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Details of how my eyes have changed and improved from the operation day to now.
As soon as we got outside, I started looking around. The BEM shields kept me from seeing very much, and my eyes were fairly hazy, but there was a definite difference between pre-op and post-op vision. Things were still fuzzy, but there was much more details than I'd been able to see before. I kept looking around to find new things to read. I could actually see that there were two yellow lines in the middle of the road. Trees were more than just brown and green blobs. Finally, I was convinced to close them and stop trying to strain them. This was about 4p. Once home, I changed and lay down in bed and tried to sleep. My eyes didn't hurt or feel uncomfortable, but every once in a while I would get a stinging sensation, sort of like what it might feel like if you accidentally glimpsed at the sun or got something irritating in your eye, where your eyes involuntarily cringe down really hard and tear up, even though there wasn't much pain. I found that if I consciously relaxed my eye muscles, this would decrease or go away, so I concentrated on doing that until I fell asleep. My eyes did tear up enough to streak down my face several times and block up my nose slightly, though. 7:30pm - same day At about 7:30p, I woke up and took the BEM shields off for the first time, and opened my eyes for the first time in several hours. The cringing and discomfort had stopped completely, although it took several seconds of blinking to actually focus on the room around me, even with very low light. I put in my first set of eye drops and went downstairs to eat dinner. The vision improvement was incredible. I could see, not perfectly, but significantly better than I ever remember. I could read large print on the papers on the fridge while sitting at the kitchen table. Nothing was majorly blurred like I was used to seeing. A very rough guess would be that my eyesight was somewhere around 20/80 at that point. I thought I could see minor upwards ghosting in my left eye, and minor leftward ghosting in my right. The main difference between this state and mere bad vision was that there was no "clear" spot. As objects came closer, I could see them better and better, but too close and it would start to get worse. I could find an optimal distance, but I couldn't totally focus at it. 2am - that night After dinner, I went back to talk to some people, relax, and put in more eyedrops (I'm getting good at this) and eventually fell asleep again. I woke up at 2 to go to the bathroom and put in more drops. When I got up, my vision had improved dramatically again. A rough guess would put it at about 20/40. The only things I had obvious difficulty focusing on were far away words. A quick test told me I could read magazine type easily at a normal reading distance (elbows bent, words maybe 1 ft away), and not at all or with difficulty at full-arms length. Lights seemed to be mostly ok, except when uncovered and sharply contrasted with surroundings. Then, they appeared to have a smallish bright halo around them, but no stars. This looked similar to halos I saw previously, with the main difference being that I could not change it at all, like I used to, either by opening, dilating, or moistening my eyes. This was the only time I have observed lights at night so far, so the sample set is very small.
November 7th- one day later I woke up in the morning feeling great, and my eyes looked even better. I estimate them now to be about 20/20 in the left and 20/30 in the right. I still notice very minor upwards ghosting in my left eye and minor downwards ghosting in my right, but it is only obvious when I look at something small with a high-contrast background, and focus on it. I don't have any major dryness, and minor dryness which is comparable to normal contact wearning. I am using eyedrops whenever I think about it. No pain and no discomfort. I had a quick visit to Dr Ross (my eye doctor) this morning, and he said everything appears to be healing normally, and he estimates my combined vision to be currently around 20/25. There will still be minor fluctuations in both the prescription and the side-effects for the next few weeks, but it should be mostly settled down by next week, when I have another similar post-op exam. I am in work today, but taking a half day so I don't have to look at the computer screens too much. Computers seem to be the one thing which aren't perfectly comfortable to look at, so I'll go easy this weekend. I reported during my post-op visit that my current satisfaction level is a 4/5. That is probably actually a little low, and if the side effects decide to clear up any more in the next few weeks, I'll probably upgrade it to a 5/5. I can see. I can see. I can see the leaves on the trees. I can read fine print from half way across my office. I can see in the morning and in the evening without needing to "wake up" my eyes or having contacts make my eyes dry and tired. I can see in the middle of the night. I can wear sunglasses. I'm so happy. Second post-op checkup today with Dr Ross in Squill. Everything is going pretty well. Effective vision with both eyes is about 20/20. Eyes have been gradually stabilizing over the past week, so here is a chance to catch up on the details. My individual vision is about 20/20 in my left eye, and 20/30 in my right eye. My eyes are approximately even dominance, but that can gets adjusted automatically when focusing on something fuzzy. My left eye sees slightly better by itself than it does with both eyes, but most of the time it will force itself dominant so I can see better. Vision in both seems fairly stable. The ghosts have almost entirely gone away, although I thought I saw some faint ones when I was doing letter-reading at the doctor's today. Computers If I ever needed proof that computers are a strain on the eyes, I don't anymore. The screen does not cause me pain, but I can tell that my eyes get tired after using it for a lengthy period. Last Friday (one day after surgery), I was online for a few hours of the day, and felt very exhausted. The weekend I used very little computer and felt fine. Monday, I worked a full day, and by the end of the day, my eyes were again exhausted, to the extend that vision in my right eye more than doubled in fuzzyness. I was unable to read almost anything with that eye except at very close distances. I put eyedrops in before bed, and when I woke up in the morning, I felt fine, and vision was back to normal. Since then, I've been doing my best to take eye breaks and blink a lot, and it has steadily gotten better. My right eye vision bothers me because the average distance my computer screen is away is about the distance letters start to blur. I suspect that is making my left eye work harder and contributing towards some of the tiredness, and hopefully it will continue to improve. Night vision Overall, I'd have to conclude that my night vision has actually improved. When I wore contacts, I would regularly get largish halos around lights, with most of them starring out. The size of the halos and stars were greatly dependant on several factors, such as how dry my eyes were, how wide my eyes were open, how tired my eyes were, and could be modified slightly be concentrating. Since the surgery, I have noticed no starring at all, and halos that are smaller than what I was used to. The halos I see now started off being very set, and nothing I did would change their size, but over the past few days, I have noticed them changing in response to similar factors. The time it takes for my eyes to automatically adjust is getting smaller, too. Before surgery, when I would look at a light in darkness, the glare was huge for a fraction of a second before my eyes adjusted it down. Since surgery, the same adjustment time has seemed much longer, but can be lessened more on my conscious effect. This effect is still changing, and has gotten better even over the past few days. Dry eyes I suspect long time usage of gas-perm contacts got me more used to minor dryness than most people. I have noticed had no problems from major dryness, and only minor discomfort at times when I was in a dry area (like evenings when forced-air heat is on) or when indoor air is noticeably blowing in my face (like at the symphony last friday). Normal eye drops relieve this just fine. Other side effects The first few days I found myself wanting to sleep more. I'm not sure I can tell the difference between my body actually getting tired because it's saying, "You just had major surgery less than 100 hours ago, get some damn sleep!" or if my eyes get tired and want to close, thus giving me the impression that I'm ready to sleep. Either way, I got more sleep, and it felt pretty good. The eye drops both tasted bad and gave me a mild sore throat from the post-nasal dripping. For a few days, I was experiencing a mild stinging in my right eye for a few seconds after I put them in, but it went away. Doctor says he doesn't know what might have caused it. My light sensitivity seems to be about the same as it ever was, which translates to, when I'm outside and it's sunny, I greatly desire sunglasses. This was, in fact, one of the biggest reasons I wanted to get contacts in the first place. No problems otherwise. The only thing my doctor mentioned today was that he wasn't entirely happy with the smoothness of my cornea surface, and recommeded I increase my eyedrop usage to help it heal better. He sais that if it heals completely properly, I should end up with 20/20 in both eyes. So as of now, I'm up from using eyedrops "when I feel like it" to "several times a day." No sweat, I'm getting good at this. :) Whee! I can see! November 21st- two weeks later I think the most amusing thing I have had to get used to is that I'm not green-eyed anymore. Before you ask: no, the surgery didn't change the color; the reason they was green before is because I had blue tinted contacts. Their real color is closer to hazel. It's been two weeks now, so here's the update. I don't have another doctor appointment for another 3 weeks, but last appointment Dr Ross told me to use more eyedrops to hopefully smooth out the surface of my eye as it heals. So I've been putting in drops pretty much whenever I think about it. The only difference I've noticed is that I now am much more aware of my eyes being slightly dry. My effective vision is still 20/20, as my left eye naturally takes over the job of seeing anything that is too blurry for my right eye. Right is probably still around 20/30. Vision seems to be fairly stable in both eyes. I went to a nightclub for the first time last weekend, with an overall dim interior and some smoke, and spotlights here and there. I loved it, as I could see so much better than when I had contacts! The only problem was that my eyes dried out fairly quickly, probably both from the air blowing around and from the light contrast. I have noticed that my eyes tend to get tired much more quickly in high contrast or fairly bright lights. It shows up clearly when I am driving, because the contrast of streetlights and dark road means I have to concentrate pretty hard on focussing my eyes to keep everything very clear. After 10 minutes or so, I can feel them start to want to close and stop concentrating so hard. When my eyes are tired, brighter lights seem to give me a mild headache, which goes away pretty quickly if the light is dimmed. It is odd to get ready for bed and realize I can still see the clock as I turn off the light. I am suddenly aware of the extra things I have. What in the world do I do with my old contacts? I can get rid of all or most of my contact cases. Does anybody want any solution? (Boston, conditioning, soap, and all-in-one, for gas perm lenses) I will get rid of at least one of my old glasses once I find a place to donate them to. Still no regrets. I wish my right eye would go ahead and heal better, but I'm not bad off now. I hope my eyes gain back more tearing ability, as the dryness is mildly annoying, but it is still tolerable. I love seeing.
December 12th- four weeks later I went in for my 4 week post-op checkup today. Vision is great. I'm very happy with my eyes. These days every day is like one of my best contact days. Dr Ross said that the lasered part has healed fine, although the surface cut seems to be drying out more than it should, thanks to my eyes' currently inability to produce tears regularly. This is most likely the cause of the mild blurring of lights I get in dim-light settings. So I need to remember to stay on a rather strict several-drops-a-day regimen for another few weeks. I notice that my eyes are somewhat dry, but it doesn't bother me, so I need to remember to do it anyways. One side effect that I never would have thought of is that the people around me tell me I hold my eyes open wider now. I'm not sure if it's because I get the best sight when I'm not squinting, or if I no longer have to subconsciously worry about dust and dirt getting into my eyes and hurting. Still haven't decided what to do with all my old contacts products. Anybody know someone who can use them? November 11th- 1 year later later OK, so I actually missed my anniversary by over a week. But I figured a year report was in order, especially since it reminds me that I still need to make an appointment for my checkup. I can see! On Nov 6, 2003, I got LASIK surgery on both my eyes, and came through with flying colors. My adventure, from pre-operation checkup, research, surgery, and recovery, is chronicled in my LJ memories and replicated on my website. My eyes took about 3-4 weeks for my vision to completely stabilize. At the end of that, I've been declared to have 20/20 vision with no complications. It took about 3 weeks for my night vision to settle into something where I wasn't nervous to drive at night. It took a month or two before my eyes were able to adjust more quickly from drastic changes in light, and there are still times where I have to blink a few times. I don't appear to have any ghosting, halos, or other effects from lights, unless my eyes are drier than normal, but a few blinks generally clears it up. Speaking of dry eyes, I realized a few weeks ago that my tears seem to be back. My tear production was noticeably decreased for at least 6 months after surgery, but I haven't really been bothered by it since at least sometime in the spring. Tears are a somewhat complicated process, and the normal tears that eyes produce from blinking are different from the tears produced by emotion or pain. The later are much more watery, and while they moisten the eye while they are there, they dry up rather quickly. My ability to produce pain-tears was not effected, only the surface nerves which stimulate the lubricating tears. Thankfully, that seems to be healing. I believe I can say that this is one of the happiest changes in my life. I would do it again in a heartbeat. I spent years preparing for it, 10 minutes getting operated on, and now it is as if my eyes never had anything wrong with them. At the start, I would think about my eyes every 5 minutes and marvel at my vision. Now, I can go for weeks or longer without it crossing my mind. I am often reminded when the wind blows, or dust falls on me, or I get an eyelash in my eye, when I cringe and wait for the inevitable searing pain... and it doesn't come. And I remember that I can see.
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