Laser Vision (Post-Op) (updated)

Post-Op

The drive home was fine except I was super tense and trying not to cry. I wasn’t upset at anything but the whole experience was very stressful. I’m not sure if I needed more Valium or needed to wait longer for it to kick in. The multiple attempts on my left eye weren’t confidence inspiring even though I knew we were losing suction before anything critical was taking place.

Aly drove me home while I tried to maintain my composure. Once home, we put some drops in my eyes and put my sleeping goggles on to keep me from rubbing my eyes. She tucked me in nicely, turned out the lights and left me to sleep for the next several hours. The advice from the doctor was to sleep for 4-6 hours after surgery to give my eyes time to start healing. If I did that, I may skip most of the sandy, scratchy feeling that people get post-op.

Aly wakes me up several hours later to put antibiotic and steroid drops in my eyes. We discuss dinner plans and decide that I’ll be ready to eat in a couple more hours.

I wake up again and glance at the alarm clock across the room. And I can read it. I’ve been able to read since leaving the surgery suite but I can tell it’s getting clearer each time I try. After getting up for dinner, Aly tells me how my eyes looks and we decide to take some photos. The “bruising” is from the suction device and my left eye looks worse than my right since it had to go through the process several times. Nothing quite like a hickey on your eyeball.

Aly doesn’t have a problem looking at the blood spots and bruising on my eyes. She’s fine taking the iPhone photos, but they aren’t great and we decide to switch to a macro setup with the DSLR.  That goes well, until she realizes that a line she can see in one of the macro shots is probably the edge of the flap. For some reason, this is worse, and she gets woozy and has to lie down. Afterwards, she declares that she isn’t cut out to be a crime scene or medical photographer.

I sleep fine that night and the next day all is well. I see halos around bright lights, think of a streetlight in the fog. This will fade over time. My right eye is slightly scratchy though the doctor says, at my 1-day post-op checkup, that is normal and I’m feeling one of those blood spots.

All’s well so far. The doctor says my flap looks great and I’m where I should be at in the healing process. Each eye tested out at 20/20 individually and 20/15 combined. Hopefully that stays right there.

UPDATE: Three months out and I’m 20/15 in one eye, 20/20+ in the other (means I can read a few letters on the 20/15 line) and my eyes are 20/15 combined. The only halos I still see are small ones on reflective stuff when driving at night and that is expected to continue to fade. No stars. No astigmatism. No dry eyes. Overall I’m pleased with the outcome.