Ah, to be able to see without glasses. If you wear glasses, you know the feeling. If you don't, then you will never quite know. It can be explained, but never truly experienced.
In fact, when I informed a co-worker that I was getting LAZIK they responded with the usual questions: cost? (oh, about $4000) Risk? (oh, well, I suppose the worst that could happen is you could go blind...) "Oh, well why would you want to take that chance, it's your eyes"
Yes, well, the thought of waking up at 3am, rolling over, and being able to see the clock to know that it is 3am is enough to take a chance on a proven surgery method, that everyone I know that has had it, has had mostly success. Only one person didn't, and they didn't go blind. They just had one eye they had to go in a second time for it to "take" as they put it.
So, I made the appointment, and only got nervous they day I had to go into my eye doctors office and have my eyes dilated. I think it was due to the "this is it" mentality. Since I had to pay them a good chunk of change on that day for the year of follow up appointments I would be having.
A little over a week later I was in the car, on a four hour drive to "get new eyes" as my husband put it.
Not nervous. No butterflies in my stomach. Just a bit of anticipation, an eagerness to open my eyes in the morning and see. To be able to go to bed at night without digging contacts out of my eyes. Or stumbling in the middle of the night to my daughters room, nearly running into the wall because, not only am I not awake, but I didn't put my glasses on. And heaven forbid I have to change a diaper, or find a lost sock. These are things one shouldn't do with fuzzy vision.
So, we find the offices, an hour early, The Dishler Laser Institute. But that was planned. They want you to eat before going into surgery. After we made sure we knew where the place was, we went to lunch. We drove around until we found a place to eat. It was a Deli place, I don't remember the name, but it was pretty good. Then back to the offices we went. Their office was on one of the higher floors. I think there was only one or two floors above them.
We stepped off the elevator, and saw these glass doors that informed us we were at the correct location. We walked in, and it was like the waiting room to a spa. There was a pretty complete view of Denver, nice chairs, and water with cucumbers and lemons. Really, I think it was the cucumber lemon water that gave it the spa feel. Since you usually only see that in a spa. After I filled out the required paperwork (most of which I did at home) I found a chair and began the wait. But, I still wasn't nervous. I read my book on my phone, while my husband read out of a book on the table. Then I was called in.
The appointment had three parts to it. First they eye check. This was mostly your standard eye exam to start. Followed by some tests I've never had done before. I think they were tests to measure your eye, to make sure they calibrate everything. At one point I had to stare at an image and hold my eye open. For some reason it took her longer on one eye than they other, and she apologized quite a bit for that, then said "but you did really well not blinking or anything." Kind of in a surprised tone. I replied "you obviously haven't done much photo shopping have you?" and mimicked holding a mouse while staring, unblinkingly, ahead. (seriously, sometimes I think you have to set a timer to remember to blink with that program).
Then I was back in the waiting room. Drinking "fancy water" and reading. Part two was the explanation of medication. Here they went over the pills, one for pain, one to relax. The eye drops, and how often. The first week your life is eye drops. It goes down considerably after that. The sunglasses, and night goggles. Don't rub your eyes. What time to take your eye drops right after surgery.
Then on to part three. The surgery. I was lead into a room with what looked like leather lazy boy chairs. I sat in one while they put surgery booties on my feet, a hair net over my hair, took my glasses, and put drops in my eyes. I briefly met with the doctor, then the nurse came in and gave me more drops.
I was then led to surgery. There were two lasers. One that cuts the flap in your eye, and one that reshapes your eye to correct your vision. The first took about 10 to 15 seconds each eye. Really, I was just looking at a green light. The second was a little longer, about 20 seconds per eye. That was like looking into a red led light. it had about six or seven lights it looked like. I stared at it until it felt like I was going cross eyed, The only thing I felt was a breeze on my face. Although there was a smell, like evaporating water. Kinda like how it smells if you are boiling water and let it all boil out. Right before the pan starts to burn.
Then it was over. I was led back to the lazy boy chair, and sat there with my eyes closed. The nurse came in, and asked me if I could read what time it was. It was strange, because it was like looking through a fog, but I could read it. but I got the time wrong. She looked at me kinda confused, and I looked again and corrected myself. It was a case of it being close enough to changing to the next hour, that at first glance, you read the time an hour off.
I was given the bag of eye drops and such, and was given dark sunglasses to wear from that point on. Out I walked into the lobby to find my husband.
We stayed at a hotel around the corner, and I followed the directions to take about a 3 hour nap, or at least rest my eyes. I didn't think I had slept, but apparently I did. We ordered in food, and while everything was still foggy, it was clearing up. I ordered this spinach artichoke flat bread that had mushrooms and pesto sauce on it. It was amazing. I just had to throw that in there. It was delicious, and I wish there was someplace where I live that made that. I had to wait until 10 to put the drops in my eye, so I laid back and half watched the TV. I did have a headache, but I think it was eye strain. Mostly I had my eyes closed as I waited for 10pm to arrive. I did fall asleep somewhere during Conan, because one minute a guest was on, the next the band was closing the show. I hopped up, took the pill they sent me home with, did the eye drop thing, and went to bed.
The next day the fogginess was gone. I could see, and it was awesome.
I am just about a week away from it being a month, and it's been great. Because you can't exactly rest your eyes to heal, like you can a broken leg, I have noticed my eyes tire easily, but it's been getting better.
Overall, I completely recommend it.
Best of all, when something wakes me up at 3:37 am, I can quickly see what time it is, and roll over and go back to bed knowing my alarm isn't going off for another hour and 23 minutes.
