Epi-lasik Update

216.2

WEDNESDAY

Well, I went in for my 6 week check up yesterday after my Epi-Lasik eye surgery. And ... drum roll please... I have 20/15 in both eyes. *cheer* I knew I could see well, mostly because I don't think about my vision anymore, but it was wonderful to hear that is better than "perfect". I'm so pleased. Hopefully it'll stay that way. I don't have my next check up until August, so we'll see then, but i should be good to go. The Dr. was very pleased.

And, I don't have any of the bad side effects others have complained about. I don't have dry eyes, which may be because I had Epi-Lasik rather than traditional Lasik - I seem to remember reading/hearing that was one of the differences. I don't have halo's or night vision problems. Frankly I feel like I see exactly like I used to with my torric contact lenses in. But with out the troublesome eye irritation from the contacts. Very nice!

No other major update. Today we had "off" from boot camp - one of two week days during the month where we have a break. I was so excited to sleep in, but I think my body has become accustomed to the early morning wake up's (could it be true?!?) because I woke up at 4:45 on the dot, then kept waking up every 30-45 minutes until finally I gave up 30 minutes before my alarm went off. Crazy. I didn't think it was possible. But - back to boot camp tomorrow, so all's well.

On the food front, I still can't commit it seems. Yesterday is a perfect example. I was PERFECT all the way until dinner. Where I had a burger and fries. Boo. I'm trying to counteract this with getting in as much exercise as possible - adding WiiFit workouts to the days I have boot camp. But sheesh - I've got 88 more days. Where am I going to get the motivation to commit?

Same ol' same ol.

I did pick up my bridesmaid dresses yesterday, which look great. I also paid off my dress. And in a hope to feel inspired and motivated, had the clerk write down the body measurements I had taken when I ordered the dress. My thought was that, though I haven't lost a ton of weight, hopefully I've lost inches from the boot camp. I'm going to try to remember to measure tonight.

That's about it...

Epi-Lasik Day 3-4

MONDAY

Yesterday sucked. I woke up and couldn't see for crap. It was really frustrating considering I had done so well on Saturday. I got up and went to church with Erik and couldn't even look at the pastor because the lights shining on him were so bright. Crazy. Everything was blurry - up close, far away, all blurry.

Now, I know that I was warned about this, but boy it was depressing. No bad pain. I did stick with the percocet, because there was some significant irritation. But mostly it was just the blurryness that was irritating.

Today was better, but I still stayed home for work because focusing on the computer for too long is hard. Things are still blurry, but SO much better than before. I love to read and last night I could not make out the words on the page. Today, much better, though I couldn't focus for too long. Distance is still somewhat blurry,but also getting better.

Tomorrow I have my appointment to get the contact out. I hope things are clearer then!

Epi-Lasik Day 2

SATURDAY

Well, this morning was tough. I ended up going out with my fiancee last night for a couple hour because I felt so good. But this morning was a different story. My follow up appointment was at 8:30 am. I had taken a pain killer at about 10:30 then gone to bed. I woke up at about 7:00 and had the hardest time keeping my eyes open. It felt like I had put my contacts in with cleaner solution still on them. Really bad. I think it's partly because the pain killer had worn off, but man it sucked.

I took another pill, put in my drops, and got Erik up to drive me to the appointment. The doctor said everything was looking good even though I felt so bad. He said it's normal. He also said he's actually worried that I can see too good the day after surgery, because it'll likely worsen a little before it settles in for good. Not a bad thing to be told, I think,I see too good?

Anyway, today my pain has fluctuated. I guess I kind of prejudged the use of those pain killers. For now, it's every 4 hours for me. My vision has been pretty stable, but the pain comes and goes as my pain killers kick in. It's really frustrating. So basically I've been in bed all day. I have been able to watch a little TV, and movies, but have also napped a lot. The contacts are irritating. That's probably the worst part.

So, I'm hoping that tomorrow will be better. No going out tonight. Erik's picking up chinese, so it'll probably be an early night.

Epi-Lasik Day Of

Well, I lived. We got there about 15 minutes early and they checked me in right away. Promptly taking my money of course. Erik came with me and was able to stay with me the whole time except the actual surgery where he got to watch through a window.

They first took a picture of my eye. I had to sit really still, which was hard because I guess I was nervous. Then they put some numbing drops in my eye, then explained all the goodies I was going to get: drugs, eyeware, etc. Then they gave me a valium so I'd relax (yeah!). Then the nurse remeasured my prescription to make sure nothing had changed since my evaluation a couple months ago. All was good there. The doc came in then, and looked at my eyes, then drew dots on both sides of each pupil. Odd. Then they gave me a hair cap and shoe caps and escorted me into the surgery room. The whole surgery was like 15 minutes including prep. Then we were back in the eval room. The doc said everything went well, and they went over the post-op stuff again. And I was out the door. It seemed almost too easy.

I was told I was -3, which I think is a different scale than my actual prescription which is something like -1.75. Either way, my eyes weren't bad. Which is, I guess, partly why it went so quickly. We showed up at 9:00 am, 15 minutes early, and were back in the car by 10:20. Crazy.

I could see right away. Things were a bit hazy, like I was standing in a really smoky room, but no pain initially. I got a prescription for percocet as well as two prescription drops (anti-inflammatory & steroids) and a bunch of Refresh Plus drops. I took one percocet right away - didn't want to feel any pain. So after a littlel lunch, I crashed out for a couple hours. Of course it wasn't the best sleep because I'm required to wear theses crazy eye goggles that I have to tape to my face, and sleep on my back.

I woke up a couple hours ago, feeling ok. I'm to put the refresh drops in every 10 minute I'm awake for the first day, which is crazy frequent, but I'm totally following all the directions. I have to do the 2 prescription drops 4 times a day for the first week. I go back tomorrow morning for a follow up.

Over all I feel good. My eyes are a little sore. It's been 6 hours since the percocet, so I took another just now. I really don't want to feel pain. Also, I was supposed to get some pain killer eye drops that they forgot to give me, so I'm being a little cautious and using the percocet as I'm allowed. I'll probably stop tomorrow, but they gave me 30 pills. I'm allowed one every 4-6 hours. The doc said "some people take them all, some just take a few". 30 pills? Are you kidding me? I definitely don't see myself on percocet for a week and a half. Come on people!

As for my vision, it's definitely better. I don't know how close I am to 20/20 but with the exception of a little fogginess, which isn't as irritating as I thought it'd be, I can see pretty good. I'm told it should fluctuate for the first month or so, so I'm prepared for it to get worse, but I really am pleased so far.

As I said, my eyes are a bit sore - kind of like I've been wearing my contacts for too long. Which makes sense I guess because I have these contacts on my eyes until Tuesday. Hopefully the discomfort will not last until Tuesday. It's not severe pain (and no, the percocet hasn't kicked in yet). So I guess I've gotten off pretty easy. As you can see, I'm ok to type on the computer. I don't think I'd have been good to go to work or anything, but it's not at all as bad as I thought it'd be. I actually just got done watching a movie (Juno - very cute). So, all in all, things are good.

I'll update tomorrow after the follow up, but my experience is going well so far.

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...