Clogged tear ducts (sorry it's pretty long)

Alex is clearly practically perfect in every way. And was born that way, thank you very much. But there is one small issue. She was born with clogged tear ducts. Not horribly uncommon, the MayoClinic sys that as many as 20% of babies are born with blocked or under developed tear ducts. In most cases the issue resolves itself in the first year. While waiting for this to happen it sort of looks like pink eye. 

see the redness? that's the blocked/clogged tear duct

Well Alex's didn't clear up within the first year. Research and her doctor assured us it should clear up by 15 months. No dice. 2 years? Nope. 


And at this point the chances of their clearing on their own is growing smaller. It's even becoming darned close to unlikely.

The day after this past Thanksgiving. We though it might be pink eye.

After several attempts to fix what was thought to be infected blocked ducts, then pink eye then infected blocked ducts again, we found ourselves at a Pediatric Ophthalmologist.  Alex was fantastic while she was poked and prodded and weird stuff was put in her eyes. Her eyes were dilated and florescence stuff was put in them so it could be determined how well they're draining. Well the right eye didn't drain at all. But otherwise her eyes looked great. 


So it was decided that she would have a procedure done to correct the issue once and for all. In fact, it was decided that given the fact that her left eye had been an issue in that past the procedure would be done on both eyes. It is a fairly common procedure. Technically it could be done with a person still awake and a local anesthetic, but that doesn't go so well for a 2 year old. Really it would be like convincing a pack of lions to stay still while you dangle a fresh zebra in front of them. 

not my picture

This coming Friday, the 21st, is the day it's getting done. We are due at GBMC at 715am and her procedure should begin at 845am. She shouldn't be under for more then a half hour. Alex will have a breathing tube for the duration of the procedure. The doctor will go in through Alex's nasal cavity and probe the tear ducts. Then she will insert little balloons, think angioplasty, into Alex's ducts and inflate the balloons and leave them be for 5 minutes. 


When it's all said and done there is a 98% success rate. There is a 1 in 1,000,000 chance of an issue with the general anesthesia. And a 1 in 10,000,000 chance of complications. The odds are good from a scientific perspective. Also, we choose to believe that God will be watching out for our little girl, which makes the odds that much better. 


All in all she will have gone about 15 hours without eating at the end of it. And we have to start her back on simple plain foods in case her stomach is upset. She should want to sleep and be lazy most of the day, which I've GOT to see because Alex has never been a big fan of sleep. And by Saturday she should be as good as new. After a week of antibiotic eye drops we'll be able to put all of this behind us. 

If only I knew how to crop pictures

I've never been put under for anything. Never had a breathing tube. The only time I've ever spent the night in the hospital was when I gave birth to Alex. The very thought of such things freaks me the blip out. So my brain is telling me that the doctor does this all the time and to trust God and look at the statistics and this is all outpatient. blah blah blah. But try convincing my heart not to worry. That's my little girl that will be n that table. And I'll be there for her every step, we've decided that I'll be the one to go back with her. And I'm doing everything I can to be strong. And trying to explain what's coming has gotten very humorous. Obviously Alex has no reference for what I'm telling her, Jason hasn't told her anything he wants her to be excited while I think she should know what to expect so she doesn't get scared, but her trying to understand is very cute. 


So here we are, days away from a minor procedure that will help Alex's eyes for the rest of her life. Still a little freaky but it's all for the best. Now I wonder what 'comfort' items she'll want to take with her. I think I know what will be chosen.... :)
(this is where I would cleverly put pictures of Alex with her ladybug blanket and the lamb she got at her dedication, were I clever enough to have such pictures)


If you want to know more about all of this. Do what we did, google blocked tear ducts and clogged tear ducts. the interwebs are full of helpful information about it. 

Too cute

As you may recall, I mentioned once before about Alex and the ornaments we try to do every year. Well despite a setback or two Alex got to make and decorate some pretty awesome ornaments at her day home. And as if I'm not already a big enough fan of Mrs. Jesi she has agreed to let me link her blog here so you can check out her super wonderful post about the girls making their salt dough ornaments. I highly recommend following the link and checking it out. Not only are her pics far better then any that I could take but her writing is fantastic. Oh and Alex is like right there on this post so it's like a win-win-win.

http://huginnmuninnandme.com/2011/01/10/salty-dough/#comments

Happy New year!

Here's to a happy New Year for all of us!

And before you call the authorities, she's drinking...

My new favorite pic

This is just one of my new favorite pics. Isn't tinsle fun? Thanks Mr Justin for bringing some over :)

Merry Merry!!

We just had way too much fun this Christmas. I was debating on doing only one post or a series. I opted for one since most of the pictures are most appriciated by us. So her goes a long picture filled post :)

First Alex and I went down to 34th Street in Hampden one Saturday evening. It was cold and crowded and we didn't get many pictures (I only have so many hands and keeping a hand on her is FAR more importantthenpictures) but she loved it. Best part is that they were calling for rain that night. And rain it did, starting about 5 minutes after we'd gotten back to the car. Thank God :)



The final snowman prior to the feline attack



 We were danger close to a white Christmas this year. And after last year's fiascos can you blame people for freaking out everytime snow is in the forcast? Well we ahve yet to get more then a dusting. Although this means that Alex gets all excited and wants to make snowmen. Like real ones. Anyone who has ever tried to make a snowman knows that you need a lot more snow then we had and it has to be a moist snow. We had fun anyway. The cat is always trying to escape to the freedom of outside. Stupid cat. He usually doesn't stay out long but there are a few issues here. 1-we want an indoor cat and 2 TECHNICHALLY in Baltimore County you can't have an unleashed animal outside. So the cat has a harness and we try to convince him to work with a leash. Not long after the picture was taken he slipped his harness and ran away. Stupid cat. But Alex and I had fun. Even if the snow was gone long before Christmas.

silliness

Then there was Christmas at Grammy and Pop-pop's with Alex's cousins, Eve's kids. She was a bit overwhelmed because she's not so used to so many kids being around but she had fun. And she got a super cool light up lady bug out of the deal. Judging by her lack of willingness to part with it, I'd say it's a pretty big hit.



She rarely sleeps soudly or long enough to get a picture. But how cute is sleepy Alex?



Before we knew it, it was time for the Christmas party at her day home. Alex loves her daytime family and was more then willing to help them open their gifts. By all accounts she had a great day that day. It was a party after all and so they got all sorts of treats and pizza and cool stuff to play with like horse on stick things and a stuffed penguin. Oh yeah. Did I mention that our daughters favorite things are penguins and ladybugs?

What fun would any of this be without some fingerpainting?

Christmas Eve found us attempting to assemble a gingerbread house kit. This could be a post in itself but alas I will only torture us all with a few pictures. It went poorly but Alex and I had a great time anyway. It was a mess and took a lot of trial and error but we eventually got 3 houses assembled. By then most of teh decorations had been eaten. But I would guess that that's most of the fun of making gingerbread houses. After church we grabbed some fast food and headed home. Magically between the time Alex left the house and her return a stuffed stocking appeared under the tree. She happily pulled out her goodies and we watched one of her new 'mato shows', which is how she refers to VeggieTales. Then there was only one more sleep until Christmas.



What it looked like before Alex found it all in the morning



So Alex can tell you that Christmas is Jesus' birthday. And she can point out Santa Claus in a heartbeat, even if she doesn't wuite get the jolyy elf thing at all. And she understands presents and ripping paper. She'd been told for weeks about how awesome Christmas is for all of these reasons. And she'd done countless Christmas crafts. But it seems as though nothing had really prepared her or made her ready.

We got up and sung happy birthday, the cake was chocolate strawberry shortcake, and started the rolls and made hot cocoa. Then it started.

Each gift was played with as it was opened, until we convinced her to move on. And eventually she was just overwhelmed and didn't know what to play with. We've been told to enjoy these years because before we know it she'll just rip everything open as fast as possible. I guess we enjoyed it, we took over 100 pictures in an hour and a half. lol

After a family day, Jackie came over and brought with her one of Alex's favorite new things, a lady bug pillow pal. Now she has teh light thing, blanket and pillow with her every night and every nap. It's getting to be a very lady bug bed. :)

Jason's first toy assembly on Christmas Eve went really well

And went over like gang busters

one happy girl in her favorite pj's

We hope that you all had as wonderful a Christmas as we did!