My LASIK experience

This would be me in the 4th grade sporting my first ever pair of glasses, which oddly enough, I thought were the coolest thing ever. There is so much greatness in this picture I don't think I can begin to address it all, so we'll just focus on the glasses for now. Is it a problem that they covered well over half of my cheeks? Needless to say, glasses have been a part of my life for as long as I can remember. I started wearing contacts in middle school, which was life changing for sure! But I never could really see perfectly with contacts as I had strange vision.

So naturally, I've dreamed of the day when I could get LASIK. And it just so happens, that day came a couple of weeks ago! I had it done on June 21st and to say it was a life changing experience is an understatement. I did have to go without contacts for 2 weeks prior to the surgery, so that was a bit inconvenient. Have you ever tried floating in a lazy river with glasses? I can only imagine how cool I looked. And of course MB was obsessed with ripping them off my face. My glasses also give (gave!!) me horrible headaches, so it was a long 2 weeks. As Patrick would remind me though...just suck it up and keep your eye on the prize! :)

The morning of the procedure I started to get a little nervous. (I may or may not have studied Manny & Maeva's faces closer than ever before in the off chance that I was the first person to go blind from LASIK. I've never claimed to be normal.) But luckily everything happened so quickly that I wasn't able to get myself too worked up and it was just fine. :) I was there for 3 hours total I think, though the actual procedure took maybe 10 minutes. I thought it would be weird that I was awake through the process, but it wasn't at all, and was actually kind of cool. They had a lady talking me through everything and explaining what was happening and how much longer it would happen for. It really didn't hurt at all. There was one part that was a little uncomfortable, but only for a few seconds and it wasn't even my eye that it hurt, but some pressure on my face from the equipment I guess. But again, it wasn't bad at all. I was so pleasantly surprised!

Before I knew it, the whole thing was over and I was on my way home to rest, as they tell you to go home and sleep immediately thereafter. I was flipping through my phone the next day and saw that Patrick was kind enough to document my recovery for me. :) I really don't remember the picture on the left (and the fact that I'm posting these on the interwebs confirms the fact that I have no shame). We had just gotten home and I was doing my eyedrops before I could go to sleep. I had 3 different drops I had to use, but had to wait 10 minutes in between each one. So I was pretty out of it here, and Patrick said I was telling some really random stories. I always have interesting reactions to meds. :) Oh and I had to sleep in goggles for the next 4 nights, but the sunglasses were only required the first 24 hours. Thankfully, since I looked like The Terminator in them.

My recovery was amazingly easy. I would describe my immediate vision as seeming like I was wearing old contacts. I could see really good when I woke up that afternoon, and even better the next morning. When I went for my follow-up that day, I tested as having 20/16 vision! Absolutely mind boggling to me. Do you ever just become amazed at science? How brilliant do you have to be to invent this kind of stuff?! It really is something else. Just a random deep thought for the day.

Truth be told, the hardest part of my recovery was probably the fact that I couldn't wear eye make-up for A WEEK. And yes, I'm vain enough that this means I wore my sunglasses the majority of the time I was in public, even inside. I took this picture while waiting in the Wal-Mart checkout line one day. As if the people around me didn't already think I was crazy for wearing my sunglasses inside, I went ahead and confirmed that by taking a selfie (posing like a boss, might I add) while I was waiting. It's hard being so cool.

And of course Manny had a gazillion questions about all of this. I had to put eyedrops in every 4 hours for a week, and one day I went into his room to see him with his head tilted back and holding his sippy cup over his eyes. I said, "Manny, what are you doing?" And he said, "I do my eyedrops just like mama." I think my favorite though was the morning he was crying for his goggles "so Manny can sleep just like mama'. Only my child would think of this first thing in the morning.

So yes. It still doesn't seem like I can actually "see". I find myself at night starting to take my contacts out...it's so weird. The only thing I would say is my night vision can be a little sketchy, only noticeable really when I'm driving. My vision isn't bad necessarily, but definitely not as strong as during the day. I've heard this can be an issue. For my fellow LASIK people, did this get better for you with time? I'm about 2 weeks out right now. Would love to hear other's experiences as well!

So that's pretty much it in a nutshell. I know I'm not the first person to have LASIK and it's not a huge deal, but I've gotten a ton of questions about it so I said I would blog my experience. I really didn't know what to expect so maybe some of this info will be useful to someone considering LASIK. Or if not and you've made it this far? Congratulations for putting up with my ramblings. ;)