PRK surgery

Laser Eye Surgery: Suddenly, I See

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I woke up this morning with much improvement in my vision. It’s still not 20/20, but I can read text at a distance, and such. I’m back at work – one thing I’ve noticed is that I still can’t see facial expressions at a distance, so I can’t tell what my co-workers are doing/expressing when they’re walking down the hallway toward me. But that will clear up soon, I’m sure.

While I was home puttering around, I was okay to watch movies and such. So I saw a few things that I could add to my movies list.

  1. The Big Lebowski – DVR’ed from cable. I wish I’d seen it earlier; I think I should have added it to my pop-culture lexicon before now.
  2. The Aristocats – I’ve had this on DVD for several years and never popped it in. I loved it as a kid, but there are sure some slow spots as an adult.
  3. Nancy Drew, Reporter (1939) – on DVD – Stephanie got me this from the dollar bin a while back; it’s very cute, although I’d quibble with Nancy needing to be rescued so often.
  4. The Ice Storm – on DVD. Stephanie owns this one – she really liked it, and I did as well.
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Laser Eye Surgery: Vision normal for this stage, says eye doctor

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I visited the eye doctor this afternoon, and she took out the bandage contact lenses and checked out my eyes. She says everything is normal for this stage of PRK surgery, and that my vision should improve drastically in the next 48 hours. My cornea has healed completely, and the blurriness is caused by a slight ridge from the healing process that runs right down the center of my pupil. That should flatten out soon and my vision should be 20/20 within a couple of days.

She also said that my frustration is typical of most PRK patients, and probably more so because I read and use the internet more than most people do. So I’m a lot more optimistic (and less cranky) than yesterday.

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Laser Eye Surgery: Gradual eyesight improvement

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My eyesight has improved quite a bit overnight, and I can read text at least. It’s not perfect, but at least I’m seeing progress. I’ll probably still spend the day listening to audiobooks and watching dvds (I’m part way thorough The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, which was puttling me to sleep, and a mystery story that was pretty good.)

But I’m less discouraged and worried about the outcome.

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Laser Eye Surgery: Buyer’s Remorse

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I guess from what the doctor’s were saying, with the PRK surgery (as opposed to lasik, which is quick to heal) it’s fairly normal for my vision to still be pretty bad, even today and tomorrow and even on Thursday. But had I known it would take quite so long and be such a disabling and frustrating thing, I probably wouldn’t have gone through with it. This better fix itself, and it better be soon, and ultimately better be worth it. At this point, I’m not sure it is.

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Laser Eye Surgery: Eye Update

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Forgive me if I make more mistakes than usual; it’s rather hard to see the screen right now. After my last blog post on Saturday morning, we went to see the eye doctor, who told me my vision at that time was perfectly normal one day after surgery. I had 20/50 vision in my right eye and 20/70 in my left. It’s much worse now, though, because my eyes have started to heal, so the surface of my cornea is uneven. Yesterday my eyes really hurt. Today that seems to be over and I’m just experiencing blurriness. It’s all relative, though – even at it’s worst, the pain was tiny compared to what I’ve been through before.

The blurriness will probably remain through Tuesday, when I go to see my eye doctor (Dr. Marjorie Knotts – she’s been my optometrist for years and is very good) to take out the bandage contact lenses.

Stephanie had to go to work today, so I’m going to hang out at home cuddled up on the couch with Spike, listening to audio books.

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Laser Eye Surgery: post-surgery, day 1

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Boy I hope this gets better. My vision is somewhat improved, but not nearly what I expected. From what they said in the office, it should be 20/20 today, and then get more blurry on sunday and monday, before turning around and improving again on Tuesday, wednesday, thursday. It’s definitely not 20/20 now. In fact I’m sitting with my face up to the monitor to be able to tell what I’m typing.

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Laser Eye Surgery: Getting my eyeballs replaced

As someone at work put it. I’m getting laser surgery (specifically PKR) done on my eyes tomorrow by Dr. Waltz of TLC of Indianapolis. I’m doing my traditional “Stress relief by just not thinking about it” form of denial, so I don’t freak out. It couldn’t possibly be worse than the surgeries I’ve already had. Anyways, I’m taking several days off work – tomorrow, Tuesday and Wednesday (with bonus MLK day on Monday) to hang out around the house. My eyesight is pretty darned bad, and in the last few years my allergies have made contacts a pain to wear on an all-day basis. I’m completely looking forward to not being near-sighted; to be able to see while swimming, shave my legs in the shower without guesswork, and see the alarm clock better in the morning.

On Monday, I went out with some friends and saw National Treasure: Book of Secrets, starring Nick Cage, with his toupee in a prominent but uncredited role. There’s a fellow that’s had some surgery – and not in a good way. You can tell he’s going for the “Indiana Jones/Harrison Ford rakish grin” in some scenes, but it ends up looking a bit like he has gas.

And I just finished up The Dangerous Book for Boys by Conn Iggulden and Hal Iggulden, finally. That took me awhile, mainly because I just wasn’t into it after I got part way through. I gotta say, I did completely pooh-pooh the people who were dissing it as a sexist tome, but after reading it, I see what they were on about. There were several sections that really should have been written a bit less – I dunno, anti-feminine? It’s great to be all “rah rah” masculinity, but not at the expense of “rah rah femininity.” The sections on Famous Battles was great for getting me to fall asleep – if I’d been sitting in a class on it, I’d be at the back intoning “boooooooooorrrrrrrrrring!” under my breath.

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