PRK surgery
Have eye surgery is almost like having a birthday! I got all these calls, texts and facebook posts from friends and family, it turned out to be a very happy day. I even earned my free smoothie for my 10th visit!
Here's my surgery story:
I got to the clinic at 9:30 feeling pretty anxious, but determined to get this over with
Another eye test, which you know I loathe, but that HOT resident administered it. This time I got to see him with my glasses on. Yep, still hot.
They must have been busy because I was waiting around in the exam room for like an hour. Pictured here is what I had in my pocket for good luck. A Shinto o-mamori and some crosses.
Finally the doctors (surgeon and hot guy) came in with the waiver. After I signed it, I eagerly drank down my Valium (actually Diazepam, the generic) while they went over what was going to happen again.
"Ok," I said, "so drugs, flashing lights and noise. Let's do this!"
A nurse lead me back to another sofa beside the "laser room" to wait some more. All the waiting was killing me. About 20 or so minutes later when the team came around the corning in blue bonnets and all the medical trappings (this looked kinda cool like on ER or something, but more like a slow-mo money shot, circa "Swingers" Maybe the Valium had kicked in.) The hot guy asked if I was feeling a little drunk or relaxed. I said maybe, that I really couldn't tell. Hell, if they wanted me to feel drunk I could have taken care of that easily enough.
I got in the chair and laid down. Immediately they swung this big machine right over my face and I almost had a total panic attack. I don't like things near/on my face. I was SO close to jumping up and saying "nevermind!" But then I imagined the $4K I just put on my credit card (ooooh the glorious frequent flyer miles I just earned) and the shame I would feel telling everyone I backed out. So I sucked it up, squeezed on the rubber stress balls they gave me and opened my eyes.
They had put so many anesthesia drops in by that point that I really didn't feel anything. He taped down my upper and lower lashes and put in this plastic thing to hold my eye open. Not the most comfortable, but not that bad. It kind of looked like Donnie Darko where you see ripples and waves when they doctor was scraping off the epithelium of my eye. It took a long time and I was freaking out. I decided to just repeat the Lord's prayer over and over again in my mind. I think that helped. Then I had to look at the laser for 30 seconds. I could smell it burning. Eerie. Then they blasted my eye with some more cold water and off the tape came and he put in the protective hard contact.
"Whoh! I could have saved on getting my eyebrows waxed if I knew about this."
They laughed and then started on the left eye. Same thing. I asked if I was the longest epithelial removal he's ever had. He said no. "Darn," I said, "I wanted to be the best or most of something." When the left was done, he told me that I won the award for best focus of pretty much all his other patients. "You really didn't move your eye at all," he said.
"Wow, that's the first time I ever got best for my focus!" (I can be a little all over the place)
I jumped out of the chair and was amazed at how well I could see already. Now that the stress was gone and I could see, I felt pretty euphoric. I think the Valium was really kicking in then. I went to another room and started texting.
"So you can see well enough to text?? That's good..." the doctor and the hot doctor came in to give me post-op instructions and a little kit with goggles for sleeping, sunglasses and all kinds of eye drops. I kept giggling when he went over everything. In my valium-addled mind, the drops were hilarious.
Me, post PRK, feeling like an amped-up beast who just survived something
Below: my awesome shades, goggles and eye drops
2 of these are 4 times a day, one is twice and the other is whenever I feel like my eyes are dry
I pretty much slept all day
and listened to "The Pillars of the Earth" novel on CD
I went in for a follow-up this morning and everything is looking good. The doctor said that my epithelium is healing really, really quickly. Awesome. Fast-healing is, of course, my super power. That means, that my eyes should definitely be healed enough to get the protective contacts out by Monday. This is great because they are super irritating. My eyes pretty much feel like I have both contacts in inside-out. Not cool.
eyes: Vision is WAY better than it was before without corrective eye wear, but it kind of looks like I am wearing 3-D glasses to a movie that isn't 3D. Also, my near vision is not really there. I can't see my arm hair, my cuticles or all the close-up flaws on my face right now. This is making for a much prettier me in the mirror and a few philosophical thoughts on what I can see vs. what is really there. None-the-less, I hope to regain my close-up vision ASAP.
