Back in December, I got LASIK eye surgery, and I've been meaning to blog about it ever since, so here it is!
Modern medicine is nothing short of miraculous.
I remember a time in fourth grade before I knew I needed glasses, before I knew just how horrible my vision truly was.
I was sitting in the classroom of a fourth grade teacher who was not my own. We were watching The Great Panda Adventure. I was squinting so that I could see the television screen and assuming that that was what everybody had to do in order to see the television clearly (I certainly couldn't remember a time when I did otherwise). As we were leaving the classroom, I remember that teacher saying to me, "Next time, bring your glasses," and I remember thinking to myself, "What does that jerk know? I don't even wear glasses."
It was discovered toward the end of 5th grade that I did, in fact, need glasses something horribly. As I sat in the optometrist's office, I remember him asking me to read a line, and I recited the letters as I saw them with confidence. My older sister Julia, my mother, and my father were in the exam room with me because they were getting their new glasses that day, and I remember them stifling laughter after witnessing my performance. I was convinced that I kicked that Snellen Chart's @$$. Turns out, I did not. Turns out, I did very, very badly.
(You may have to click on the link to this image to zoom in and read the captions, and I highly recommend that you do, as they are hilarious and similar to my Snellen Chart experience haha!)
Source: dumpaday.com via Kate on Pinterest
I remember being so mad that I had to get glasses, and I remember my sister being glad that she was no longer the only sibling who needed glasses. Isn't it funny the things we remember from our childhood?
Putting on glasses for the first time and realizing what the world was supposed to look like was kind of like this:
Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory (1971) based on the book by Roald Dahl
Flash forward to 2014, and I had been a glasses/contacts wearer for 18 years out of the 29 I have spent on this earth. For years, I had contemplated LASIK and its benefits, and for years, I lamented the fact that I could not afford the procedure.
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A couple of years ago, my eye doctor told me I was the perfect candidate for LASIK: I had horrible vision; I was at the age where my eyes had finally stopped changing dramatically; and I was young enough to enjoy the greatest number of years of benefit from the procedure because 90% of people end up needing some form of reading glasses around the age of 40. All I needed now was to not be pregnant for six months and have the money. So, when my son was about 18 months old and my husband heard from a friend that they were offering a special and financing for the procedure at a local eye clinic, I thought, it's now or never. So, this past December 2014, I finally took the leap and had LASIK eye surgery!
I had had surgery before, but none of those procedures seemed to terrify me like this one did. I had a double lumpectomy at the age of 21, just a few short weeks after having a tonsilloadendoidectomy. At the age of 28 I had my two wisdom teeth removed (I only had the two, which was surprising after my dentist and hygienists had told me that it looked as if I had none; imagine my surprise when I started teething around the same time as my son). Then, finally, at the age of 29, I had several moles removed. That is the extent of my surgical history. None of those surgeries seemed super scary (except the lumpectomy before I knew that the tumors were benign; that part was a little scary, but not so much the surgery itself). All of those surgeries involved removing undesirable things from my body, so there really did not not seem like a downside to having them. However, with LASIK, there was always that fear in the back of my mind: what if this surgery does not fix my eyes, or worse, what if I go blind? A botched mole removal or lumpectomy might leave an undesirable scar, and the scariest thing about the tonsilloadendoidectomy and the wisdom teeth extraction was the anesthesia. But, LASIK? LASIK was surgery ON MY EYES! That is terrifying!
Source: buzzfeed.com via Kate on Pinterest
Thankfully, my surgery went off with nary a hitch. The first eye was finished, and despite the fact that it takes several days for the eyes to heal and the full effects of the surgery to be apparent, I was reading a blurry 20/15 immediately afterwards. I know this because I had to wait for my second eye to be operated on because a small air bubble found its way under my corneal flap when they started on my left eye. Just imagine the terror that spread through my body when the doctor had to stop, mid-surgery, to explain that something had gone wrong! Ahhhh! Thankfully, the air bubbles are nothing to be scared of; however, if they had gone ahead with the surgery while the air bubble was present, it could have affected the accuracy of the surgery, so I was glad that they were cautious and made me wait for the bubble to dissipate.
The surgery ended. All appeared to have gone quite well, considering. The one optometrist who checked my eyes after the surgery told me to go home, nap for a few hours, and take it easy. However, because my surgery was delayed, I didn't make it home in time to nap like I was supposed to, and I soon figured out why I was told to sleep.
No one had warned me about the excruciating pain which occurs within a few hours of the surgery. Not a single person. But, sure enough, I was waiting in the car while Shawn went into the pharmacy for my eye drops, and the pain slowly started creeping in to my eyes. It was mild at first but kept intensifying as time passed. Soon, it felt like sand was being rubbed vigorously in my eyes, and I was powerless, as the one instruction they were very adamant about was "DO NOT RUB YOUR EYES!" My eyes began furiously tearing up, and as a result, my nose soon began running uncontrollably. I told my husband to drive me back to the surgery facility immediately! We had to stop to get gas first, and by the time we got back to the office, it was closed. So, we had to call the on-call optometrist back in to come look at me, and he was a good hour and a half away. While we waited, I swore I was going to pee my pants, so we had to go back to the gas station, where Shawn had to lead me to the bathroom because I could not open my eyes long enough to make it to the restroom without running in to somebody. I'm sure everybody in that Sheetz was thinking, "What the heck is going on with that lady?!" Then, we drove back to the eye doctor's office, where we were waiting for what felt like an eternity. When the doctor finally arrived, he looked at my eyes, said that they had dried out pretty badly, but the corneas had not torn (which was a super good thing). He decided to load me up with tons of numbing drops and then put contact lens "bandages" on my eyes to keep from having another attack of pain. He said that the oils from my tears had irritated my eyes, which caused my eyes to tear up even more, leading to more irritation, and thus, a vicious cycle of pain. After feeling like a total idiot when the pain finally subsided, I went home, slept it off, went in the next day for the one day follow-up, had the lenses removed, and all was right with the world.
Now that I have thoroughly terrified anyone who was thinking about having LASIK, here is the good news: even despite that somewhat traumatic experience, I would do it all over again... in a heartbeat!
Just under 6 months later, I am still reading 20/15, which is better than 20/20! For someone who was reading worse than 20/100 prior to the surgery and was told that I would not legally be allowed to drive without glasses or contacts, this is absolutely miraculous! It is one of the best things I have ever chosen to do in my life! As a contact lens wearer, it took a while for it to really set in what had happened. I still have the occasional thought before bed that I need to remove my contacts, and then, I remember, I'm not wearing any! I gave all of my lens solution to my younger sister who is a glasses/contacts wearer, though I'm still not sure what I'm going to do with my glasses and leftover contacts. That day, it felt like a huge burden had been lifted from my shoulders! I could see! :)
To think that centuries ago, I would have been disabled and relegated to a job that only required limited near sightedness, and I probably would have rarely, if ever, been able to leave the house. But, thanks to modern medicine and the invention of corrective lens, I have been and am able to live a full and functional life. As I said, modern medicine is nothing short of miraculous! :)
Source: buzzfeed.com via Kate on Pinterest
I am due to schedule my 6-month follow-up appointment, and I know it sounds silly, but, every day I think about being able to see clearly unaided, I feel like I need to say a quick prayer of thanks and gratitude, for fear that if I take for granted the amazing blessing of modern medicine that I will slowly begin to lose the benefits the surgery has given me. Absolutely crazy, I know, but I still fear it all the same. I know that my eyes will slowly get worse again, and I am 100% certain that I will need bifocals at some point in my life, but I am hoping that, by getting the surgery fairly young, I will get the maximum number of years of benefit out of the surgery, just as my doctor said.
So, if you are thinking or have been thinking about getting LASIK and you have been on the fence, consider this my endorsement. Definitely do your research, talk to people who have had it done, find a place with a great reputation, look into your financial options, and if the opportunity presents itself, you really, really should consider taking it. It may just be one of the best decisions you ever make. It definitely was for me!
