25 Years Later!

I am writing this without the use of contacts or glasses. For the first time in 25 years, I can see without them. Amazing, really. I couldn't believe the surgery went that quick. The doctor was outstanding. He has done over 15,000 of them, so I trusted him. It went really quick. It wasn't totally what I expected. I didn't expect the suction thing to hurt as much as it did, and I didn't expect the bright white lights. It made me think I was going to sneeze. (Good thing S. has good vision--he always sneezes in bright light. . .if he tried to have the surgery, the laser might go across his face! Just kidding. . .if you move, it turns the laser off!)

It was also weird when they said "Look at the red light" and I could barely see it. . .it got clearer as the laser went on, and I could see little black dots forming around it. . .was that where the laser was hitting? Who knows. . .Anyway--I had the "latest and greatest" surgery. Instead of forming the flap with a blade, they used a laser. Then a second laser did the actual reshaping. Pretty cool because when they used the blade for the flap, I wasn't a candidate. My corneas were too thin to trust a human hand to make the flap. But, with the laser, my corneas were double the thickness they needed for accuracy.

I was a little freaked out at first, because everyone had told me I would be able to see as soon as I sat up. When I sat up, I couldn't really see! Everything was really cloudy and fuzzy. I could see the clock on the wall, and I could tell there were numbers on it, but I couldn't see the numbers. On the way home, I couldn't read street signs or license plates. I was afraid it didn't work. But, when the surgeon said "Can you see?" and I said "Ummm. . .kinda." He said "Whatever you are seeing is exactly where you should be in the recovery process because your surgery went perfect. Beautiful flaps, excellent reshaping. . .it is perfect."

They kept saying that my eyes would be really irritated for about 8 hours. Well, I don't think those people have ever had someone wrong with their eyes, because the "irritation" was nothing! It started to hurt about the time we got home, as the numbing stuff wore off, so I just put in my drops and went to sleep. I only slept for 2 hours, and when I woke up, I didn't feel anything. Once in a while it felt like a little hair was in the right corner of my right eye, but that's it! Maybe I have a high pain tolerance, or maybe other people's eyes hurt worse than mine, or maybe they just give you the worst case scenario. . .or maybe they're all a bunch of whiny babies! ha ha!

I have to wear these REALLY attractive goggles to sleep in--that's very funny. I wear them for a week. I have to put 2 different drops in my eyes 4 times a day for a week. That's all. Other than that, no big deal. This morning, I see pretty well. My vision is a little "off" but I don't really know how to describe it. Not fuzzy or blurry. Maybe a little "double." Just by a fraction of an inch. Kind of makes the outlines of stuff a little hazy, but I can still see everything. It reminds me of when you have your eyes dialated, and it is starting to wear off.

Oh, I also have ruptured blood vessels in both eyes. I'm not surprised, since that has happened to me before (when I had N. . .the snooty nurse asked me if I thought I was going to deliver him through my eyes. I said "No, but he's my first baby and I was only in labor for 4 hours. . .seems worth the busted blood vessels to me. . .but I digress. . .)

The surgeon said that the laser is on a different amount of time based on how bad your prescription is, but it averages about 20 seconds per eye. Mine was 1 minute and 3 seconds for the left eye, and 42 seconds for the right. So, my vision is pretty bad. Or WAS pretty bad. I see great now! It is supposed to get better over the next week to month, but even if it stays exactly the same as it is now. . .TOTALLY GREAT!!!