Too Much Perfection?

Ten months ago, I had PRK laser surgery done to correct my vision. Prior to the surgery, my vision was 200/400, I believe. I documented my recovery here on my blog, so today's update comes as no surprise to those that have been suffering through this Project 365 along with me.

Today I had my follow up visit. The Dr. dilated my eyes and checked the pressure, etc etc, blah blah. I now have 20/20 vision with no issues other than slightly dry eyes. Or at least that's what the doctor said. I can't even tell that my eyes are dry. So I'll simply take his word for it.

My next check up is in two years.


Yay.


Now if my eyes would just quit being dilated! I hate not being able to see well. Everything is still fuzzy. Hopefully they will be back to normal by tomorrow.

My PRK check up went very well today. Aside from the fact that I lost track of time and completely forgot about the appointment. I looked at the clock at work and realized I was fifteen minutes late already! Fortunately, I made it to the appointment and they were still willing to see me. Whew!

The appointment did not take long and I was pronounced with 20/20 vision! Hot damn. That's amazing considering I started this journey with 20/200 in my left eye and 20/400 in my right eye. What a massive difference!!!!

I am very pleased. This has been a long journey, but I'd do it over again in a New York minute.

In the mornings, my eyes are somewhat blurry still. The world looks like a bad soft white portrait from Sears. Everything has this white, fuzzy halo around it. It is very annoying and frustrating. I will be glad when my eyes finally heal. And I am so blasted tired of the eye drops. I'm down to 2x's a day on the Pred Forte and 2x's a day of the Restasis. I'm more than ready to be completely done with it. Then there's the bazillion times a day I use artificial tears...

If DH says, "There's no need to cry over it." one more time, I'm going to bitchslap him.

I had a checkup at the eye doctor this afternoon. He checked looked at my eyes and said all the whatever-is-inside looks like it is healing right on schedule. Yay! Then he checked my vision.

I am currently seeing 20/25!

How awesome is that??? I was really surprised because I did not think I'd have that much improvement. When I began this ordeal, the eyesight in my left eye was 20/200 and it was 20/400 in my right eye! What a massive improvement!

The even better news is, the doctor said that by my next appointment I will be seeing 20/20! I was floored when he said that. When I signed up for this, he told me he couldn't get 20/20, but apparently he was wrong! It is a very very good wrong, too. I mean, if a doctor is ever to be wrong, this is the kind of wrong a person wants to get!

The bad news is that I have to contine with the Pred Forte drops for another month. I have to use them 4 times a day for another week, then 3 times a week, then 2 times, then 1 time per day for a week. Bummer. I hate that stuff. It is sticky and leaves this white filmy matter all over my eyelashes. I swear my eyelids are going bald from all the eyelashes I've lost because of the stuff. And I won't even tell you what it looks like stuck to my eyelids. Really. You don't even wanna know. I promise.

The worse news is he also wants me to continue the Restasis for at least 4 months. I don't mind those drops at all, except for their cost. They are $105 for a month's supply! That totally sucks.

But overall the good today by far outweighs the bad!

Yay me!

..taste buds.

Seriously, who knew?

Because of this laser surgery stuff, I have to put eyedrops in my eyes a bazillion times a day. Yes. A bazillion. Don't doubt me. Would I overexaggerate about something so serious?

Anyways, about 5 minutes after I put the drops in my eyes, I start getting a terrible taste in my mouth. It is just awful. *yaks* At first I thought maybe I'd just eaten something that left a bad aftertaste, but then I kept tasting the same thing over and over. It didn't take long to pin it on the eyedrops! How crazy is that?

You'd think that after watching all of those insanely disgusting reality shows where someone swallows a spaghetti noodle then spits it out of their eyeball, it would not have taken as long to come to that realization. But, it did. So there you have it.

Today was probably the roughest yet. The bandage contacts were driving me absolutely batshit. Everytime I’d put drops in my eyes - which is about 1,876,345 times a day - it would feel like the contacts were trying to float out of my eyes. It is such a yucky, scratchy feeling.

Fortunately, the eye doctor removed the contacts this evening! He put the numbing drops in my eyes first, which made it easy to remove the lenses, but the drops gave me a near-instant headache, which I still have. Ergh. A leftover Vicodin should fix that up right quickly, though.

I’m supposed to put drops in my eyes four times a day for the next two weeks. Then the dr wants to see me again. He claims that I should be about 75% healed. Two weeks from that date, he says that I’ll be nearly 100% healed. I’m looking forward to the final results!

But, headache aside, I’m feeling much much better already with the contacts being GONE!

And on another positive note, my parents are going to take the wutz tomorrow morning and keep him all day so I can actually have a full day of peace and quiet, which I didn’t even get while I was attempting to recover this weekend after the surgery. I am sooooo looking forward to it.

I woke up this morning with delightfully clear vision! Which lasted all of five minutes. Then it was back to the hazy, blurry view that I’ve been enjoying for the past pair of days. The good news is that the double vision seems to be gone. Thank goodness for minor blessings.

I had a checkup appointment this afternoon. He said something (don’t ask, I dunno) was 90% healed. He sounded pleased, so I am pleased. I go back late tomorrow afternoon to have the bandage contacts removed. I hope that will make my eyes feel better, but I’ve read it will make them seem tender all over again for a little while. We’ll see!

The doctor was surprised that I didn’t feel any pain during the recovery. I didn’t. It was a little uncomfortable, but there was never any true pain. I’m grateful for that, too! Lucky me!

More to come tomorrow…

Exciting, I know.

Wow. My vision sucks today. I am seeing ghosting, haze, and quite often I’m seeing double! So, Lisa, don’t ask how many fingers you are holding up because I’ll be seeing twice as many!

I know it is all part of the healing process, but it certainly is annoying! And I can feel the contact in my right eye everytime I blink now. It is annoying as all hell.

That being said, there is no pain like the doctor had warned me about. So I guess I’m lucky in that regard. Yay for me.

I’ll update tomorrow when, hopefully, I can see again.

Last night wasn’t terrible. I was actually able to watch half of a movie before I became too sleepy to stay awake. Unfortunately, I woke up at 2:30am with a wutz foot jammed into my spine. Oy. Upon waking, I realized that my eye mask that I’m supposed to wear was MIA. It took me several minutes of fumbling in the dark to find it resting on the floor beside my bed.

At 3am I got up and went to another bedroom to sleep. It was just too hard to fall asleep only to be kicked awake again. I slept peacefully until after 7 this morning. When I woke up my eyes felt perfectly fine. Until I put eye drops into them. That’s when they began to sting again. It took me about 30 minutes to get all of the various drops into my eyes.

I then waited until 9:30am to take the painkiller they gave me. I didn’t really need it but I wanted to be prepared since the doctor said this afternoon and Sunday would be the worst of it. After that I took a long hot shower, while being very careful not to get my eyes wet.

Right now my vision is very hazy and blurry, so if there are typos in this, do forgive me. I just wanted to post a quick update!

More to come tomorrow.

I survived the PRK surgery! Yay me! It wasn’t bad. The valium was actually very very good. My eyesight is already much better. I can even see my bedroom clock, which I definitely could not see before without glasses!

Right now it feels like I have soap in my eyes, but the doctor said tomorrow and Sunday would be worse. I’ll find out soon enough.

So far, so good, though!

By this time tomorrow afternoon, the good Lord willing, I’ll be able to actually see! For a few hours at least, until my vision is stolen away again by the healing process that I’ve read about in about 1600 different articles found on Dr. Google. Apparently the vision fades in and out for the first couple of days while the healing process begins. Following that, about fifty percent of the healing process will occur in the first two weeks. It’ll be up to 5 months before my eyes are completely healed, though.

I think my nerves are pretty played up about it right now. Either that or there was way too much caffeine in my coffee. I’m pretty certain it is nerves, though. I’m fretting.

I’m just ready for it to be over and done with.

Tomorrow.



P.S. While it is my goal to update this blog every day, I may have to mentally compose the new couple of days worth and post them once my eyesight returns to some semblance of normal.

I am scheduled for that PRK laser eye surgery Friday morning. I am supposed to be there at 7:30am. When I get there they will administer a dose of Valium. Yay for that. However, I am starting to get nervous about the surgery. I wonder if I could get that Valium a few days in advance???

I keep wondering about the recovery process. Dr. Google has revealed some very worrisome blogs regarding the PRK recovery process, but I am trying to convince myself that it is a worst case scenario type thing. Right? Right!

I am nervous, though. Quite so. I am not going to back out, because I’m a full throttle kind of girl. Once I make a decision, I barrel down that road like I know what the hell I’m doing. No doubt, this will be no different.

But, did I mention I’m nervous?

I canNOT believe that my eyes stayed dilated for two days after that consultation. So much for the ‘few hours of dilation’ the girl at the desk warned me about. Unless 48 hours is her definition of a few. Good grief!

I called the eye doctor back yesterday. I was concerned about the fact that Lortab is one of the pain pills they offer after the PRK surgery. Lortab and Vicodin work great for pain, but after a surgery like that, I am going to want to sleep and narcotics have the opposite result where I am concerned. It’s like speed for me! Crazy, I know.

Anyways, the lady from the office called back and said the Dr. would just double my dose of Neurontin and not prescribe the Lortab. I’ve never heard of Neurontin, so I am a little concerned about its effectiveness. I guess I’ll have to trust them and at the same time I’ll be praying for lots of drowsiness as a side effect! Personally, I’d like to sleep for the first 48 hours after the proceedure. I’m a wuss that way.

I am quite certain that I’ll become well acquainted with Dr. Google between now and then. Hopefully I won’t freak myself out enough that I back out of the procedure.

Yesterday, after all that I suffered through, I also had a consultation for Lasik surgery. The end result was that I am not a good candidate for the procedure. Instead, I qualify for PRK Laser surgery. Apparently, the same laser is used, but the procedure is different. The recovery time is longer, the pain is moderate to severe *gasp!* and it takes longer to achieve the final results. If you are following along, I bet you agree with me: It doesn’t sound too peachy. Nevertheless, I have the surgery scheduled for July 11th. Unless I chicken the hell out. And I may yet.

I plan to use Dr. Google to research it more, so I’m sure I’ll report back with my findings. So far, they have been pretty split down the middle with the pain issues, but none regret having it. However, I did find obligatory horror story. That wasn’t terribly refreshing to read. *sigh*