Epi-Lasik

Now to part B today's posting. I'm having Epi-Lasik tomorrow. I'm actually really scared. I was supposed to have it done last month, and I think I blogged about the scheduling mistake that caused it to be cancelled. But now it's on again, and tomorrow at 9:00 am I go under the knife. Or machine. Or whatever it is that fixes eyes.

I'm going to try to chronical my experience with it, because I'm having something of a rare procedure done. Most people who get their eyes fixed get "LASIK". I'm actually getting a procedure called "Epi-LASIK" done. From what I'm told in traditional LASIK they slice a flap of the cornea, peal it back, laser the eye, then replace it. You recover relatively quickly and can see mostly good within a day or so. Well, I'm not an ideal candidate for that as I have "thin" cornea's. Yes, the one area of my body that is naturally "thin" is my eyes. WTF? Anyway, "thin" corneas make traditional LASIK more risky as the cutting of the flap weakens the eye.

Thus, I get Epi-Lasik. What is Epi-Lasik? Well, again from what I understand, instead of cutting a "flap", they actually shave off the top part of the cornea. The layer that is regenerative. Then, with that layer gone, they laser the eye, then place a temporary "contact" over the eye while that layer rebuilds itself. This rebuilding takes about 4 days, because I've already scheduled a follow-up appointment for Tuesday when they are supposed to take that temporary contact out. Then I'm supposed to be good to go. I also have a follow up on Saturday morning - the day after the surgery - to make sure everything looks ok. Then I guess I'll have periodic follow-ups after that, though I don't know yet how frequently.

Why did I decide to do this? Well, it's something I've wanted to do for a long time. My eyes really aren't "that" bad, though in my mind, anyone that has to wear contacts to be legal to drive, has it bad. My prescription is only -1.75 or so with a mild astigmatism in each eye. As I said, however, I do have to wear contacts to legally drive. I've been in contacts since high school. While contacts themselves aren't all that bad, and after 15 years of wearing them I'm pretty good at getting them in and out quickly. The problem is that I have really bad allergies. Which means that my eyes get irritated frequently, and many days, wearing contacts for more than 8 or 10 hours is really painful. Also, they aren't cheap. I probably spend at least $200 a year on the contacts themselves, plus at least that in solution.

So I've been thinking about it for years. Erik actually had lasik done about 10 years ago, when it was still really new. It's just been a question of expense. Then I got this job. Not only was it a significant raise, but they provide me with a flex spending account that allows me to pay $3000 in pre-tax and use it for the lasik. So it's actually saving me a bit of money b/c it's pretax dollars, and it also doesn't feel as painful since it's taken out over 24 paychecks. Of course that doesn't fully cover the cost, but it's takes care of most of it. It probably could cover it if I wasn't a super paranoid person and chose the lasik center at the most respected university in town. But hey - I'm not going "discount" when it comes to me eyes.

So obviously I'm not going into work tomorrow. I've got no big plans for the weekend, and hope to rest as much as possible so I can work on Monday. But who knows. I've read other peoples accounts and find that it really varies how quickly people recover. I'm hoping that since my eyes aren't too bad, there won't be as much correction, and therefore not as much recovery. That's what I'm telling myself, at least.

As for "pre-op" stuff. I haven't been able to wear my contacts all week. Which really sucks because about 6 months ago, I lost my back up glasses. Now, there's no way I was paying $150 or so dollars for a pair of glasses that I only would need for a week, so basically this week I've been blind. (and yes, I considered the drug store cheapo glasses, but those are for far-sighted people, not near-sighted. trust me I looked). So, Holly's been driving me to work and back. Tomorrow, Erik will take me in to the appointment. The whole procedure is only supposed to last about 2 hours total (with only a few minutes for the actual surgery). I'm not sure if I'll be able to do a lot of computer stuff tomorrow, but I'll try to do a short post on how it goes. I'm really nervous.

Think happy thoughts for me tomorrow morning...