Here's my record of the event:
May 31: Appointment #1. Had just worn contacts and the Dr. told me it would be at least 2 weeks before I could proceed. Looked at my travel schedule and realized nothing would happen until July (boohoo). However, I was pleased with the level of preop that they did, contour mapping my eye and doing a full eye exam. Their results matched my current prescription, which made me feel better.
July 2: Went back to the hospital for another preop. They contour mapped my eye again and double checked my prescription. Feeling a lot better now about the thoroughness of everything. Measure twice, cut once as they say.
July 6 (Surgery Day): Went in and paid 7,162 RMB (about $1,150), which covered the surgery and prescription for the medicines post-op. Went into the office and got checked again for the third time, whew! So at this point I was pretty relaxed. In general I am a bit squeamish about eyes. I have no problem eating them, but if I see someone messing with their eyes, mine will immediately tear up. But for now, no issues. Went into the surgery prep. I was first in line, which I thought was good as things would be cleaner, maybe? They dressed me in a slightly stained hospital gown (OK, that’s not good) and then shoved a needle in my tear ducts and flushed out my eyes. Didn’t hurt, but pretty uncomfortable. They stuck a hair net on me and off I went into the surgery room. One thing I should add is that as I was passed from person to person, they kept asking my name. I was hoping that was to ensure that they had the right eyeball loaded in the machine and not just to hear my funny accent. Again, I felt better. So, I slide under the machine and the Dr. (a different one at this point) tells me to look up. He then clamps down my eyelids. Now this was very uncomfortable. I’m not sure if it was because my eyes are shaped differently than what the tool was designed for (hey, it’s true that my eyes are shaped different than about 13 million people in town, don't judge me – also, my eyes are pretty deep set anyway), or if that’s just the way it is. Regardless, there was some serious pressure on my eye sockets. Next was the cutting of the corneal flap, which freaked me right out. I was screaming like a little girl inside (again, don't judge) and seriously considered just bagging the whole thing. I’m not a panicky guy, but whoa that was freaky (I just shivered as I wrote this and I recall thinking that they needed handles on the surgery table to grab on to). It didn’t hurt, but major mind games were going on at this point. I finally “manned up” when I realized that now that the cutting was done, so I’d have to recover from that anyway! The laser itself took about 5 seconds per eye, maybe less. There was some burning smell and a definite feeling of eye burning, but no worse than mild irritation. They put the flap back in place and wiped it with what looked like a surgical Q-tip. Again, very weird. I walked out of the surgery and opened my eyes. A friend described it as looking like your eyes were packed with Vaseline. I agree, there was cloudiness there but also I could tell that I could see! The Dr. had a look at my eyes and declared that things went well. He taped clear covers on my eyes to keep me from rubbing them and told me to go home and rest. The next three hours were the most physically uncomfortable part of the whole procedure. It felt like someone threw sand in my eyes; tears were streaming down my face as my body tried to flush out the irritation. There was no escaping the feeling; and feeling as though the weekend was going to be extraordinarily tough and full of pain, finally I fell asleep for a few hours. I woke up and opened my eyes. I think it was several tablespoons of tear gushed out, dripping off my chin. I haven’t cried so much since “Dead Poets Society” or “Mr. Holland’s Opus”. Overall though, I felt great. I could see and there was a feeling of something in my eye (mild though) and also like I had been poked in the eyes, from the clamp and the flushing. I called Rebecca and over the course of the call, the sun set. Immediately I felt like a totally different person without the light. Feeling good, I made a few phone calls for work and then got a solid nights sleep.
July 7: I can see!!! Man, what a great feeling after 22 years of glasses and contacts. I still had on the eye covers, so I went in first thing to the Dr. He pronounced everything to be fine. With the left eye I read the second to the bottom line of the eye chart (and could tell which general direction the bottom line on the “E” chart was facing – up/down, or right/left). With the right eye I read the third from the bottom, but I could tell that same cloudiness was still there, so I’m hopeful healing will bring better results. From what I can tell, my left eye was 20/10 and right eye was either 20/25 or 20/20. Not bad! Went on a road trip with a friend and had a big steak, potato and blue cheese dressing (not really a salad, for sure) dinner with two great friends. I also watched a movie and had a beer or two (not recommended by the Dr., but what does he know?).
July 8: Had severe sensitivity to light. Cursing myself for watching TV and having beer, I went to church and feeling like an idiot (or a club hopping college student), wearing sunglasses in the sanctuary. I had to take them off when the service started, it’s just not right (realized how I would judge others and thus judged myself – mind games!!!). Thankfully I knew the words to the praise music, so I could close them while we sang. We have blue LED lights running up the main aisles and those were killing me. Had a very difficult time concentrating and looking up during the sermon. This was annoying as the message is always great, refreshing, challenging, etc. Anyway, spent the rest of the day trying to avoid the sun. Felt good that I was working on losing the tan I got in Mongolia, pale is better here. Oh, one other side note is that you can’t bath or shower for three days after the surgery. Now, this would normally be a big problem for me, but thankfully my mother has some French on her side of the family so I figured I could cope. Kidding! Sponge baths would have to do, although it’s tough to get the feet as pristine as I like them. At lunch with a friend, I discovered a way to do two things: close the eyes for 90 minutes AND get the feet super clean. That’s right, foot massage!!! After that, waited until the sun set and went for a walk. The street lights were putting off this weird soft glow, like it was foggy out or I was wearing starburst camera lenses.
July 9: Still have the sensitivity to natural light. Wore sunglasses at work. Also, I’m not sure if the overcast / smoggy day is hurting or helping. It’s almost like snow blindness, where everything is brighter. Weird.
July 10: Major relief from the light sensitivity. I’m not sure if this is because I got some really good rest or not. Also, there are periods where my eyes don’t feel like they’re working well together. Each eye is OK, but together they sometimes have a hard time focusing. Kind of like trying to look at one of those Magic Eye picture deals where you have to take your eyes in and out of focus to see it. Decided to play ping pong to test it out, with good results.
July 11: Same as yesterday, almost exactly.
Skip ahead to today, August 23:
Things still get weird in low light situations and when my eyes are tired they still don't work together in focus as well as I wished. However, overall it's a very minor inconvenience. My left eye is still an eagle eye and my right is just slightly behind it. I still can't read anything less than 4 inches from my nose. Overall, I'm VERY happy with it, although I'm am still freaked out by the memory of the surgery and teared right up as I went back through proofreading the above journal.
July 11: Same as yesterday, almost exactly.
Skip ahead to today, August 23:
Things still get weird in low light situations and when my eyes are tired they still don't work together in focus as well as I wished. However, overall it's a very minor inconvenience. My left eye is still an eagle eye and my right is just slightly behind it. I still can't read anything less than 4 inches from my nose. Overall, I'm VERY happy with it, although I'm am still freaked out by the memory of the surgery and teared right up as I went back through proofreading the above journal.
