Friday, March 4, 2005

Today I had my PRK eye surgery! I was totally sick of my ugly glasses, and my contacts were always blurry and bothering me – so finally after Paula and Sue did it, I decided I was going to also! I was also sick of looking outside, thinking I was seeing a cat, putting on my glasses, and finding out it was a stinking turkey!!

I couldn’t get LASIK b/c my cornea’s were too thin (go figure) so I had to do PRK – which is known to have a painful recovery and takes longer to heal. I had heard the worst part of PRK was that your eyes felt like they had sand in them – but I figured since I mountain bike all the time and am used to sand in my eyes – I would be fine!
I got there and they were a bit behind – I guess they had some trouble calibrating the laser – which at the time it didn’t faze me – but now that you think about it – how scary is that?

We waited in the waiting room for about a half hour, and then I was called in. I had to take a Valium and wear these dorky foot slippers and cap to cover my hair. I went into the room and Dr Gold was there along w/ 2 other men. First he had to put little plugs into my tear ducts since my eyes were a bit dry, and they kept the tears inside your eye. It was really creepy – I thought it was going to hurt – but it didn’t at all. It felt like he was playing with my eyelashes. Then we were ready for the big surgery. The chair you were in was like a recliner so at least you were ‘comfortable.’ I was very nervous so I got to hold ‘Seymour’ the bear – at the time I didn’t understand the significance of Seymour – but now I do get it – See More!! I was sweating my butt off and Dr Gold talked to me and told me not to worry – that it was going to be fine and painless. Yeah right – I didn’t believe it! He says the only thing I will feel is water running down my face when they flush my eyes. They bandage 1 eye up and start to work on the other. They tape my eyelids so I can’t blink – and it felt really weird. Then it started…I think there was a pressure ring on my eye so it wouldn’t move but I couldn’t tell. He puts some numbing drops in and here we go! He begins by pouring tons of alcohol on my eye – and all of a sudden – it goes black – I can’t see anything. He tells me this is normal – I start to feel really strange b/c I know I am awake and my eyes are open – but I can’t see a darn thing – it makes me feel like I’m going to pass out. Just when I think I’m passing out – he stops counting and FREEZING cold water is poured in my eye and I can see – but I’m suffering from a major head freeze. Just when it’s almost unbearable he stops. Next comes the q-tip or something like that and he’s ‘wiping’ my eye with it – I guess this is removing the outer layer of the eye. He puts more drops in and then tells me to look at the laser. After about 20 seconds he says I’m done and removes the tape that is keeping my eyes open. That was SO EASY – it didn’t hurt one bit! Next one is another story. The next one I could definitely tell there was a pressure ring on my eye – he put the alcohol on and halfway through my eye hurt so bad I was almost moaning and he said I only had to wait 15 more seconds. I got through it and then the rest was a piece of cake. He put bandage contact lenses in my eyes to start the healing. One didn’t sit right so he was trying to fit it but I kept blinking – so the one thing I was dreading was him using a speculum? to hold my eye open – and he used it!!! It was gross – but didn’t hurt. Then I got up and could already see better then when I wasn’t wearing my glasses!
I had to go home and take another valium and sleep for 3-5 hours so the healing would start. On the ride home my eyes started feeling gritty, but after my nap it felt good again. I even felt good enough to watch a little TV, but had to wear my sunglasses b/c everything was really bright to my eyes.

The next day was a bit worse, they hurt a bit and the lights killed me. I spent the entire weekend pretty much ‘napping’ and just listening to my iPod with my eyes closed. Couldn’t read and watching TV hurt too much from squinting. On Sunday the pain got pretty bad so the Dr called me in a prescription for Vicodin!! I was really scared to take one – it took me about 5 hours to work up the nerve to try it – the warnings on the label scared the crap out of me. After 1 vicodin I felt awesome – no more pain – and pretty much fell asleep for the night. I only had to take them for 3 nights – which I think is pretty good! They kept getting better and I could read on the computer more and more each day. A few days later I went back and he said they had healed enough to take out the bandage lens. One hurt bad when he took it out. 2 days later we realized that the left eye was fully healed and the right wasn’t. He put the lens back into the right one to help it heal quicker. The eye sight was so different in both eyes that it gave me wicked headaches and made me nauseous for about 3 days. Then it finally healed and they were only a bit off. The right eye was now fuzzy and the other wasn’t. This lasted a few days, but got better with each day until I finally didn’t notice it at all. Now, I am just amazed at all the stuff I can see!!! When I go to bed I can see across the room, and when I wake up I can see the alarm clock! I can even read the numbers on the scale!!

Thursday, April 7, 2005

My 1 month check-up was yesterday and I have 20/15 in each eye, and together I can see 20/10. The doctor was just checking the 20/10 vision for laughs –and I ended up being able to read each letter correctly. He gave me a big hi-five and told me what a great job I did with the eyes!! We were both thrilled!!