sweetfrenchtoast

(Note: I originally wrote this hours ago. Just as I was about to post it, I lost my Internet connection. Grrr….)

I have previously stated that everybody should be in therapy. I still believe that.

However, I also think that if you have vision problems you should get Lasik too.

And you can talk to your therapist about it to boot.

Yesterday was the big day…the day of my Lasik surgery. The day started bright and early as I had to be there at 8:40 a.m. They wanted to try to get the Custom Lasik wavefront measurements again so that I could have Custom Lasik instead of traditional Lasik. So Guy drove me to the Lasik center and waited patiently in the lobby as I stared down that little tunnel and tried so hard not to look at the red light.

Good news! They were able to get the measurements. After they verified the readings were valid, they called me and Guy back to an exam room. Stephanie, the Lasik coordinator, then put my hair into one of those medical bonnets and put booties on my shoes. She used various cleansing pads to clean around my eyes and rinse them off. Then she put numbing drops in my eyes and left me to wait for the doctor to come in.

It was several minutes before the doctor arrived, so I began to worry that my numbing drops were going to wear off. Wouldn’t that suck?! So when Dr. Feinberg arrived, one of the first questions I asked was how long the numbing drops last. He laughed and told me they would put more in my eyes in the surgery room. Then he scooted over to my chair and looked at my eyes with that blindingly bright white light thingy that you’ve probably seen if you’ve been to an eye doctor.

He took a pen and marked spots on each of my eyeballs. It’s weird…I didn’t even blink and he was dotting my eyes. (Ha…get it? “Dotting my eyes”?? Goodness, I’m delirious.) I could feel pressure with each dot but no other sensation.

Dr. Feinberg was really nice, and in my blurry, no-glasses state, he seemed kinda cute too. I remember my first impression when I got his bio in my info packet. He seemed so young…too young to be trusted with a laser machine and my eyes! But his professional, careful manner put me at ease.

After he left, I waited a few more minutes before someone came in and got me. Guy went into an adjacent area where he watched the entire procedure closeup on a 30-inch TV. Once I was in the surgery room, it all started going by really fast.

I was put in a chair and laid back…like when you’re at the dentist. They gave me a stuffed Pluto toy to hold onto. First, they taped my eyelashes back…upper and lower. That felt really weird and my vision got blurry (the nurses told me it would). They put lots and lots of drops in my eyes and then inserted a metal thing in my right eye that basically pushed my eyelids open even farther. Very weird. I kept having visions of A Clockwork Orange.

Once I was sufficiently wide-open, they swung me under the laser and things started moving very rapidly. They covered my left eye and put a suction thing on my right eye to keep it from moving while the doctor cut the flap in my cornea. He placed a little thing on my eye and everything went dark. Then I could hear it make a little buzzing noise as it circled the surface of my eye, cutting a flap. Once the flap-cutter was removed, the doctor folded the flap back and things went blurry. There was a flashing red light above me and that was what I was supposed to look at. Then the laser started. It made a loud clicking noise as it shaped my cornea. Guy said he saw smoke come out of my eye on the TV, and I smelled the burning faintly. It really wasn’t as freaky as it sounds though.

Once the laser was finished, Dr. Feinberg quickly put the flap back in place and smoothed it down, put lots more drops in my eyes, and covered that eye so they could move to the left.

It was the same deal with the left eye, except there was a problem getting the flap to lie flat. There I am, staring at the flashing red light with my cornea folded back, and I began to take deep breaths to calm any nerves that might be getting flustered as a result of the delay on that left eye. At one point, I thought to myself, “What are they gonna do? Leave me without a flap? They will do whatever they need to do to make it right.”

And I was correct…the doctor finally got it in the right place. Guy said he could tell from watching the procedure that Dr. Feinberg was really exacting and a perfectionist about getting it just right.

Thank goodness for that.

Anyway, after they were finished with the left eye, they swung me out from under the laser and let me sit there, eyes pushed wide open, for a few minutes to let my corneas reseal or whatever. Then they removed the clockwork orange metal things, the tape, put more drops in my eyes, and helped me up.

I was told to keep my eyes shut for the first four hours after surgery. I had anti-inflammatory drops, antibiotic drops, and artificial tears to use. I also left the office in weird goggle shields to protect my eyes. I was to wear those all day yesterday, and I am supposed to sleep in them every night for a week.

After Guy took me back to the hotel, I slept for a few hours, dozing on and off at first before finally crashing. After I woke up, I could really tell how well I could see. I could watch TV and read the little disclaimer text at the bottom of the screen! I could tell that I couldn’t see as far as I could with glasses or contacts, but it usually takes time for eyes to heal and settle into their final good vision.

Today, I woke up to find much of the haziness and glare from yesterday gone. My eyes feel completely normal today…no weird burning or feeling like there’s something in them. I still can’t see as far as I used to with correction yet, but at my follow-up visit today the optometrist told me that was normal and I’m in a good place today. I can see 20/25 out of one eye and 20/30 out of the other. With both eyes, it was closer to 20/20.

I go back in a week so we’ll see what’s happening then. Apparently my vision may get better and worse, though, over the next several weeks.

So I highly recommend having it done! Already, it’s amazing. I mean, even if my vision doesn’t improve beyond where I am right this second, I’m happy. I can drive, work, read, etc. without needing any assistance from glasses or contacts…it’s awesome!

Anyway, I need to head back to my place to see if I can get in yet. I went by earlier and they were spraying popcorn texture on the ceilings and wouldn’t let me in. So I’ve been sitting in Panera for a few hours and using their free wireless access.

Here’s a shot of what my place looked like two nights ago…I can’t wait until I can move back in!