« Time Flies | Main | Not A Waste of Time (?) »
On Friday, August 12, I had Lasik surgery on my eyes. I figured I'd record a little mini-journal type thing leading up to and then after the procedure.
(8-7) Well, it's less than a week before my surgery. People at work keep asking me if I'm freaked out or scared, but I honestly wouldn't go that far. If I were truly scared or worried about it, I wouldn't be having this procedure done...it's not like it's medically necessary or anything. I think "guarded optimism" is the best way to describe me right now. Honestly, the worst-case scenario I'm even thinking about is that I don't get all the way to 20/20 on the first try and have to have it done again in a few months.
Let me recap what's happened up to this point.
Tammy and I have discussed the last few years about my eventually getting Lasik done. It really hasn't been much of an IF, so much as a WHEN. I have terrible eyesite, and 15 years of wearing contacts (usually longer than I'm supposed to each day) has put some nice wear and tear on my eyes. I've had a long-running problem of my eyes not getting enough oxygen because of my contacts, and at my last eye appointment Dr. Turner said it was bad enough to the point that if I were a new patient of his coming in like that, he wouldn't let me wear contacts. We discussed the possibility of Lasik, but for money reasons I wasn't really willing to commit right then...I promised to wear my contacts less and I'd call him back.
The timing finally felt right this summer, so right after getting back from the beach, I began my month of no contacts...glasses only. Most patients only have to go no glasses for a few weeks or in some cases a few days, but because of the bad shape my eyes were in, Dr. Turner wanted a full month. Of course, with my luck, just before I was to begin my month, one of the arms on my glasses broke. I didn't want to spend $300 on another pair of glasses that I would only be using for a month, so I rigged the arm back together with tape.
And here we are. I've redone the tape a few times, but the glasses have held together fairly well. I absolutely hate wearing glasses anyway, then with the broken arm they fit even worse, but I've just sucked it up for about four weeks now. I take great comfort in the fact that even if I have to wear glasses after the surgery, it won't be THESE glasses.
About two weeks ago, I began with the eye drops. These are a prescription eye drop that are supposed to promote healing by increasing tear production in the eye. Later in the week, I have some other stuff to use, but I'll wait and talk about that when I get there.
So that's pretty much all there is to say. The complication rate is very low, and literally everyone that I know personally who has had Lasik has had great results. The doctor doing my surgery has been doing it since 1990, and is supposed to be the best in Birmingham...he has trained many of the other surgeons around town and the Southeast. My goal of having this procedure done is to reduce my dependence on glasses/contacts...ideally eliminate them completely, but if not, my prescription will hopefully be much weaker. Maybe I'll finally be able to see while I'm shaving.
(8-10) Monday was my pre-op appointment, and I was assured that it was the most painful part of the whole process. My doctor had to super-dilate my eyes in order to do some of the measurements, and the drops hurt really badly for about 10 seconds. I've never had trouble driving home after having my eyes dilated for a normal eye appointment, but there's no way I could have driven home after this...the appointment wasn't much different than a normal eye appointment outside of the dilation. Just a few extra measurement type things, and I was on my way. My eye doctor is having his Lasik done just before mine, so obviously we had plenty to talk about since he's in the same boat I am. I had to start my eyelid scrubs today...it's basically like a Clearasil pad that you clean your eyelid with. It's supposed to reduce the bacteria around the eye.
(8-11) I started my anti-infection drops today, and had my last day at work. I can't believe it's finally almost here! I feel like I've done a good job doing everything that I'm supposed to, and I was reading tonight that my surgeon has a 97% rate of people getting at least 20/25 vision, which is almost perfect, from the surgery. Hopefully I'll be in that majority! I'm a little anxious...I'm not sure how well I'll sleep tonight, but at least I'll be getting plenty of sleep tomorrow! Right afterwards, I'm to come home, eat lunch real quick, and take my sleeping pill and sleep for a few hours. Being asleep helps the eye heal faster since you're not blinking so much. Hopefully when I update this next I'll be seeing great!
(8-13) Everything yesterday went pretty well as I had expected. The surgery itself was pretty quick and painless...just a little discomfort, as I had heard it described before. As soon as the surgery was over, I could already tell a major difference in how well I could see, although they want you to keep your eyes closed for the most part, so I wasn't exactly sure how well I could see. But I will say one thing...they had to hold my hand when I went into the operating room so they could lead me to the table, and I walked out and into the post-op room on my own. I did have some pain when I got home before I went to sleep...but by the time I woke up from my nap, the pain was pretty much gone and I could already see pretty well. The first 24 hours, you're supposed to wear this mask thing while you sleep to make sure you don't poke your eyes or forget and rub them, so that made it a little difficult to fall asleep, but once the sleeping pill kicked in I was out like a light.
This morning when I woke up, my vision was even better, and it has progressively gotten better throughout the day. I had a post-op appointment this morning, where pretty much the doctor just looks at your eyes to make sure everything is healing as it should. He tested my eyes and said that I am further along than he expected for someone who was as nearsighted as I was. Many people are already at 20/20 by the next morning, but when they're as nearsighted as I was, it generally takes a little longer for everything stablize...anywhere from several days to several weeks or months. I am already cleared to drive, and I can pretty much see everything, except there's a little bit of cloudiness. The best way I can describe it, for those that wear contacts, is that it looks like things do late at night when your contacts are dried out. I'm hopeful that things will be even more clear in the morning.
I have four different eye drops that I have to use right now...it will drop to three on Monday and then down to two after 12 days, but I will have those two for 2-3 months. My next follow-up appointment is in a week...when my vision is tested then, I'll know exactly where I am.
So far so good!
(9-2) It's been three weeks now, and everything has been amazing. When I went for my one week follow-up, I was 20/20 in one eye and about 20/25 in the other eye...Dr. Turner said it had the smallest measureable amount of nearsightedness. It's been two weeks since that appointment, and I'm pretty sure I am now 20/20 in both eyes.
I'm down to only two drops to worry about now...one that I use twice a day, and one that I use 4 times a day. I'll continue with those for about another month, and then I'll be done.
I haven't noticed any more sensitivity to light than I had before the surgery (that's a common side effect), nor does driving at night give me any problems.
The only real effects I can think of to mention are that on weekdays, my eyes seem to feel really tired at night. After staring at a computer screen all day, it's almost the same feeling I used to have when it was getting late and I wanted to take my contacts out. Only there are no contacts to take out. I've tried to be good about resting my eyes and not using the computer too much after I get home from work, because that obviously doesn't help things. Usually after I put drops in or take a quick cat nap, they're fine.
The feeling of being able to see all the time has been really amazing. I still haven't completely gotten used to it. The other night when Tammy and I were in a hotel room, I woke up in the middle of the night. I was fumbling around my nightside table trying to find my travel alarm clock and bring it close to my face to see like I always have, when I remembered that now I'd be able to see the normal clock (which was on Tammy's side)!
I guess this will be my last entry on this...again, everything went great and I highly recommend Lasik and Dr. Kloess. If anybody's interested, his website is www.alabamavisioncenter.com.