Thursday
Jul152010
Aaaand, surgery it is. Maybe. Possibly. Probably. I dunno. SIGH.
Thursday, July 15, 2010 at 07:00AM
When Kaylee was diagnosed with the chalazion three weeks ago, I thought it was kind of a charming word, especially when you say it out loud. Try it: Chalazion (kuh-LAY-zee-un). Chalazion! Chalazion? Chalazionchalazionchalazion!!
Well, you know what? That word can kiss my ass. It’s no longer charming or fun to say. I would like that word to go away forever and ever.
We had Kaylee’s follow-up appointment with the ophthalmologist yesterday, and she didn’t say what I wanted her to say.
What did I want her to say? Um, I guess I wanted her to produce some magical elixir made out of stardust and moonbeams, rub it on Kaylee’s eye lump and have it suddenly disappear. And then the doctor would write me a check for $10,000. (I started to say $1 million, but come on, that would be unrealistic.) And then Kaylee would get to ride a unicorn.
What the doctor actually said was that there’s been pretty much no improvement in the past three weeks. Even though it looks better than it did last week, it’s exactly the same size it was during that initial visit. To the millimeter.
She gave me two options, leaving the choice entirely up to me and Rob.
Option 1: Keep waiting. Keep putting warm compresses on her face. Keep rubbing ointment on it. Hope it goes away. Spend as long as six months hoping it will go away.
Option 2: Do the surgery. We’d check Kaylee into the hospital on a Thursday morning, and she’d be out the same day. The doctor would cut a small incision on the inside of her eyelid, scrape away the gunk with a tiny spoon-like tool, and that would be that. Our insurance would cover it, after we meet the deductible. The doctor’s office is double-checking for us to be sure what our responsibility would be.
I’m torn. As I just finished saying yesterday, I didn’t want surgery to be the answer. But at the same time, I didn’t want “wait six months” to be the answer, either.
The woman at the doctor’s office who is responsible for checking on the insurance questions is out until next Monday, and then it may be a few days after that before we hear from her.
So I guess we’ll wait, at least until she calls. Maybe in the next week Kaylee’s eye lump will show obvious improvement, and we’ll decide to wait it out.
Otherwise, we’ll probably choose the surgery. Because this has been going on for about two months now, and that’s about two months too long.
Well, you know what? That word can kiss my ass. It’s no longer charming or fun to say. I would like that word to go away forever and ever.
We had Kaylee’s follow-up appointment with the ophthalmologist yesterday, and she didn’t say what I wanted her to say.
What did I want her to say? Um, I guess I wanted her to produce some magical elixir made out of stardust and moonbeams, rub it on Kaylee’s eye lump and have it suddenly disappear. And then the doctor would write me a check for $10,000. (I started to say $1 million, but come on, that would be unrealistic.) And then Kaylee would get to ride a unicorn.
What the doctor actually said was that there’s been pretty much no improvement in the past three weeks. Even though it looks better than it did last week, it’s exactly the same size it was during that initial visit. To the millimeter.
She gave me two options, leaving the choice entirely up to me and Rob.
Option 1: Keep waiting. Keep putting warm compresses on her face. Keep rubbing ointment on it. Hope it goes away. Spend as long as six months hoping it will go away.
Option 2: Do the surgery. We’d check Kaylee into the hospital on a Thursday morning, and she’d be out the same day. The doctor would cut a small incision on the inside of her eyelid, scrape away the gunk with a tiny spoon-like tool, and that would be that. Our insurance would cover it, after we meet the deductible. The doctor’s office is double-checking for us to be sure what our responsibility would be.
I’m torn. As I just finished saying yesterday, I didn’t want surgery to be the answer. But at the same time, I didn’t want “wait six months” to be the answer, either.
The woman at the doctor’s office who is responsible for checking on the insurance questions is out until next Monday, and then it may be a few days after that before we hear from her.
So I guess we’ll wait, at least until she calls. Maybe in the next week Kaylee’s eye lump will show obvious improvement, and we’ll decide to wait it out.
Otherwise, we’ll probably choose the surgery. Because this has been going on for about two months now, and that’s about two months too long.
Reader Comments (6)
That sucks. I agree with your plan of attack, though. I'm thinking of ya!
I think that you are right, two months is too long. Will she have to wear an eye patch during recovery?
Thanks. :)
Ooh, yeah, that's a bonus. I'm sure she'll enjoy saying "Arrr, I'm a pirate!"
Surgery is certainly drastic and scary, but it sounds like it might be the best thing for her. And an eye patch would be awesome.
[...] called the eye doctor’s office yesterday and scheduled Kaylee’s surgery for August 5, and now all I can think about is that, in two weeks, someone is going to take a [...]