6:33 p.m. - Saturday, Nov. 01, 2003
The Laser--Miracle Worker
I'm back! Didja miss me?
The surgery went exceptionally well and now I have 20/25 vision in my left eye which is nearly perfect with 20/20 being perfect. The right one will be done on November 11. I was so scared the day before the surgery. You know how one gets notions of death in the operatin' room? Well, I had 'em big time. I was nearly into a full-blown panic attack the day of the surgery by the time I got to the surgical center. But it was all for nothing for the surgery wasn't that bad. I know...I'm just a big baby. I had been told to wear a button up blouse since they would need to monitor my heartbeat, etc. durin' the surgery. There would be no hospital gown for I would wear what I came in.
At first in preparation for the surgery, I was taken into a room with recliners (I kid you not) and once I sat back in one of those comfy chairs I was able to relax a bit, but not much. Then the nurse began doin' things like takin' my blood pressure. insertin' an intravenous line into a vein on top of my right hand, and puttin' various drops into my left eye. One of the drops was to deaden my eye with and after I had that, I couldn't even feel the other drops goin' in which was kind of cool. My blood pressure was a little high, but that was probably because of my anxiety. I had a slight fever, a little over 100 degrees but that too was probably from the fear of the unknown.
There were other patients there who were also in recliners who had bandages over one eye. They had received their surgery that mornin'. They were talkin' and jokin' and seemed to have enjoyed themselves.
Even though I had been told to be at the surgical center at 12:35pm, it was actually about 1:30pm before the surgery was begun.
Finally, they put me into a wheelchair and took me to the actual operatin' room. The real thing with the big light overhead and the table which was actually more like what one finds on a ambulance stretcher or that's what it reminded me of. The doctors and nurses were all in standard garb with the facial masks. Kind of spooked me a bit at first. Once on the table with my head positioned on a special tray lookin' apparatus, the nurse began an IV drip, the calmative. She covered me with a sheet and somehow tucked it around my arms so that I couldn't move them. Something was placed over my face, a cloth of some kind, with a hole over the left eye the only openin'. Then the doctor administered three shots to further deaden around my eye. I could feel the pricks but they weren't too bad.
The doctor spoke and told me to look straight up and not move my head or eye, which I did. Then I heard him turn the laser on. It made a humming sound, a low buzz. A red light appeared hovering over my eye. I could feel the laser working. It was cutting into my eye, and it was uncomfortable but not unbearable. There was no real pain to speak of. Just discomfort at times from the pressure. It seemed more scary and annoyin' to me than anything else. The doctor had put some kind of scope over my eye to hold it open so that I couldn't blink if I had wanted to, but I didn't even feel the urge to blink.
In only moments I heard the doctor say that he was removin' the first half of the cataract. I saw some kind of movement and something dark being taken out but it was so quick that I barely had time to study it. Then in a moment he expalined that he was removing the other half. Don't ask me why it was done in halves for I have no idea. Lastly I heard the doctor say that he was insertin' the lens. A contact lens of some kind is inserted followin' the surgery which restores the eyesight nearly to perfect. Then the doctor announced that the procedure was complete and perfect and that I had been a "very good patient".
A nurse put a bandage over my left eye and they helped me to sit up and return to the wheelchair. The surgery had indeed taken less than 15 minutes.
I was returned to the waiting area and sat once again in a recliner. A nurse continued to monitor me as the anesthetic wore off. They gave me a can of cold drink and some crackers with cheese to nibble since I had been instructed not to eat anything that morning.. After resting a short while they gave me instructions in regard to my return visit the next moring when the bandage would be removed. My sister drove me to my mother's home where I stayed the night.
The next morning my sister took me back to see the doctor. A nurse removed the bandage and I was stunned. Everything was ao bright and lovely. I hadn't seen clearly for a couple of years since the cataract was first noticed when I had an eye check up. It had gradually worsened until finally I could barely make out the first and largest E on the eye chart. The nurse had me cover the right eye and I could read the next to the last line on the eye chart. Amazing!!! Nearly perfect vision. The doctor came to check me and explained how to care for the eye over the next couple of weeks while it finished healing from the surgery and an appointment was set up to have the right eye surgery done in three weeks.
I left the doctor's office without sunglasses or bandage, less than twenty-four hours after laser surgery. The light didn't hurt my eyes. In fact, I rode home with the right eye closed taking in the ability to read signs I hadn't seen in a long time. The scenery was like a coloring book to me. The colors were so beautiful. I am stunned at the thought of how amazing laser surgery is.
Now I am putting eye drops in every two hours while I'm awake and sleeping with a patch over the left eye for one week. Then I will begin drops in the right eye in preparation for the surgery to be done on it.
I highly recommend laser surgery to anyone who can have it to correct their vision. It's the best thing I've ever experienced in my life. To be nearly blind one day and then to have nearly perfect eyesight the next is truly a miracle.
