EPT
I had bad eyes. I didnt think they were 'that' bad. But apparently they were. Solution: Eye surgery. It's a fairly common procedure nowadays, most people know someone who's had it so I wasnt worried about getting it done... but first; lets do some learning.
Now, there are two types of eye surgery. Theres the PRK method(no i dont know what it stands for) and the lasik method(i guess they named their company after this type). Before the actual surgery you go in for an evaluation to determine which type of surgery you qualify for. It basically depends on how thick your cornea is. (As I understand it)In the lasik method they, from the side of the eye, cut into the cornea over your pupil creating a flap and, when said flap is pulled back, the pupil is exposed. During surgery they will fold this flap back, fire the laser into the eye, then fold the flap back. This helps massively with the healing process as there is only a small amount of cornea that needs to be healed and the pain is only slight. Naturally I didnt qualify for that method, my cornea's are too thin, so I had to get PRK, where they just shoot the laser into your eye and say 'lol, hf'.
So, they do surgeries in the morning and recommend that you go home and sleep afterwards, clever me stayed up late and only got a few hour sleep so I could do just that. When I got there I was given a relaxing pill which didnt do anything for me, although I expect I have a rather high tolerance to pain killers from my previous experiences. There were about 5 other people in the waiting room, all getting the PRK surgery. As I waited I could clearly hear the laser buzzing in the operating room, and I knew that someone was getting their eyes lasered, and I was next...it was disconcerting. My name got called and I went anxiously into the OR. The surgeon seemed like a nice enough guy. He put numbing drops in my eyes so I would hardly feel anything, then laid me down on this cool table that had tons of equipment at the top; the laser, naturally.
Let me just say right now, I'm sensitive about my eyes, its one of those parts of your body that you never want to lose/have damaged. I have never worn contacts and I rarely, rarely put drops in my eyes because, I simply hate it, nothing should touch or go in my eyes; nothing at all. I knew this whole operation would be a bit of a challenge for me, but hell, if soccer moms can do it, why cant I? That was my mentality as the surgeon showed me this funny little tool that looked a bit like tiny pliers, except they had little metal pieces that would sort of cup my eyeball. Literally, cup my eyeball. He would slide those little metal extensions around my eyeball and then lock the tiny pliers open, preventing me from blinking. At least I thinks that how they worked, I wasnt really listening, I was doing my best to escape within myself, find the calmness within, and crap like that. He taped my other eye closed then clamped my left eye open and I involuntarily staring up, at a little red light that I would have to stare at during the lasering; I was set to get it over with. I was, but he wasnt, there was more perverse torture to put me through; he had to polish my eye. Lol wat?? Yea. He told me to keep staring at that little red light while he turned around to grab the 'polisher'. I didnt get a good look at it, but I swear to you, it was an electric toothbrush. I am 99% sure, it was just a stupid electric toothbrush, and he used it to polish my eyeball!Uuuhgg. He rubbed that crappy $5 toothbrush all over my eye and I couldnt even blink; he kept having to stop because apparently I was rolling my eye back and not looking at the little red light, but how am I supposed to see it when you have your convenience store toothbrush blocking my eye?! Happily they gave me two stress balls, so I was squeezing the shit out of those. Finally, after some liquid was put on my eye via what looked like a q-tip, I was ready for the laser; all I had to do was look at that red light and everything would be great. It wasnt difficult to do, after that toothbrush torture the laser was a pleasant stinging relief. So I stare at that red light, I hear a switch flipped, then the unmistakable sound of the laser, and then, I inhale...through my nose...and I smell something. It takes a second to process but it can only be one thing; I am smelling my eye burning, my cornea is being melted away by the laser, and I can smell it. I can only liken the smell to burning hair, or when you get a cavity filled and they drill into your tooth and you can sorta smell it; its one of those fundamentally repulsive and wrong smells. At that point I was distracted by the fact that the little red light was getting extremely blurry. It seemed to be getting bigger too. Over the next couple seconds that little red dot got fuzzier and fuzzier, and it grew and grew until it covered half my vision, I wasnt sure I was still looking where I should be, I was looking at the red light yes, but how could I not; it was massive. Next second the laser snapped off, the surgeon applied something to my eye and my vision was immediately back to normal and that little red light was its normal size, as it had always been. A special contact was put on my eye to protect it during the healing, the tiny pliers were removed and I blinked mercifully a few times before that eye was taped closed and then I went through the whole experience again, with my right eye...uuhhgg. The whole thing took less that 10 minutes and afterwards I was given some drops and painkillers.
My mom drove me home and I tell you, I was feelin great. They said all sorts of things about pain and blurred vision for a period of time, but I was fine; my vision wasnt perfect by any means, but there was already improvement, and I felt no pain. Of course that didnt last; the numbing drops were responsible for my lack of pain, and about an hour after the surgery I couldnt open my eyes for more than a second or two, and when I did they would immediately fill with and abundance of tears, so I couldnt see anyway, and there was pain. I wouldnt say there was alot of pain, but... the way I would describe it is; slight to moderate pain, but extreme, extreme irritation. For the first 24 hours I literally couldnt open my eyes, sleep was out of the question until exhaustion set in, I could only listen to things going on around me, and I had to put stupid drops in my eyes four times a day, and I could not, under and circumstances, rub my eyes. One of the drops they had given me was an antibiotic, which of course stung, and made my eyes tear, which made my nose run, quite annoying. Eating was also quite difficult, I couldnt see any of the food I was trying to spear with my fork so I gave up and ate things I could blindly scoop; soup mostly.
After a terrible night I went back for my 24hour evaluation, where they told me everything was looking good and I was on track. At this point I could function by blinking, but I was still in extreme discomfort and generally frustrated at the world. There was nothing to do. I listened to the tv, which sucked, listened to the radio, which sucked more, and listened to whatever my brother was doing on the computer, which also sucked. I was on Tylenol 3 which helped mitigate the pain a bit, but never seemed to do enough for my liking. Oh and they gave me a pair of sunglasses that I had to wear in bed, to stop myself from rubbing my eyes in my sleep....they were terrible. After 3 days of wearing them almost constantly(I was, and still am, extremely light sensitive) they began to pinch my head and I was getting headaches, the stupid drops were irritating my eyes terribly, I wasnt allowed to rub or in any way touch my eyes and my lack or proper sleep and constant discomfort was destroying me. I still couldnt watch tv, read, or use the computer... I was nearing the end of my rope.
But, as they say, time heals all wounds. On the 5th day I was off the drops and pain killers, I could even use the computer for brief periods; although I really couldnt read anything without my eyes tearing up, which was a problem. Over the next few days there was great improvement and now, uh...11days?(ish) after surgery my only problem is being fairly light sensitive. My vision has improved, not dramatically, but there is a noticeable improvement with more improvement yet to come(dont have to wear glasses while driving!yay!). I've gone through a years worth of kleenex since surgery what with my eyes tearing up, and that somehow spontaneously causes my nose to run...annoying.
I guess in summary I would say it was worth it...or at least, it will be worth it over the years. If you do it, and you have to get the PRK, just be prepared for about 2 days of blind hell, then slow but steady improvement, I've heard that the lasik procedure is much less painful and recovery is much quicker, but who wants that anyway? Real men get PRK.
but I'm sure glad its over.
I did have to wear glasses to drive which was annoying, but didnt find much trouble recognizing faces.
