Free At Last

I went in for my Lasik surgery on Thursday afternoon. It had been a crazy busy week at work and Thursday morning was no different. I was glad I went in from 7-12 because it gave me enough time to get everything done by the skin of my teeth. So I left work pretty frantic and stressed out and was pretty nervous for my surgery so I tried to calm myself down as much as I could after I declined a Valium.

I got there at 12:30 and started my prep. They explained what was going to happen but that didn't really prepare me for it after having gone through it. There were lots of people doing who knows what to my eyes and I finally went in for the first part - making the flap in your cornea.

I knew they put a suction cup on your eyes but I didn't anticipate how bad the pressure was going to be. I thought my eyeballs were going to pop out the back of my head or explode. It didn't help that they couldn't get them on right and had to try four different times on each eye. You'll notice the red rings around the blue parts of my eyes in the picture. That is an eyeball bruise. I've never had an eyeball bruise but that's what happens when they push suction cups on your eyes.

So after the flaps were made they put me in a massage chair and I had to keep my eyes shut for a while. That wasn't a problem because it's no fun to open them and feel like you're blind and they stung. I was finally ready to go into the laser procedure.

They gave me a "teddy bear" (towels with a teddy bear drawn on it) to hold and I felt like I was in a space ship. All these lights that you're supposed to stare at and your eyes are numb so you can't tell where you're looking or how to look at the lights...Augh. Glad it's over and done with. So after 45 seconds of surgery and about 2 hours total, I was done. In the post-op room they even brought us fresh out of the oven chocolate chip cookies and me a mug with candy in it. I felt like a super star. Even though my vision was cloudy, I could still make out the tree in the picture down the hall and I knew I could see!

I came home and my mom tried to take a picture of me but my eyes were stinging so bad (like they had soap in them) that I couldn't keep them open. I was supposed to take a nap to keep them lubricated so I got outfitted with my cool bug goggles and slept like a baby after I worked past the stinging. It helped that I didn't sleep well the night before since I was so excited.

The next morning I woke up and my eyes felt great, no stinging and I could see! I went to my follow-up appointment and I already see 20/15 and it could still get better. It was so funny because I woke up and reached for my glasses, which weren't there and I didn't need! It's crazy to think that my eyeballs are actually seeing by themselves and not with the help of contacts, it's so surreal. But I'm so excited and can't believe how amazing technology is. I feel so blessed to be a part of it.

No need for this stuff anymore!!