I Can See

I can see...well almost. I had my surgery. It ended up being a LASIK/PRK procedure. My vision was so bad that they were unable to use LASIK at all in my right eye. I ended up doing the PRK which is a procedure where they use a razor blade to cut the cornea and then peel away the top layer. After it heals, it should have the same results as the LASIK eye. Today I had my 5 day checkup and my vision is 20/20 in the left eye (it has been 20/20 since less than 24 hours after the surgery) and 20/30 in the right eye. I am absolutely amazed. I can finally see without assistance of any kind.
Now, I'm not going to lie to you. The procedure was not exactly painless. They do not put you to sleep for it and you are not sedated. They numb your eyes with some numbing drops and give you a Valium for relaxation (if you want it) and then they put a device in your eye to keep it from going shut. They ask you to stare at a red light that is above you. While you are staring at that light, they either make an incision and peel back your cornea (as in LASIK) or they cut the cornea and peel off the top layer (as in PRK) after this there is a burning sensation as the laser burns the correct amount of cornea for your vision correction needs. The most disturbing part about the whole thing is the smell of flesh burning (when the laser is burning the cornea). Noone told me about this and it was enough to make me nauseous while I was laying on the table.
After the procedure, they asked me to sit up. I COULD SEE! I was amazed that I could tell what time it was on the clock 5 feet away from me with no problems. I was escorted to a small relaxation room with a comfortable reclining chair and I waited there for about 15 minutes. Then I was led out to the waiting room where my husband and children waited patiently for me.
The ride home was uncomfortable. It was very bright out and my eyes were so sensitive to the light that they were crying uncontrollable. I put my sweatshirt over my head and tried to sleep, but I was too uncomfortable and my eyes were burning. When we got home (a two hour drive) I went to sleep immediately. I slept for a couple of hours and then woke up and I could see. I did wear my sunglasses in the house to help with the light sensitivity, but my eyes had great vision. Fundi and I even watched a movie that night (or part of one). But the next morning when I woke up, I was very uncomfortable again. I took some pain medication, but mostly my eyes just watered uncontrollably for about a half an hour. After that they started to behave, but I noticed that my PRK eye was now cloudy. It was as though if my eye were a car window covered with bugs and then I washed the window smearing the bugs and making it worse.
Over the next couple of days my vision got better. But today they took my bandage lens off of the PRK eyeand now my vision is blurred again. I suppose my eye just has to adjust again... we'll SEE.