Blocked tear duct surgery

[muminmanchester]

Anyone's DC had surgery for blocked tear ducts? Have been told this afternoon that DS (18 months) will need it and feel absolutely gutted.

I know it's only a minor procedure but DS had emergency surgery at 6 weeks and it was the worst time of my life - I can't face the thought of him going nil by mouth or under anaesthetic again. I know he'll have to for his own good and that this time won't be scary like that, but I am still dreading it.

Have your DC had it and was it ok? Are the hospital quick with them (I.e. They aren't left starving hungry for hours)? How was the recovery?

Hopeful bump...

I've had it as as adult. Not pleasant but not painful either.

My DS had this surgery when he was about a year old, 17 years ago, no problems during it. The surgeon did him first as he was the youngest child there it was a great success, recover was ok too. On the plus he has never had a an eye infection since. Good luck with it its always very worrying when a child has to have surgery .

No experience of the surgery but I will share my experience of opting against surgery in case it's of use. We were told out DC had a particularly bad case of blocked tear duct (albeit one eye only) - the dye test was so spectacular that they were photographed for teaching.

BUT the consultant explained that is very rare for them to not grow out of it. It can cause frustrating problems with childcare because nurseries think it looks like uber-contagious conjunctivitis (and they can't be expected to distinguish between the two so obviously want you to stay when it's red). However (so they said), there's very little actual risk to the eye from the blocked duct and it mainly looks nasty. And it really does look nasty doesn't it; I remember getting horrified comments from strangers concerned that I wasn't looking after my poor baby's eye.

Because of all mentioned above we decided to wait until 3/4 years before considering surgery (to see if the skull had grown enough to open the duct). We weren't particular expecting it to as it was a pretty decent blockage, but it did! The frequency of bad flare ups stated declining about age 2 and was all but gone by 3.5, never to cause a problem again.

Not saying waiting is necessarily for you, but it's potentially worth considering.

Thanks brokenbattle, that's really interesting. I've got an appointment with the GP next week so I'll ask about not having the surgery and what the options are