Friday, January 23, 2009

I can see clearly now...

I had LASIK yesterday. I don't know how good my vision is yet (I'm going in soon for my 1 day follow up), but it's good so far. Among my senses, I would probably hate to lose vision the most so I was a little nervous about letting someone cut open my eye. But they do so many of these things now that it's not really a big deal.

I hadn't told a lot of people I was getting LASIK because everyone loves to share horror stories. I don't actually know somebody who had trouble with the surgery, but that doesn't stop people from telling stories they've heard. And of course everyone's an expert (whether they've never had the surgery, or only had it once). So if you're upset that you didn't know someone was going to cut a flap on my eye, flip it open, and fire a laser inside, I'm sorry.

The whole event wasn't without hassles. I was scheduled for surgery at 12:30 and we arrived at the surgical center a little before 12. The receptionist looked confused. I told her I was there for surgery and she said they didn't do surgery at the Loveland office on Fridays. She fumbled around the computer a bit and figured out that they scheduled me in Denver. I still wanted surgery, she she was able to make me an appointment in Denver for 2PM. I then asked about the 1-day follow up, and she said it was scheduled in Loveland.

We made it down to the Denver office early and they actually got me started on all the testing early. When it came time to talk about the follow-up, I asked to make sure it was in Loveland. She said no, there are no doctors at the Loveland office on Saturday. Awesome. I'm feeling really confident about their organizational skills at this point. I told her we specifically asked about that and she disappeared for a bit to make things happen. They're having a doctor drive up to Loveland for me.

The surgery was super easy. Maybe it was the Valium they gave me, but I was pretty relaxed. They give you lots of numbing drops so you don't feel anything. They put your eyeball under vacuum while they cut the flap and that was kind of weird. Your vision slowly goes away. When they peel the flap back, the vision gets blurry. Then they fire away with the laser, put the flap back and get it into place. That's it. About 5 minutes per eye. I don't know who figured out that you could do this with an eye, but it's pretty amazing.

Off to my check-up now...

6 comments:

  1. By the way: I'm seeing 20/20 now.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I had LASIK surgery. Both my eyes filled up with puss, and I kept popping them like zits. I let this go on for awhile, and then one day 1000s of little baby spiders crawled out of my eyes. 2 days later, I developed scales around my eyes and my pupils went vertical and my eye teeth grew quite a bit. My vision is perfect now and I'd definitely make the same choice again.

    ReplyDelete
  3. I did lasik three years ago. I still consider it one of the, if not THE, best investment I've ever made. I had to do a touch up in one eye (which was part of the initial cost) and I had to use eye drops very consistently for about a year. But I'm so very, very happy with the results. I see 20/20 out of one eye and slightly better out of the other. I love being able to see first thing in the morning!

    ReplyDelete
  4. My eyes are watering just reading about the procedure. Glad it's good so far!

    ReplyDelete
  5. *jealous*
    I like being four eyed. Really.

    ReplyDelete
  6. HAHAHA!
    I love my Lasik. Even with the spiders.

    ReplyDelete