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Yay, I am actually able to write a post again! Well, let me point out that my vision still isn’t that good and my eyes will be blurry and my vision will be all over the shop for another few weeks probably…not so “Yay!”… but at least I can blame all typos on shoddy vision and not shoddy grammar or pure sloppiness.
I am glad that I went through with the LASEK laser eye surgery but boy, was I nervous when I had it done! I sat there in the waiting room surrounded by others who were either, like me, waiting nervously or people who just had their procedure and were sitting wearing sunglasses waiting for a taxi or friend to drive them home. It felt like being in an assembly line…. Human waits – disappears in room – gets “lasered” – comes out wearing sunglasses – human is driven away.
After a few hours (yes hours!) of waiting and a few eye checks by cheerful optical staff, it was finally my turn. A quick word with the surgeon consisting of mainly; “this will hurt for days” and “it will take long to heal” and “oh, I thought all Swedish girls had blond hair”… I was steered into the procedure room donning a beautiful hair net and plastic thingys over my shoes.
I was then asked to lie down in this chair that looked remarkably like a dentist chair. I was again asked if I was allergic against anything (nope), if I knew what procedure I was doing (well, yes…do you?) and then I was asked twice if I was sure that I was not pregnant (no, I am not and yes I was sure…bloody heck…I am not that fat!..or am I…need to check up a diet again). Once the interrogation was done I was told to look straight up and focus on an orange dot, while they were dropping in loads of different drops in my eyes. Some of these drops were anesthetics and then the surgeon started poking me in the eye with different pads and his fingers…it was freaky!! All I could feel was a slight pressure but I could see his fingers against my eye and it really freaked me out. Then they put this clamp around the eye so that I wouldn’t blink…it felt like a torture device…then I was told to stare straight at the orange dot again and then the laser started up and did its thing. There was a loud ticking noise and I heard a nurse counting done the seconds and after a very short time it was done. The surgeon then went across the eye with some kind of metal tool (yuk!!) and then dosed my eye with loads of ice-cold water (which I only felt on my face as the eye was completely numb) and then I got more drops and a contact lens to bandage the eye. Then it was the same procedure with the other eye. During the entire procedure of both eyes my hands went into fists all the time and I could feel my adrenalin coursing and I know my breathing was faster than normal…I was a bit scared and very nervous. All in all it didn’t take more than a few minutes in total since I got into the room.
Then it was all done. I was ushered out, given a small prep talk about the different drops I needed to take for about a month ahead and other guidelines…like using these particular goggles to sleep in…I look like I am off to the swimming pool every time I go to sleep. Very sexy… not.
The first few days were not that fun, I was VERY light-sensitive which meant I was wearing my sunglasses all the time and no light was allowed in the room I was in… we ate a few dinners in darkness. My vision fluctuated madly and some days my eyes were quite painful but I had a few anesthetic drops to help with that. After day 5 the contact lenses were taken out and now I just have to continue taking my drops and patiently wait for my eyes to heal. At the moment my left eye has decided to heal a bit faster than the right so it’s slightly better. I do get very dry eyes but drops help with that and my vision does get quite blurry especially when I try to read so working in front of a computer every day is interesting. At least I see well enough to be allowed to drive, thank god! Watch out fellow commuters!
With LASEK it can take several weeks, even months for some, before all is healed and the full results are there. I didn’t quite realize the full extent of the time frame to be honest but even if I had known I most likely would have gone ahead with the surgery anyway. Cos I can now see what time it is when I wake up, straight away, even with my goggles! 🙂
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