdated. The doctor finally came in and examined an uncooperative Oli. He was nice enough and seemed like he knew what he was talking about. He said that Olivia's ducts were badly clogged and he didn't think waiting a few months would make a difference. If a child's ducts are still clogged after 18 months they have to be admitted into a hospital and put under for a full-fledged surgery. I wasn't too excited about that. Plus, when I talked to the receptionist, she said that the worst part of this whole procedure for the child was being strapped to a papoose board; that the procedure itself really didn't hurt. Plus, it takes less than a minute and once it's over the child is fine. So based on that information and the doctor's recommendation, I agreed to go ahead with it. So the nurse pulls out this ancient, beat-up wooden table with an equally ancient papoose board decorated with a cartoon Indian baby. Once again, I was hoping for something a little more modern. The doctor told me I didn't have to stay if I didn't want to, but I thought if I left it would only add to Livi's stress. So, they strapped her down on this board, and yes, just as the receptionist told me, she hated it. The doctor put a couple of numbing drops in Olivia's eyes, and by this time she was crying as hard as I had ever seen her cry. Then, he pulls out this metal tool that resembles that tool a dentist uses to pick at your teeth to check for cavities, only this one was straight at the end instead of curved. I was shocked to see the size of the tip because he actually poked this into her tear duct. I guess to make the whole bigger. Then he pulled out this wire, that I swear looked used, bent out of shape, and like something you would buy at a hardware store for some heavy-duty job. I had no idea that the wire would be so thick. He then preceded to put this wire into O's duct and push and pull until it was through to her nostril. I couldn't believe how rough he had to be to achieve this. It was obvious that this was very painful for Olivia and she was screaming like never before. I wanted to vomit, and they still had to do the other eye. If that procedure took a minute, it was one of the longest minutes of my life. I'm sure it was the longest of Olivia's. Contrary to the claim of the receptionist, O did not stop screaming once the procedure was done. In fact, she was still hysterical when I was getting her into the car, and that was after signing some stupid form and checking out before we left the office. I was relieved when she finally settled down once we started driving. Now, I'm guessing that some of you are thinking, well.. lot's of kids have that done, and it's not nearly as bad as some things that happen to kids, but I don't care. It still totally sucked. I hope that as a result, she doesn't develop a phobia of having her eyes examined or putting drops in her eyes. I can see how a fear could develop from an experience like that even though she is really young. So, I'm glad it's over. The doctor said that the procedure works 90% of the time. If it doesn't work, then she has to have the surgery in the hospital. Her right eye seems to be better, but the left one still has some blood-tinted ooze. According to the doctor, the ooze and watering should stop within 2 weeks. I am really hoping that is the case. We would really like to have this be done.

Signin' & Toddlin'

Olivia seems to have made great gains in the past week or two. Her vocabulary, both verbal and signing, has at least doubled. She now does three signs regularly: milk, more, and food or hungry. She says "ba" for bottle, "beh" for bunny, "ki-ee" for kitty, "dat" while she points so I think she's saying "what's that?". She occasionally says mama and dada, and sometimes I think she says something that resembles pretty and baby. When we went to her 12 month doctor's appointment the doctor said kids this age should be saying and/or signing 3 words. I guess she has that covered. She has also started walking a lot more. Yesterday at my parents' house my mom counted 13 steps. That is the most so far. I kind of thought she would be really impressed with herself, but she just acts like it's not a big deal. Olivia has also been waving a lot more. At first it was just to say goodbye, but now she seems to be doing it to gesture hello as well. This morning the doorbell rang and she waved. I'm assuming she knew that she would be saying hello to someone. She was right because it was her babysitter, Ashley.

Acapulco Diver

Olivia treated me to a unique adventure the other morning: I got the upstairs all cordoned off and baby-safe and got in the shower. We're both pretty accustomed to having Olivia holler and scream while one of us is taking a shower and the other parent is gone. It's just something we endure. So I got in the shower and Olivia started hollering as usual. I peeked my head out of the shower so she could see where I was, thinking that would calm her down a bit. That only made her more upset, and she crawled over to the edge of the tub and peeked her head in the shower curtain. Then I started shaving, which requires me to look upward. While I was shaving, I heard a loud thud, looked down, and wouldn't you know Olivia had managed to climb over the side of the bathtub and into the tub! Fully clothed, no less! The only thing I could think to do was to just pick her up. So I picked her up and got her calmed down somewhat, and then had to go about peeling her wet clothes off of her with one hand while holding her with the other. Must've been quite a sight. For the remainder of the shower she sat in the tub and hollered. It wasn't the most relaxing shower I ever had.