Changing focus from Toni to Bryan just for one blog.

Since Toni is off for two weeks enjoying a break from radiation and chemo (and healing very well may we add), what lies ahead is the update on Bryan's LASIK surgery.

Let me set the stage.   47 years old.   Glasses since 11 (probably needed them at 5).  I did wear hard contacts for a while, but tired of the stick your finger in your eye routine... or trying to find the things.   Finally graduated to progressive bi-focals about 1.5 years ago.   Now... before I switched to progressive lenses, my corrected vision was awesome. 20/15 in both eyes.   I could see a fly a mile away and tell you which way he was looking to go.   Progressives took some of that precision away.   Now I had to look pin-point directly at what I want to see.  However, it was a fish bowl effect.   If you turn your head, the world bends a bit with you. But it was one stop shopping (I could get most of my world into focus just cortorting my head and eyes).  

There is one other advantage to staying with glasses.   I was nearsighted.   If I lifted off the glasses, I could still see fairly close up.  I could not see the dashboard of the car.   But I could hold something within 12 to 14 inches in front of me and see things clear as a bell.   Like the back of a camera, or reading the shampoo bottle, or pills, or ok... you get the idea.

LASIK changed that.  LASIK in a nut shell: Options chosen by me... $3400 total tab.

1. Mechanical flap (the risk is if there is any interuption in the process you have to wait to heal then come back (up to 3 months) or Intralase (the laser... for lack of a better term "cuts a flap that is mostly bubbles).   Intralase can be restarted immediately should an interuption in the process take place.  I did Intralase.
2. Standard or Wavefront.  I did Wavefront. The computer is more involved in mapping the eye into finer sections and is more resilient to the different shapes of the eye.   In theory, a better chance of hitting 20/20.   I did Wavefront.
3. About 30 minutes before the procedure you get a sedative (valium).  Lorazapam I think.  Now I barely felt the effects.   Others going through the procedure were either slightly loopy or rather sedate.   The idea is... you need to be really tired when done.   They want the eyes closed (sleeping is good) for  the first 6 hours or so after the surgery.
4. Surgery was mostly "pain free." I can tell you that if you are claustrophobic... it can get a bit dicey.   There a couple of times (when inserting the suction cups onto your eye) that there is a bit of pressure but not "painful."  I could tell when the flap was cut and when the doctor was "cleaning the eye" after the procedure.   When the process is going on... your basically looking at a red light in the center of a white circle.   What was interesting, and what really helped, was a technician or surgical nurse that coached me as the process took place.   She calmly asked me to relax or gave me a countdown as the processes took place.   But all done in what seemed about 10 minutes.   This particular surgical team was kinda yacking it up and joking with each other, but serious in their efforts.  
5. The surgery started at 11:30 or so.  When I walked out... all was foggy.  I could see ok... but the foggy thing is something that took me back a bit.   I really noticed, my close up vision was changed. My first 6 hours were sort of uneasy.   I did get to sleep off and on... but had quite a bit of discomfort (like I had something in both eyes).   I added more eye drops and took some tylenol.  That seemed to help.   By late evening, the discomfort was pretty much gone.
6. Now I am on day "two."   Saturday's visit to the doctor was mixed.   I have a bit more healing to go than average.   Some of this results from when the doctor flushes out the eye.  I am close to 20/20.   And I am "supposed" to get sharper as things heal.  Yet, I am quite fuzzy.   Like looking in a light fog. This was explained by the doctor as resulting from saline and fluid under the flap.   So think "scab." Now that is a bit extreme, but you get the idea.  When that fluid dissapates with time and the flap heals... the fog should minimize.   I hope so.   I am finding I need a lot more light to be able to see detail.  When it is dark... it is hard to see.  And the drops I am using also enhance that "foggy" state.   Just more fluid pile onto the fluid under the flap, and there you go... light refracting everywhere but where it needs to go.  Doctor says... "you need to give it two months."
7. What has changed?!  Weeellll... alot.  Remember I said I could flip off the glasses and see up close.  Now,  I can't see anything closer (in clear detail) within 30 inches (about my arm length). NOTE: Your focal point has changed to "infinite" like a camera.  Close up is gone (unless you are the younger crowd).  Now reading glasses are mandatory equipment.  Like to see the keyboard I am using... although I can see the monitor just fine from 30+ inches away.  I selected 1.50 diopter glasses at Walgreens, (cheap), until I am two months into healing, and then I will see what I can get to fine tune my near vision.   I can now see the dashboard of the car.  So I think driving will be ok.  Thank heavens for hands free phone dialing if I need to make a call.   (I don't like doing that anyway). So to summarize... I had 3 pair of glasses.   Regular progressives, work safety progressive glasses, and prescription sunglasses.  All in all...frames yada yada... about a $1200.   I have broken two sets of glasses over the last year (they are really cool sounding when you accidentally dropped them or fling them), and then you can't see to find them.  So add on another $500.  The work glasses were horrible.  I was getting headaches because the work glasses had to come from another company (midwest somewhere) and were not a good match to my personal glasses.  I won't be buying $500 work glasses anymore. Yet, my driving sunglasses were super... but no bifocal lense.. so I could not see anything up close anyway, unless I took them off... and then the sun would burn my retinas, and then I was still unable to see.  So... no more $500+ sunglasses. Thus, I will now have regular sunglasses. Which, once I get all tuned in... I will look at obtaining a good pair possibly like the type I wore skiing (which enhances shadowy areas). Then I will still need work safety glasses with a reading lense, but cheap (typically provided for by my company free o' charge) compared to my other glasses, and then reading glasses. And if they fall off, I will most likely be able to find all of them.

There you go... So, Bryan, was it worth it?   I tell you in two months.  I am concerned about the fogginess I am experiencing.   I am also not thrilled with being "around" 20/20, when I was spot on 20/15.  I loved to be able to see things from long distances.  Having to have reading glasses is something I will get used to.    I do like the freedom of wandering around without having to reach for glasses., for instance watching TV or looking out a window, or walking in the rain (talk about foggy... how about rain droppy).  And of course in Seattle... that is 60% of the time.  I was 20/400... and it is a big difference.  At 47, I know I need to resign myself to looking like Barney Miller, Ben Franklin, James Kirk, and my dad.  All with wonderful far vision that could not see the book in front of them.   What I hope to gain, is a different perspective on the world (I am lucky enough to see) from a mountain top, or across a valley, or out towards the ocean.   I always saw things from behind a lense.  It was always skewed in some way.  Selfishly, I would like to look at it differently.  Next up... a camera that captures what I now hope to be able to see in a couple of months.