Clarity

Friday:
I decided to take the whole day off. I COULD have gone to work for the first few hours of the day, but I'm at a point with work that I will take joyful advantage of any chance I have to not go.

10:00 - I finally roll out of bed and get dressed. I know I will most likely be in these clothes all day (and sleep in them as I was too much of a dingbat to bring PJ's) so I put on my most comfy outfit - soft pants and a long wolly duster. Ate a light breakfast as they told me, gave myself the second set of antibotic drops (the first was the night before) and collected some entertainment material. I knew I wouldn't be able to read for the rest of the day after surgery, so I ressurected my portable CD player and grabbed some CDs and some Atkins snacks.

12:00 - At my coworkers house, waiting for her husband to show up to drive me to TLC.

12:30 - At TLC. Very nice place, in a office complex. I walk in, and one person is being led out my their ride, and another two people are waiting to be served - one for a first time, one for an adjustment. I check in, and settle down for the wait. I start reading again (Mother Jones Magazine - very good stuff) and waiting. Now, I'm nervous.

The times are going to be pretty guessworky from now on.

12:45 - I'm in the back office, signing the financing paperwork. The total cost for the potential of perfect vision? 3,600.00 - and that was AFTER the 20% discount my vision care provider offers. Youch. I might pay off half of it right away wth the FlexBen money I have - or I might not. Depends on some other stuff.

1:00 - I'm in examining room 1 - they double check the shape of my eye using two different machines - one that looks like a bulls eye and create what I call a 'temperature map' of my eye, and another VERY cool one that determines how much glare I currently have, a more detailed view of the shape of my eye, and a calculation of the size of my pupil. The tech is very nice, totally willing to explain everything to me.

1:15 - Examining room 2 - Teri (one of the techs) double checks the prescription that my doctor sent over, as well as the thickness of my cornea. She starts with the possible side effect - dry eyes, night glare, so on and so forth. I'm still nervous, but I read all of it in the consent form, and I decided I would do it then, so while hearing her TELL me about again didn't help my nervousness any, it didn't make it too much worse. This is the longest period of waiting...I finish most of my magazine.

1:35 - Still in examining room 2. I finally meet the surgeon - Dr. Lombardo. He runs through the list of potential side effects again, TRIPLE checks my cornea thickness and prescription, and details the procedure. After he leaves, Deb (another tech) comes in and runs through the post care proceure.

1:50 - Deb moves me to the comfy recliner in front of the laser room. She gives me four different eyedrops in each eyes - one was an antibotic, one was for numbing, and I can't remember what she said the other two were. She also gives me an Ativan that dissolves under my tongue. She gives me a hood for my hair, and a pair of booties for my feet. The Ativan is making me veryyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy sleepy. I give up on reading anymore, as I would much rather take a nap. There is a guy sitting next to me who just came from getting an adjustment, but at some point he leaves.

2:10 - All four of the chairs are full - myself, two other new patients, and one readjustment patient. Most of us are sleepy. :)

2:15 - They take me into the surgery room. I left my glasses outside, so I can't really see anything. I know there is some sort of HUGE machine, and a bed with a headrest. The nurse guides be onto the bed, and I lay down. Dr. Lombardo is sitting at the top of the head rest, and I think there were two techs in there with him. He postions my head, then begins. He talked me through the entire thing. They hand me a little teddy bear dressed as a surgeon to give my twitching hands something to do. I felt kinda silly, but man I was glad to hold onto it.

2:20 - He tapes the lid of my left eye shut - they decided to start with my right eye because I had (HAD!!) a lower (relatively speaking) prescription in that eye, as well as a thicker cornea. They then place a strip of tape over the upper eyelid of my right eye, and one on the lower eyelid. Then he puts in this little springy dohickey that actually HOLDS my eye open. Can I tell you, there is NOTHING odder than trying to blink and not feeling anything moving. Next - the creation of the corneal flap.

2:21 - Something settles on to my eye (and he is still talking me through - telling me jsut what is going to happen before it happens). I hear a little *click* and just as he said it would, the vision in my right eye goes a little dim. I feel SOMETHING on my eye - it felt rather like a fingernail being gently stroked againt my eye. Then the *click* again, and my vision cleared. I hear one of the techs run off the numbers she is programming into the laser to the doctor. She than says -39 seconds of laser starting in 15 seconds. He tells me to focus on the blinking red light and hold my eye still. My vision is really - odd. It's blurry but crisp at the same time - I'm guessing it wassimply how the world looks with a bit of my cornea lifted. He tells me that the producre is about to start, the machine moves into position over my eye, and click-click-click-click - this rapid fire clikcing starts. The tech is counting down. 30 seconds left. 20 seconds left. 10 seconds left. 5 - 4 - 3 - 2 - Laser complete. The only - odd thing that no-one thought to mention was the faint smell of something burning. The doctor reassures me that I did fine as he uses some sort of little spatula kinda thing to smooth my cornea back down. He then takes the tape off of both lids and takes out the clampy thing, then rinses my eye well with the numbing stuff. Blibking feels great. I try to look around and see if I can tell any difference, but he quickly tapes my right eye shut. Meanie. :)

2:22 - He repeats the same procedure with my left eye - the only difference being that instead of my vision going dim it went totally black, and instead of 39 seconds of laser treatment - it was 43.

2:25 - He uptapes both of my eyelids, they help me sit up, and they escprt me back to the chair. Despite the REPEATED instructions to keep my eyes shut - I'm peeking....and I can Actually SEE a difference. The sign over the laser room door "Danger - Laser in Use" that I couldn't read BEFORE I went into the room. I have this funny urge to start crying.

2:30 - I call my coworker and tell her they are done with me - she tells me she is on her way to pick me up.

2:35 - They put me into a nice quiet dark room to encourage me to close my eyes, and I drop off to sleep until my coworker comes to get me.

3:00 - She makes it there. I put on my big ole ugly wraparound sunglasses, and go to her car. My eyes are starting to hurt when I have them open a little now, so I spend most of the trip (to get some food for me and then back to her house) with my eyes closed. I eat quickly, take the second Ativan they gave me to help me sleep, and head off to bed around 4:00. I can SEE - not quite clearly as print letters are still rather fuzzy - but still!!
Before I go to bed, I get to do the first 'part' of the post care - the sleep goggles. Two slightly rounded clear pieces of plastic I have to tape over my eyes so that I won't rub them and possibly disturb the corneal flap before it heals.

9:00pm - I wake up when I hear my cell phone go off. It's my mom, calling to see how I'm doing. I chat with her for a few minutes, go get a glass of water, change the CD I fell asleep to earlier, and head back to sleep.

Saturday
8:00 - I'm awake BRIGHT and early - and I can see. It's still not perfectly crisp, but close enough. We eat breakfast, and I go through either forgetting that I'm NOT wearing contacts, or marveling at the fact that I can see.

10:00 - I'm at my post surgery checkup with my eye doctor. She confirms that everthings good, clears me for driving, and re-runs the eye shape diagram. My astigmatism is almost totally gone, and my eyes look perfectly healthy. I schedule the appt of Thursday to confirm my new 'prescription', and then drive myself home.

---

So. Yesterday my sight was really crisp - almost totally like what I had been used to. Today, it's a little more blurry, and that my simply be because I'm using my eyes more. They told methat my vision would fluctuate pretty much for the first month or so as my eye heals and settles back down, so the blurriness is to be expected. Other than remembering to put my drops in every four hours (an antibotic and a steriod to reduce imflammation) and wearing my goggles at might (both of which I can stop doing Wednesday) - I'm fine. I can see clearly. I can read. Waking up and looking at the time on the alarm clack and SEEING it clearly it was a little startling. Getting into the shower and having everything be as clear as it was before hand (even though I did 'try' to take my glasses off before I got in - which caused Corey to laugh at me) was odd. But I'm getting used to it, and it's is WONDERFUL.