Tired of Waking Up Blind Every Morning - Lawrenceville, GA

I got glasses when I was 7. It was revolutionary, I remember looking around in wonder as my Dad drove me home from picking them up. I had never known you could see the leaves on the trees from a distance before, I thought everyone simply saw an amorphous fuzz of green. At 11 my prescription was worsening so rapidly they recommended hard contact lenses to try to slow the ever worsening shape of my eye. It was a huge hassle, I was always losing them and my mother, who was always struggling to make ends meet at that stage, was always pulling her hair out over it. The strategy worked, to a point, and my ever steady visual decline slowed down dramatically. In college I switched to gas permeable. After college I went back to glasses for awhile, unable to justify the expense and the hassle in my hectic early adult scramble for identity. When I went back they said I could go soft, I was amazed at how easy the soft contacts were, and at the fact that I could even sleep in them sometimes without too much discomfort. Still, I began doing things like backpacking and it was always a pain to keep track of my stuff, to always bring back ups, and I would worry at night in my tent where to stash my glasses so I could grab them in lightning speed if a bear suddenly tore into my tent.

So, here I am, 41 years old, and ready to give this a shot while I'm still young enough to get some good mileage out of good vision. Don't get me wrong, I'm terrified. My vision is terrible, my referring optometrist said I'd probably need PRK instead of Lasik because my prescription is so bad. (-7.5 in might right eye, -9 in my left). Dr. Woolfson's associate thinks Lasik is better for me (miraculously I have ridiculously healthy eyes despite my early introduction to contacts and my probably less than stellar level of care during my childhood and teen years, hell my 20's too!). They will make the final determination just before surgery. He said they are confident they can get my right eye to 20/20, but probably not my left. They will do the best they can but don't want to push it too far and risk complications. Since I'm right eye dominant though he said it shouldn't slow me down to be a little less than 20/20 in the left.

At my pre-op appointment (where they did SUPER dilation drops, I was still dilated the next morning!) I got an enthusiastic thumbs up. Procedure is tomorrow. They said I seemed so calm in the consultation and the pre-op that I shouldn't need a "happy pill" but I'm going to get it anyway. I'm pretty freaking terrified. I know it isn't supposed to hurt but I have this thing about blades and cutting and the idea of what they are going to do, laser or not, totally freaks me out if I think about it too much. I'm trying not to think about it too much. I'm trying to focus on the descriptions people have given me of the procedure instead, and how fast it should be.

I'm scheduled for 7 am which I wish I wasn't since apparently they are going to want me to sleep all day afterwards. Maybe I'll stay up all night tonight to make it easier. I'm also going to download a new audio book.

I'll keep you posted once I can look at a computer screen again!

I am alive. I can see! Like totally see! It isn't totally perfect yet but doc said to give it a few days. The procedure was a bit scary and took longer than I wanted but the doctor warned me of that because of my extreme prescription. They had planned to be very conservative, especially with my left eye, but my pre op testing this morning showed that my corneal shape had improved so much without contacts that they thought they could safely go all the way with both eyes. I'm looking forward to my post op visit tomorrow.

There was quite a bit of pain after and I could barely keep my eyes open, they gave me more numbing drops which helped immensely. After about 15 min they checked both eyes to make sure the flaps were behaving and then sent me home. The numbing drops wore off on the drive home and I was in quite a bit of pain again. I ate something quickly so I could take the drugs they'd given me and went to bed with my eye guards on. It took me a while to fall asleep but I finally did. Ever since I've woken up its been SO much better.

Basically it looks and feels exactly as if I just woke up after accidentally sleeping in hard contacts (so, you know, like most Sunday mornings in college.) My eyes feel kind of scratchy burny and there is a slight fogginess to everything. But I can read the clock across the room (this morning, without my glasses I couldn't see the clock at all) and I can even read the spines on books that are 15 feet from my bed! Can't wait to see tomorrow morning, every time I sleep and wake up it is a bit clearer! So far I'm thrilled!!!

I can post more details about the procedure later but I need to get off this screen for now!

The good, my distance vision is great, doctor says 20/20 in both eyes.

The annoying, I have basically a bad "bruise" on my right eye, less so on my left. It is getting smaller but it still looks pretty creepy, a lot of one side of the white of my right eye is blood red, it looks like I got punched. It doesn't hurt at all, just looks freaky. Doctor says it will improve and I do feel that it is shrinking. If it isn't totally gone at my one month post op visit I will be concerned.

Also, my close up vision is not perfect. It is variable, I use reading glasses sometimes (only a +1.00 or +1.25) but I keep leaving them places so I can get by without them. However, it does seem like less of a problem today than it was a week ago and the Doctor says I won't really know the final results for 3 - 6 months.

There is a slight delay in changing focus when I shift what I'm looking at but that seems to be improving since last week too.

Finally, I noticed dry eye issues about 5 days after, mostly after I've been asleep, somewhat after I've been on the computer a lot. I keep lubricating drops next to the bed and in my purse, I was using them a good bit for a few days, still using them every night but less and less of an issue so hopefully that will continue to improve and eventually go away.

I already had some haloing at night before the surgery, it really doesn't seem any worse to me so night driving has not been a problem.

Overall I'm pleased, hopeful that the annoying issues will continue to lessen, I'll keep ya'll posted!