More surgery for The Daughter

She's going under general anesthesia for the second time in two months time. Nervous. This time on her eye lid near her tear duct. Scary.

In Kindergarten The Daughter started having eye issues. First I think was pink eye, then a sty, but it may have been in reverse order. I'd have to look it up to be for sure and I'm too lazy to do that. The red lump on her lower lid came and went every couple of months. Inside would be red and sometimes have white bumps. I was worried about it and thought it was a fever blister in her eye but her pediatrician adamantly denied anyone could get fever blisters in the eye. So, lacking the MD beside my name, I went with his words and just fretted over her eye in private. A year later and it was getting worse so I consulted Dr Google. Turns out fever blisters in the eye CAN happen so I called the pediatrician's nurse for a referral to an ophthalmologist. She actually laughed at me for thinking anyone could get a fever blister in the eye. LAUGHED. But she gave me the name and number of an ophthalmologist and I called them. Earliest they could see The Daughter was May ... until I told them what I suspected was wrong ... they saw her the next day. Turns out eye doctors actually realize the seriousness of shit going on in and around the eye. You know, because it affects things like sight.

Because they squeezed us in so quickly, I didn't complain when we waited in one waiting room for 2 1/2 hours and in another for 1 1/2 hours. I didn't complain when we had to pay out of pocket for an eye exam (with eye chart - like for getting glasses) before ever seeing the doctor. I didn't complain when the doctor spent all of 3 minutes in the room with us before diagnosing The Daughter with a chalazion and scheduling surgery. I didn't complain when we then had to drive to another location for blood work and preop stuff. I didn't complain when the anesthesiologist, who is ex Navy, had no bedside manner with little kids. But, I did draw the line when a woman whose name tag said "administrator" took The Daughter's temp and listened to her chest and proclaimed The Daughter needed to head straight to the ER because she had bronchitis. WTF lady? So we had to get an RN to confirm and she said the same. I wasn't convinced. The Daughter was hot because she was dressed for the 26 degree weather of that morning and it was then 60 degrees that afternoon. She was snotty because she was crying from having her finger pricked and being told every single gory detail of her procedure thanks to Mr ExNavy's lack of kid skills. But she felt fine and I wasn't about to call an ambulance for a healthy child with a slightly elevated temp and a booger in her nose. They insisted we head straight over to the pediatricians office. Maybe they're all in cahoots together to see how many copays they can possibly get from one person in one day (three from us, as it turns out). The Ped wasn't taking any more patients for the day, but we could drive the 40 miles back there the next day, miss more school, and have them label us loco for coming in as a sick patient when there are no sick symptoms. We declined. She's fine. I've been checking her temp obsessively and it's a completely normal 98.6 and she's booger free.

As long as Ms Administrator and her friend the RN aren't involved in The Daughter's surgery, it'll be okay. Though if they scrub in, I might just have to pull the plug and go elsewhere.

I'm glad she doesn't have a fever blister in her eye. Very glad. But I also wish that her Ped wasn't so dismissive over the past year so that we could have gotten her treatment for the chalazion sooner. Like when in office treatment would have remedied the situation instead of needing a scalpel to cut out scar tissue. Mom guilt is so fun. Not.

Please send good thoughts to her today. She is a brave 6 year old, but understandably worried.