I wore glasses for the last time Friday morning and arrived at Barnet, Dulaney, Perkins Eye Center at 7:30am. I agreed to do a video testimonial, so I felt like I had the paparazzi following me around the whole time I was there. In fact, there were about 5 people that kept looking over at me, trying to figure out who I was, and why on earth there was a guy following me around with a giant videocamera. It was pretty funny and I'm sure I looked fabulous with my surgical cap, no makeup, and glasses (for the last time).
After the Valium, I was feeling great.... and then about 20 minutes later, I was out the door, with my Terminator sunglasses and almost perfect vision. The procedure was absolutely flawless and much easier than expected (it took less than a minute to do each eye!) I went home and slept for a good 3 hours (I love it when sleeping/resting is in the doctors orders) and woke up to clear and perfect vision!!! I was supposed to "rest my eyes" the first night, but I was just too excited that I could see without contacts or glasses that I kept opening them. I even went outside and looked at the stars for a few minutes. Such an incredible feeling.
The worst part? Seeing this gross mark from the suction thing they put on my eyes!! I can't feel it so I guess it doesn't really matter, it just looks gross, and it'll go away eventually.
The next morning I had my post-op visit at 7:45am and I can't describe the feeling when I read the eye chart for the first time without glasses or contacts and could read the line that was just below (better than) the 20/20 line!!! I have BETTER than 20/20 vision.... what the heck?! I went from worse than 20/400 to better than 20/20..... A-MAZING!
As soon as we got home, I was so excited, I patted my chest for Bentley to jump up and give me a hug and then all of a sudden---- SMACK. Paw right in my eye. I RAN to the bathroom, started pouring the bottle of artificial tears in my eye, thinking I could get whatever I thought got in there out as quick as possible. No luck, my eye was burning and felt like something was scratching my eyeball everytime I blinked. I decided to "rest my eyes" again and laid down upstairs for about an hour and a half. When I got up and realized nothing had changed, I called the eye center and talked to the on-call nurse. She asked if my vision was blurry so I covered my left (good) eye, and sure enough, super blurry out of my right eye. Scared the crap out of me. She told me to head straight back and the doctor would check to make sure everything was okay.
I arrive and the doctor tells me to cover my left eye and read the eye chart. Just a few hours earlier I was reading the "better than 20/20 line"..... now, I couldn't even see the giant "E." He looked at my eye and said, "well it looks like the flap of your cornea is displaced, I'm gonna call Dr. Rivera and he'll be in to complete the surgery right away." SERIOUSLY!??!! I couldn't believe it. I sat in the waiting room for a little while longer until the surgeon, Dr. Rivera and his team of nurses came to save the day.
You can barely tell in this pic...
This procedure to fix the flap was worse than the actual Lasik procedure, one--- because there was no Valium involved, and two--- because I had no clue what to expect. It wasn't a routine procedure where the surgeon talks you through it and it only lasts a few seconds. I could feel every poke and prod in my eye and I was sweating bullets making sure I didn't move an inch. Needless to say, once it was done and over, while I was still a little blurry out of the right eye, at least it didn't feel like someone's fingernail was scraping at my eye everytime I blinked.
And now--- almost back to normal again. After tons of eyedrops, a good nights sleep last night, my fabulous sleeping goggles, and ice cream (ice cream always makes me feel better), my eye is doing MUCH better.... and Bentley has since apologized. (Although I accept full responsibility for my stupidity in letting him jump on me).
It was so much fun saying "adios" to all this junk!!!
2 comments:
OMG!!!!! Is it bad that I think this story is hilarious?? Sad and scary...but, hilarious! At least everything turned out okay (and I already knew the ending)...otherwise I would feel awfully bad that I was laughing :)
i was curious about Lasik Surgery so i watch some videos on video and god i was so shock that a very very thin skin in the eye was scraped and replaced. gosh i feel like i dont to watch it anymore. but after the operation which only takes seconds he can read again the smallest letters in the eye chart.
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