my eyes

At the end of November I began undergoing some scans on my eyes. Here they are all freaky looking because of the dilation.

I looked so funny that I posted the picture on Facebook. Our friend Aaron added some flames to my eyes... Ha!

Everything looked good so I went under the knife...um, I mean, the laser. I had LASIX done on Thursday January 19!! Yay! Yeah, it's something I always wanted, was a good candidate for, but never thought would actually happen. Everything worked out so well for this it to happen this year though.

I was actually originally scheduled for January 5, two weeks earlier, but when we were halfway to the clinic they called to cancel because the laser gave them an error. I was SO bummed! I had been so worked up with anxiety and fear that it took me several hours to see the wisdom in it. This was actually for the best since the following day, the 6th, was the day we got Luna. With all the work that the next two weeks held with potty training, I was quite happy to not be uncomfortable. Plus, who wants to entrust their eyes to a faulty laser?! My sister said, "Let them try it on someone else." Ha!

The procedure was super quick, 20 minutes tops, and pretty painless. The worst part was when they put a suction cup thingy on my eye to make the cornea flap by laser. The thing pressed down so hard it felt like someone was standing on my eye! I had a couple moments of panic where I wanted to run out of there, but really, it was only a couple minutes of pressure per eye.

Once the flaps were cut they moved me over to the laser. That part was completely painless and once they got my eyes lined up, moved the flap aside, and added tons of numbing drops, the laser correction lasted only seconds, maybe five or ten. All I had to do was stare upwards at a green and red light and even if I blinked the laser would track that. Plus I couldn't feel a thing. It was like watching a blurry movie. Then they put the flap back down, painted over it, added drops, and I was done! They took me to recovery and added tons of drops and sent me home. 

I walked out to the waiting room in a fog. Everything was seriously SO foggy. All morning it was exactly like my glasses had fully fogged up after coming in from a very cold trip outside. Once I got to the waiting room, I sat down expecting my dad to come pick me up any minute and tried to text Terry to let him know I was done. I couldn't even push the right button! I just talked-to-text and then dad came.

All morning I was putting in drops every five minutes and then every 30 minutes and two hours. I felt so great initially at home with drops going in that often. I snapped this picture of myself, first blowing on the camera because that's what everything looked like to me - fog. By the end of the day the fog was mostly gone though.

Three hours later, after lunch, my eyes began becoming extremely sensitive to light. I put on my darkest sunglasses but soon that wasn't enough and I took shelter in my nearly pitch dark bedroom. 

Even that wasn't enough. My eyes were smarting big time. I had the stinging feeling when you look at the sun and your eyes sort of cringe up. Or the feeling when you're just starting to cry. It was it constant. My eyes would just sort of irresistibly bulge or roll shut. It also felt like sand was in my eyes. I had two or three pretty rough hours and then suddenly it got better. I had moved downstairs to the dungeon so I could pace and watch a movie but that wasn't helping enough. I called and talked to my mom for 30 or 45 minutes, which was helpfully distracting, and suddenly I was actually able to watch the rest of the movie (Superman Returns) with the kids.

This is the picture they took of me right before I took my glasses off for the last time. Eeee!

The following day I went in for a follow up exam and could see 20/20! I already felt so much better than the previous day. I'm still recovering slowly and steadily, which could take six to eight weeks. Right now it's two weeks later and I only really have issues at night. The optometrist said eyes just lose their moisture throughout the day so it's normal to have more dryness and irritation then. I have been feeling the need to take out my contacts at night to gain some relief but I don't have any in! 

It's still pretty surreal that I'm not wearing contacts and I never will have to again. At my one week followup last week I had 20/15 vision!