Eyes, I's, and Me

So, I guess I can call the surgery a success.

There were two possible procedures for me.

The surgeon approved me for iLASIK, much to my relief, because I really didn't want to pop a lens out my glasses, even if I could get a falsey lens.

The iLASIK procedure uses two lasers, one to cut a flap, and the other to actually reshape the eye.  This is a laser only procedure.  In the LASIK without the i at the beginning, they used a tiny blade to make the flap.

I had two things wrong with my eyes

1 - I was--WAS!!!!! past tense!--extremely nearsighted.  I think my optometrist said I couldn't see past 6 inches without my glasses.

2 - I had astigmatism.  

The laser corrected both of them.

During my pre-op, I got to watch a little video that explained what both of those terms meant and what my eye looked like with those dysfunctions.

But despite the fact my eyes were formed wrong, they were actually pretty healthy.  I had to have so much retinal tissue and my corneas had to be curved curved.  Otherwise, I would have had to do PRK.  The result would have been the same, but the recovery time was longer.

The flaps that the laser made for my eyes are supposed to heal almost overnight.  I still gotta wear protective goggles to sleep.

Okay, so the day of the surgery:

They had me take a Valium about 30 minutes before the procedure.  I don't think it did anything for me.  I stayed relatively calm throughout the procedure, but once those drops were in my eyes and I was on the way home...

I was climbing the walls of car, almost.  I couldn't get comfortable.  My eyes were burning...

I was in severe discomfort.  My mom dropped me off, and I slept most of the afternoon.

See, the thing about wearing glasses, being dependent upon glasses for about 11 years, is that you can do some things with little to no vision.  I managed to reach up on my headboard, turn on my TV, DVD player thingy, and turn on the Netflix.  I watched/listened to/had white noise to Friends.  I dozed off and on all afternoon.  After the first time Mom came home, I moved to the living room and kinda watched Guardians of the Galaxy.  I fell asleep somewhere between Nowhere and about the Ravager ship.

I feel naked, and not because I'm not wearing glasses.  I still feel like I have them on.  But I don't.  No, I feel naked because all my hair's pulled back in a scrunchie-type hair band.  I'm so used to wearing my hair in my face, but I can't do that with my eyes still healing.  Because my wispy always goes over my right eye.  I try to keep it to the side, but depending on how my hair behaves that day, it can go either way.  So, between that and no glasses, I feel a little weird.

BUT I CAN SEE!!!  Tomorrow is my post-op.  I think I'll know my new vision then.

The surgeon told me they couldn't get my left eye to 20/20, but he would try to get it to 20/25.  Apparently, my right eye was more cooperative.

To get corrective surgery, your prescription has to be at least -4.  Mine was -8.  So, even 20/25 is better than being blind to the point of not being able to function without glasses.

I'm walking around without glasses.  I still see halos around stuff, but it's an improvement.  I haven't had any side effects that I wasn't warned about prior.

Overall, I'm happy.