[Red] Laser Eyes Part 3

Posted by Red on Tue the 10th of November , 2009 at 10:30 AM

It's been 2 weeks since I got zapped, and I have to say that surprisingly little has changed. If I was smart, I would have jury-rigged some sort of eye-chart to see if they are getting better or not. Hindsight being what it is.

As it stands, my vision was better pre-surgery with glasses than it is now, but the follow-up appointment isn't for another couple weeks. Maybe this means that they will continue to get better until then. At least then I will be able to find out how good my eyes are, if I meet the driving standard, will they get better, that sort of thing.

I went to Oxford on the weekend, and reading the plaques in some museums was tricky. The low light, combined with random placements of the info cards made for some challenging reading.

I was warned that oncoming lights at night could be interesting. I could see starbursts, halos, or all sorts of funky crap in them. Fortunately, my old lenses were scratched and smudged to hell with half the coatings worn off (hey, they were 3 years old). This means that I was used to starbursts, halos and all sorts of funky crap. I don't think anyone particularly likes having bright lights in their eyes, but i'm more or less okay with car headlights at night.

Because today is the 2 week mark, it means that I can rub my eyes and not hide from water. You have no idea how happy this made me. It's kinda like cleaning your ears with a Q-tip - it felt really good, even though there is no reason for it. At any rate, I can properly wash my face, and sleep without the stupid shields.

It is a good day.

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[Red] Laser Eye Surgery - Part 2

Posted by Red on Wed the 28th of October , 2009 at 9:49 AM

I'm now on to the day of recovery, and I have to say that it is really uneventful.

I had to tape shields over my eyes to ensure that I wouldn't rub my eyes before I woke up enough to remember that is the cardinal sin with eye surgery.

I was hoping for some eye shields that would afford me some dignity, but that was not the case. Taped to my face.

I can'e get water on my eyes for 2 weeks, so showering is going to be interesting. While I might upload pictures of crappy eye-shields and gross eye close-ups, my showering technique is a trade secret. I'm not about to put it on display. In the shower, I tried to take off my glasses - that really made my day.

Today, I was still a little light sensitive, but was able to attend my followup exam without any sun blocking.

The exam was a very brief 'read the letters' then the optometrist looked at my eyes through some machine. Nothing sensational, or even worth commenting on, really. After that, I was discharged until a followup appointment in a month.

Still putting in drops every 2 hours, still can't get my eyes wet, or touch them. Still have to treat them special. Still missing some close-range vision. Still not sure how the night vision is. Maybe I'll check that out tonight.

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[Red] Laser Eye Surgery - Part 1

Posted by Red on Tue the 27th of October , 2009 at 10:19 AM

As I've made no secret, I decided to get my eyes lasered. I've worn glasses since I was 5 years old, and I made myself a promise that as soon as my eyes stopped changing and I was graduated, making money - I would get them zapped. My prescription has since stabilized, I have graduated and am making money, so went for it.

The consultation was fairly uneventful. I was warned that they would give me drops that would dialate my pupils, so I would be light sensitive afterwards. While it's true that looking directly at lights wasn't pleasant - it isn't under normal situations. The only other remarkable part was that these drops made me lose my short vision. My eyes are naturally near-sighted, so these drops reversed that. I felt like an old man having to hold things at arm's length to read them.

Everything sounded great (aside from the price), but I checked out a competitor anyways. They had a worse consultation and cost slightly more, so I booked a spot with the first company. That appointment was for this morning at 10.

The actual appointment started very similar to the consultation - but it was the doctor, rather than the technician that gave the tests. There was a prescription verification, and he stared at my eyes for a while. When he broke out the magnifying glass to see closer, I felt like I was staring into a spotlight. Not pleasant, but apparently he saw what he needed to see.

The doctor gave me a pile of drops. Some were anaesthetics, some were the pupil-dialators, some were.....actually I have no idea what half of them were. But lots of drops.

They ushered me into the laser room annex where I got some shoe covers and a hairnet. My street clothes were fine, but shoes - not so much. There a male nurse gave me yet more drops. At this point, I'm wondering how much more liquid they can put into my eyes. The nurse prepared the drops I would need to take for the next 9 days - taking care to remark they were clearly labelled, and the sheet was easy to follow.

When the team was ready, they led me into the laser room, and laid me down on the tray. They gave me yet more drops (where are all these going?), rubbed my eyelids with iodine, covered my left eye, taped around my right eye (I'm assuming there was some sort of sheet covering the majority of my face, but I honestly don't know), installed some sort of Clockwork Orange-type eyelid opener and said I would feel some pressure on my right eye.

Pressure is an interesting word. Pressure could be a breath of wind at the back of your neck. Pressure could be a raindrop hitting your arm. Pressure could also be someone trying to dig out your eye with their thumb. And it certainly wasn't windy or raining in that room.

I was prepped that when the flap-cutting machine was in operation, I had to look straight ahead and that was the only way I could screw up the procedure. So, while having nothing in particular to stare at, I did my best. It was a weird sensation, because the more I tried to stare in one direction, the more my vision wanted to stray. At the end, I was fighting hard to not look around.

This machine was silent, but my doctor kept repeating "Stare straight ahead! Don't move!" over and over. It was only 20 seconds or so, and I felt exactly nothing. They then took off the pressure, and while I assume they were peeling back the flap, I still felt nothing. The next machine had a red light to look at, and made noise.

This was a more interesting machine. It sounded like rocks in a blender, and shaped my cornea back to how it should be. It made a smell like burning hair that came from the not-right parts of my eye. Strangely, I was very unconcerned by this.

After the rock-blender hair burner, the doctor put the flap back, put more drops in, and with it a lot of vision came back. He started smoothing the flap back into place and once he was happy with that, all the prep came off the right side of my face and went on to the left.

Lather. Rinse. Repeat. Except that it was easier to keep my eyes still during the flap-making.

After the left eye was done and the shield over my right came off, I could see. Not sensationally, but I could recognize things in the room that I would never have been able to identify before. Everything was still hazy - like a dreamy effect from a movie. So in this dreamy, first-time-seeing-without-glasses-in-21-years state, the first thing I saw clearly was the male nurse. Couldn't they have at least given me a female? This could have been my first sans-glasses oogling, and they ruined it. So it goes.

From there, I was sent back to the examination room where the doctor looked at my eyes again (and gave me more drops). He pulled out some metal poker stick and took turns sticking it in my eyes.

I was then led to a dark room and was given a cup of coffee, a bag containing the drops I would need to take at regular intervals. After a few minutes, I was turned loose. I finished my coffee and headed to the train station.

I was warned that I would be light sensitive afterwards, and that (non-prescription!) sunglasses would help. They might as well have warned me that molten steel is warm, or that the Pacific Ocean is damp. While technically true, they understated the case by a large margin. I would have traded those sunglasses for a welding helmet. Every time I opened my eyes, it felt like I was staring at the sun - with a couple clouds in the way. I walked to the train station with my eyes closed for the vast majority of the time - and it still hurt.

At the train station, I had to ask someone to read the board for me to tell me which platform my train was on. I got on the train and I needed to blow my nose. I now know where all those drops went to. They built up in my sinuses, and were all coming out my nose. I must have used 2 dozen paper towels, and it wasn't enough. I have had bad head colds where I blew my nose less. I got off at my station, and walked home - with my eyes still closed. Fortunately, I know the way.

At home, I closed all the blinds and it was still uncomfortably bright. Sunglasses on, hoodie up to shield the sides, heavy curtains drawn and it still wasn't enough. I got a quilt off my bed and pulled it over my head. This was okay, if a little warm. I turned on some music, and had a brief nap.

I woke up when it was time to put the first set of drops in. The nurse was telling the truth that the bottles of drops are clearly labelled - if you vision is back to 100% and you can open your eyes for more than a fraction of a second at a time. Finding out which two I needed to take and which one was the artificial tears took way too long. I made lunch, then went back to music on the couch.

My appointment concluded at 11:30am. At 4:30pm, I could finally open the blinds. Couldn't turn on the TV yet, though. Shortly after, I could open my laptop (I guess LCDs are less bright than CRTs) and I started writing this down. I looked at my eyes in the mirror, and saw the marks that the "pressure" left on them. I took a picture as best I could, and may upload it here tomorrow.

My vision is good for distance, not great up close (I can read what I'm writing, but probably missed some punctuation along the way) but will improve over the next week or so.

I have a followup appointment tomorrow, so if there is anything worth noting, I will include it.

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