First you go in for a consultation appointment. They do lots of eye tests and ask you lots of questions about what you see that make you feel slightly stupid. Then they dilate your eyes. For the record I hate having my eyes dilated. It seems to take me forever to recover. Then they look at all their charts and pictures of your eyes and say one of 4 things to you: 1)Yay! You're a good candidate for LASIK! Wanna have it today? 2)You're not really a safe candidate for LASIK but you're a good candidate for PRK. Wanna have it today? 3)You aren't a good candidate. or 4) You're a good candidate for eye surgery but your eyes scanned differently on each side and they're uneven so it's hard to tell if you're a better candidate for LASIK or PRK and there are lots of freaky risks in doing the wrong one, so go home and go another 3 weeks without your contacts (which apparently skew the results). Wear only your glasses in the middle of the hot crazy summer when all you want is your sunglasses and come back and we'll re-scan your eyes and decide then which operation you should have.
Guess which one they told me?
So I waited another 3 weeks and went back in and they re-scanned my eyes and decided that I should have PRK. Then they scheduled me for an operation 45 minutes later and sent us off on a Walgreens errand to fill prescriptions and come back.
At Walgreens we discovered that one of the prescriptions that they require for us to fill is not covered by our insurance (apparently a lot of insurance companies don't cover it, so be prepared) and it doesn't have a generic brand, so we paid $110 out of pocket for a tiny little bottle of eye drop antibiotics. I have no idea what life would have been like without them, but I am convincing myself that they were worth every penny. We also picked up a prescription for a steroid eye drop that's an anti inflammatory, a box of artificial tears and a couple bottles of chewable vitamin C tablets. Here's what else we should have picked up while we were there (maybe this will help someone): Extra strength tylenol, ibuprofen, and 2 or 3 more boxes of artificial tears. They have to be the kind that come in individual vials and are preservative free, not in a big bottle with preservatives. Also, you should know that they're going to give you a prescription for vicodin too, but they can't give it to you till after the procedure, so someone will be heading back to the pharmacy again on your behalf. You won't be able to go, because you'll be home recovering.
Then we went back to the doctors office and got ready. They did another test on my eyes where they take a bunch of detailed pictures of your eyes. Then they take you back by the operation rooms. Our place had the operating rooms behind glass windows so people could watch if they wanted. Everything happening to your eyes is displayed on big TV monitors. There was a guy ahead of me that I could have watched, but they told me they strongly discouraged me from watching right before my own procedure, so we got to sit in the "relaxation room." They had some sweet recliners in there. Then like 8 minutes later it was my turn.
So in I went. They had me lay back in the chair. Then they dumped a ton of eye drops into my eyes to numb them. Then they stuck these plastic things in my eyes to hold my eyelids open during the procedure. Getting these things in was a little uncomfortable. The first eye was easy but the second one didn't want to cooperate and couldn't quite sit right for a few moments so I of course was stressing because it was uncomfortable. Then it finally settled in right.
Then they turn on a crazy insane bright light. Honestly, having to stare into the bright light was the worst part of the whole thing. While you're staring into the bright light the doctor sticks his finger in your eye and basically sloughs the top of your eye ball. This is a really weird experience, because your brain is telling you to freak out because you see something in your eye, but you can't feel anything and you can't blink. It's sort of an out of body experience in a way. After that they turn down the bright light (thank God!) and then the laser does its thing. This part is easier to deal with because the light is turned down. All you have to do is make sure you stare at the red dot in front of you. The laser is kind of creepy and alien-ish looking so you don't really want to look at the red dot because you want to check out all the crazy things happening around you instead. Also, on my first eye, I could smell my eye burning from the laser so that freaked me out. When the laser is done, they flood your eye with something REALLLLLY cold. It feels good at first, but then it starts to give you a brain freeze headache. Then they pop a contact lens on your eye to protect you like a bandaid. All done!
Then they move to your other eye and stick that stupid bright light on it. In my opinion, the bright light is harder to handle on the second eye because the first eye is sort of incapacitated at the time. Maybe my left eye is just more sensitive to light. Either way, I actually started moaning and was like "it's too bright!" to the doctor. It's seriously really hard to handle. But then he finishes his part with the finger stuck in your eye and turns the light down again and it's all good from there. By the time they had me stand up and walk out of the operating room I had probably been in there a grand total of 5 minutes. The operation itself takes about 30 seconds per eye.
I'm definitely glad I didn't watch the guy before me, because Jon said it was fascinating from a scientific standpoint, but it looks like something straight out of a sci-fi movie and was definitely freaky.
Then they give you some pretty sweet sunglasses and send you home, where you are supposed to sleep for at least 4 hours straight right away. I laid in bed trying to sleep with my eyes closed and resting for probably 6 hours and couldn't seem to sleep. Also, it's weird because you really can't see anything. I kept feeling like I needed to put my glasses on. You have to put eye drops in your eyes at least once an hour when ever you're awake, and alternate tylenol and advil. I didn't feel any pain at first, it just felt like how it feels at the end of the day when you're ready to take your contacts out. A little dry and your eyes are tired.
I woke up around 2am that first night totally freaking out with my first experience with the real pain. It is a weird stabbing pain that feels like you need to rip a bad pair of contacts out right away. Or like there's rocks in your eye. I only had it in my left eye, thankfully. I put in a bazillion drops and took tylenol and vicodin. Then I resorted to my "emergency only" drops that they gave me. That finally helped and calmed me down and I went back to sleep. After that my pain levels were manageable and overall it was pretty easy. The next day I had a follow up appointment and they said I looked good. I still couldn't see much of anything yet. On the 4th day Jon returned to work and I was responsible for baby Cadence once again. I was really nervous about this. My friend Kylie offered to come over and play with Cadence for a few hours so I could rest my eyes, and I think that was a really good decision. The day went a lot better than expected, but the break was much needed. On the 6th day I had another follow up. They tested my vision and it had improved to 20/40, so I was cleared to drive. I can't remember the last time I had 20/40 vision without contacts or glasses. It's so cool. They also took my contacts out. This meant that I would be a lot more comfortable and I would see my vision increase a lot faster, but that my protective bandage wasn't there anymore, so I had to be even more careful with my eyes. By one week my vision was to 20/20. I'm on day 14 now, and my vision is great. I have a little bit of fuzziness every once in a while, but they said that that will probably go away in a month or two. I also have some headaches and "tired eyes," but nothing compared to before. My biggest symptom now is light sensitivity. My favorite sunglasses from before aren't dark enough, so I'm still wearing the ones from the doctor until I can find another cute pair that's dark enough.
Overall, I would say that it was a pretty good experience, and I am overwhelmingly pleased with the results. I would definitely recommend looking into laser eye surgery to ANYONE! So far, it's been the best decision we made!
On our way to the operation, my last picture ever in glasses!
Right after we got home, recovering in my awesome shades.
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