New Eyes

We have had so much going on at our house that I have not even had a minute to get on the computer and actually have enough time to write out a paragraph! I've had to sign off of blogging for the past little while and believe me, I have such a backlog of pictures that we might still be talking about my summer activities into December! May is a hard month with all the year-end recitals, appointments, etc.

My biggest news is that I had LASIK surgery just 2 days ago (on Monday) and can now see 20/20! I am amazed and grateful that our loving Heavenly Father has given us such great technology that we can improve our eyesight to perfect and not have to deal with all the problems and inconveniences that bad vision gives us. :)

Jeremy and I have been talking about getting my eyes fixed for several years now, but the time was never right. Well, finally the time became right. I'm not pregnant, or nursing, the money was available, and to top it off, we got a coupon in the mail for $800 off! 2 weeks ago I made an appointment at Hoopes Vision for my initial exam and was told I needed to have my contacts out 5-7 days prior to having the surgery. I took them out the day after Mother's day and it was so hard for me! My glasses were about 3 prescriptions too old so my whole world was very blurry. I even questioned the safety of me driving the kids wearing those dumb things. Somehow I made it through the week and went in last Friday for my initial appointment. To my pleasant surprise, after my eyes had been examined thoroughly, the Dr. told me that they rate LASIK candidates from a 1 to a 10 (10 being the best) as far as how eligible they are for the surgery. They take into account the eye health, shape of the eye, current prescription, thickness of the cornea, and I'm sure several other things that I can't think of right now. Anyway, there are some people that just plain aren't eligible for LASIK. I was worried that for some reason I wouldn't be a candidate, but he told me that my eyes looked great and he even told me I was a 10!!! GREAT NEWS! Jeremy had no idea he was married to a 10, so it was great news for him too!

I scheduled my surgery for the following Monday.

I really can't believe how quickly my eyes have gone from horrible, to perfect. When I went in on Monday, I was given all the final instructions and they gave me a Valium to keep me calm while in the laser room. All the lasers are kept in the same room and the walls are glass, so Jeremy was able to sit outside and watch the whole thing. They even made a DVD of the surgery for us. Anyway . . . I'm getting off track . . . I met Dr. Hoopes - he is the one who performed my actual surgery - and he answered any last minute questions I had. I was mostly quite eager to get on with it after waiting so long. Then I had to put a little hair cover on and cover my feet. We walked over to the laser room where an assistant put in numbing eyedrops and an antibiotic eyedrop. Then in I went!

For the first part of the surgery the Dr. used a laser to create a flap on my eye. They create a little flap and put in air bubbles so that they can raise the flap later and it will be seamless. They put a little suction thing on my eyeball and my vision faded out to black for 45 seconds or so. Then they used the laser to cut the flap and insert the air bubbles. Then same thing for the other eye. After that was done (total of about 5 minutes) I got up and the assistant led me outside the laser room to a massage chair. I sat in the massage chair for about 10 minutes while all the little air bubbles merged together to form one big air bubble in my eye under the flap.

After about 10 minutes, she came and got me out of the chair and led me back into the laser room. I laid down under a 2nd laser, the one that corrects your vision, the Dr. secured my eyelids back, lifted the flap they created, and let the laser run over my eye to correct my vision. That part lasted less than 10 seconds! The weird part is that it had a burn smell. But I didn't feel anything, just a little pressure. Then after that 10 seconds, the Dr. closed the flap on my eye, smoothed it out, put oxygen on it to help seal it, and put in eyedrops. Next he did the same thing on my other eye. And I was done!

It's crazy how quick the entire procedure was! When Dr. Hoopes finished the whole procedure, he told me, "Congratulations! Now you have new eyes!", then he turned around and gave Jeremy the thumbs up. When he came out of the room, he told Jeremy that it all went perfectly.

The Dr and all the assistants were so helpful at Hoopes Vision and talked me through the whole process so well that it really wasn't even scary. I thought it would be worse. I would highly recommend it based on my experience. For the rest of the day Monday I pretty much just kept my eyes closed and used a ton of eyedrops. By Tuesday morning my eyes were a little bit hazy still, but I could see perfectly. When I went into my day-after appointment Tuesday to have my eyes checked, I was told that I'm now free to go about my normal activities and that my vision is 20/20 now and will only get better. I have to use a lot of artificial tears to keep my eyes moist and put in antibiotic eyedrops and anti-inflammatory eyedrops every 4 hours for the next week. I also can't swim for 2 weeks. Everything else is fine. Oh, and I get to sleep with these cool goggles on my eyes for this week so I don't rub my eyes.

I'm so happy with my results. Again I'll say, it is absolutely amazing that in such a short period of time I can have my eyes back! This has been an odd week and a half getting ready for and having the eye surgery, but definitely worth it.