Lasik Summary

Hello, world! It is now 23 hours after Lasik surgery and I’m doing well.

Some recap on yesterday: Surgery was scheduled for 11:30 so we arrived at 10:30 as instructed. The waiting room was packed. Jim and I guessed the average age of the patients to be around 57 with me and Jim greatly pulling this average down, and there was an assortment of issues surrounding us. How wonderful getting older must be! *insert heavy sarcasm*

I went under the light around 12:30 and was not nervous at all. Perhaps the Valium did it for me or maybe I just really trusted my doctor, but I wasn’t shaky at all. After seeing Jim’s surgery last year I could recall what each of the steps were as he was doing them so I had a mental timeline of how far into the procedure I was. The 6-pronged marker they used really hurt and caused them to have to numb me much more than anticipated.

I’m not sure how long it took each eye to do, though I taped it and intend on watching it later (anyone is welcome to watch, borrow it if you’d like!). It was not painful, uncomfortable or scary. When it was over I could see fine but like a cloud was over my eyes.

Half way home, however, the pain set in. It felt like exactly what it was – like my eyes had been burned from the inside out. For roughly an hour it was a 10/10 on a pain scale and I was miserable. I fell asleep around 2:30 and woke up to the phone ringing and several folks calling to check how I was. Jim had to go to work so I was surprised to discover that my little brother Greg had come over to baby-sit me. Which was very sweet for him to give up his last day home to sit in a house while I slept.

That evening I was okay to watch 3 episodes of 24 season two with Jim before falling asleep. This morning at my follow-up appointment my goggles came off for the first time since surgery and my eyes touched real air. My eye check produced results of 20/20 in my right eye and 15/20 in my left. Not bad for 18 hours later! That being said it’s possible that they’d improve from here as time goes on.

My eyes feel good right now. A little uncomfortable but that’s understandable since they recently peeled off my cornea. I’m putting drops of some kind or another in every hour and will continue to do so for 7 days. I’m looking forward to being comfortable enough to read again as I’m at a fun part in Harry Potter 6. I’m hoping that recovery is too boring to write about from here on out– you’ll obviously know soon if this is the case!