Went in for my consultation for wavefront PRK surgery this morning, and I'm approved and highly eligible (how often do I hear that?). Surgery date is the 21st, but I need to go in this Friday to have a 30-minute map of my eye done. I called for a dentist appointment today, and someone had just canceled so I'm going in tomorrow morning at 8:30.
Now I just need to get my travel vaccines done (yay for OHIP coverage) and try to find the number for the specialist I'm supposed to see so I can reschedule that, and I'm rockin'. Hooray for things working out regardless of not having had a plan in place!
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4 comments:
Uhm.... I am reminded of a scene in Minority Report where John Anderton goes for eye surgery...
Pat: no matter what you do... DON'T EAT ANYTHING FROM THE FRIDGE in the recovery room!!!!
(OK, before Pat goes on a rant on movie adaptations: I admit... I never read that Philip K. Dick novel. But it's on my list... I expect it to be far better than the movie. Although that's one movie adaptation I actually liked).
It's only a short story, so it should be a quickie. If I remember correctly, Minority Report is only 3 pages long.
Yeah, all is going well on this end, Pascal. The doctor actually said people could come and watch me get my eyes blasted. I thought that was cool. :)
I've got all my appointments done now. My teeth cleaning thing is tomorrow afternoon, my eye mapping is on Friday with surgery next Friday. Just need to get my vaccines and try to reschedule with a specialist. I'm hoping I can get all that done for mid-July. If I can't reschedule the specialist, it will have to be next year since I'm not sticking around.
so what exactly will they be doing to your eyes?
I'm so excited for you! And excited to see you! Your email made my day after a really shitty work week.
Well... here's the breakdown: I go in, they give me valium. I sit down at the operating table (which looks more like a super high-tech horizontal version of Ludovico's Technique), they give me freezing drops and keep my eyes pried open. Then they use a mini-scrub thingy and wipe the epithelial layer of cells from my corneas.
Then the laser surgery itself takes approx 60 seconds, the laser programmed and being focused specifically on areas of my cornea based on eye imaging/mapping done last Friday. After an eye is done, they use a tiny spatula to place a non-prescription contact lens on each eye to protect it while the epithelial is regrowing.
Then I head out with two things of drops. Check-ups every 24 hours, with the contact lenses being removed on the 3rd or 4th day, recovery stage pending. First 3 days or so feels like "cutting onions" burn in my eyes, so I would use the lubricant drops as frequently as needed, with steroid drops twice daily.
Vision will continue to gain acuity over weeks and even months, consistently getting better and better. (full vision returns within 4-7 days, patient recuperation rate pending, but the eyes continue to get better than 20/20 in most cases)
It's pretty cool. :)
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