Yep, those are my eyes, and up until a few weeks ago they didn't really work all that well. Aaron thinks I'm blind as a bat and I pretty much am at -5.25, or 20/400 eyesight. I asked my optometrist what 20/400 actually means and he explained it like this. If you were standing 20 feet away from something and can see it perfectly you have 20/20 vision. For me, from a distance of 20 feet I see the same thing as though I were 400 feet behind that 20/20 person. Yeah, kind of puts it in perspective, doesn't it. I used to wear contacts 24/7 but after having Kye I just found that they felt really awful and I couldn't stand them for more than a few hours so I resorted to wearing my glasses again. There are so many negatives about wearing glasses that I am not going to list them here. Naturally, I would be thinking about laser, right?
The problem is that I am kind of squeamish about things like needles and the such so the idea of somebody lasering my eye was quite disturbing. Well, I finally got enough courage to go for a consultation to see if I would be a good candidate for laser surgery, and before I new it in only a few short weeks (so that I had less time to back out) I was having the procedure. I just tried not to think too much about it but the day before I started to get pretty freaked out.
Aaron was able to take me to Regina for the procedure while the boys stayed at home with Grandma Mo. We got to the clinic early and so we sat in the waiting room while others were being led through the procedure. They did 18 people the day I was there. The worst part was that you could hear the laser. It is only a few seconds but it kind of sounds like a key being cut. Not good.
Finally it was my turn and I was standing at the front desk going through the post operative instructions but by the time we got to number 3 on the list I just started to feel nauseous. I told the lady and she quick got me sitting down, then all of a sudden it just felt like all the blood was draining out of my body and beads of sweat broke out all over me. I have never fainted, but my sister Robin faints quite a lot and she said that is what happens to her before she blacks out. Luckily, I didn't actually faint and with some water and cold paper towels it went away within a few minutes. I sure felt ridiculous though and Aaron was looking at me like what the heck is wrong with you. Needless to say they then gave me 2 ativan and I felt much better, a few minutes later it was my turn and once I got into the laser room I was able to deal with things and keep myself under control, it was the whole thinking about it that had me all worked up, once it was actually happening I could get through it.
It really is amazing. You lie down and they sort of swivel your chair back and forth between the flap cutter thing and the laser. It is extremely bright but because you have a device holding your eye open you cannot squint or blink and they are squirting freezing drops and lubricating drops onto your eye constantly which is a pretty weird sensation when normally you would blink them away. When it is all over they even give you a DVD of your eyes being done and thank goodness it didn't include sound or you would have heard me repeatedly asking whether I had enough freezing drops in my eyes. I tell you, if I had seen that movie beforehand I would never have been able to go through with it but actually you can't feel a thing, it's pretty easy stuff.
So then the flap is cut and then they use a kind of tiny pin looking thing to flip it back, all the time squirting it with drops. When they do this you lose your vision, and they say, "Ok, it is going to go black now." And sure enough it does. Pretty freaky, right? Then they swivel you under the laser and suddenly you can see this circle of green dots with a red dot in the middle and they tell you to stare at the red dot which is actually kind of hard because for some reason I wanted to look at the green dots! Then the lasering starts and it makes the awful key cutting sound and it smells just a little bit like burnt hair, gross, I know. Then they flip the flap down and kind of brush it with a glue like substance and squirt it with lots of drops and keep brushing it down which is weird cause it's like somebody using a paintbrush on your eyeball and then it is on to the second eye. The whole thing took maybe 10-15 minutes.
Then the girl was like, OK you can sit up, and I could see. I'm not kidding. It was hazy, like there was a sheer curtain in front of me, kind of like walking through a dream, but I could see. And so I just started laughing. Then they take you and tape these ridiculous clear eye shields over your eyes so that you can see but you basically look like an alien. Then you must wear sunglasses over top. Very cool. You have to wear the sunglasses for 48 hours and then whenever you are outside for 2 weeks and you have to tape the shields on each night. They were so uncomfortable and I think I scared the boys a bit when they would see me in my alien get up.
Then it was off to the hotel where I had strict instructions to sleep for 6 hours, wake, put drops in, eat, take sleeping pills and sleep until morning. So much for going out for supper and a little shopping! The next day we had a check up appointment where my vision was measured at 20/30 and then we were free to go home. I was already so amazed with how well I could see. It has been 3 weeks and my right eye is 20/20 and my left is 20/25 and still getting better. I had a little bit of ghosting or double vision from my slight astigmatism but as the swelling goes down and my eyes heal it is disappearing. It is totally awesome, everyday I just smile from things that I can see and keep thinking I have to go take my contacts out or put my glasses on and then I just laugh cause I really don't! It's weird but amazing. I was thinking about posting the movie of my eyes being lasered but I don't want to deter anyone else from doing it so I won't. So if you are considering it go for it, if I can do it, anybody can do it, it was well worth it.
K.
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