Everything is just fine with our little prizefighter

Sorry so late for this update--but here it is in a nutshell:

The surgery went great--the dermoid cyst was excised, and no problems there. He did have a blockage in his tear duct, which was ruptured and now his upper & lower ducts work just great--no gummy yucky goop in the mornings, and no more rogue tears down his cheek (prompting strangers to wonder if he's been crying, thus leading us to the explanation of "no-he-just-has-a-blocked-tear-duct" which is a lot of fun for all involved). The most exciting thing we learned is that Noah has a THIRD tear duct, which is very unusual. Our Dr. has only seen two--and Noah was her second--in 13 years of practicing (and she specializes in Pediatric Ophthalmology). So--basically, if we don't see any goopy yuckiness, there's nothing that needs to be done for his freakish third duct. BUT--if it appears that it, too, is blocked, we'll have to have a Pediatric Plastic Surgeon excise it, which doesn't sound like fun, and I'd like to avoid it if possible.

Noah was back to his old self the next day (the day of surgery, he was at about 90%--just a little fragile, easy to cry, but nothing major), and has been terrorizing the cat (he's getting really good at beaning her in the head with his various balls--or as he calls them "DEEEE!")--so really, we've got our NoMonster back.

He does have two steri-strips over his eye where they made the incision to take out the cyst (internal sutures), and they'll peel off on their own (like old postage stamps, we're told) when it's time. We don't have to do anything special to it--just some antibiotic steroid drops for his tear ducts, and we're good to go. He has shown some bruising, though, which the nurses at the Pediatric Surgeon said is absolutely normal--a little on the side of his head and in the crease of his eye, which really makes it look like he got into a fight. People ask what happened, and we just tell them with a straight face:

You should see the other baby.