New Eyes

Well, I kind of forgot to post about this, and I’ve got a couple more recent posts to add, so I’m going to try to make this quick.

Right after Easton was born, we decided to go ahead and try for me to get LASIK. I had gone through a fiasco trying to get contacts and they were $360. I was tired of having to pay that, and had never really found a prescription that worked right for me, so a lot of times I could hardly see. I went and did a consultation at Southwestern Eye Center. They freaked out because I had just had a baby (less than week before), and saying I couldn’t do anything because my prescription would change, blah, blah, blah. All I wanted to know was whether or not I could even qualify for LASIK and how much it would cost so that we could set aside the right amount for our FSA. They finally consented, told me I did qualify, but I would have to get traditional LASIK because of my prescription (which was fine because it was cheaper anyway). So we set aside the FSA amount for 2012 and had to wait until I was done nursing Easton.

Fast forward to about August, and I go back for my next consultation with Southwestern Eye. This time they tell me they would have to talk to the surgeon before giving me a final answer. Well someone calls me back and says yes, I can still do traditional LASIK, but because I have thin corneas and such a strong prescription, that if it didn’t work the first time, they may not be able to do an enhancement. Well, that seems a little pointless (and risky) to me. She suggests maybe PRK instead, but that the healing time is longer. I was pretty confused because I felt like I was getting a totally different answer than before. So I decided to get a second opinion from Barnet Dulaney Perkins Eye Center. They tell me right away that although I could do the traditional LASIK, that implantable contact lenses are going to be a much better option for me. I asked about the PRK since that was what the other place suggested, and they tell me “No, bad idea in your case.” So basically what BDP tells me is that I would do implantable contact lenses to correct for the nearsightedness, then most likely I would need LASIK on top of that to correct the astigmatism. It wouldn’t be so risky doing it this way because they wouldn’t have to cut down as much of the cornea because the prescription would be a lot less at that point. I’m feeling a whole lot better about this plan, though not excited about dragging it on. But then they tell me the price, and it is over twice as much as LASIK alone. I ask if there is some sort of discount, and they cut off $1000. Still double what we had set aside. I temporarily set up a surgery time.

So then we have to make a big decision: we either lose what we set aside in the FSA, or we just fork up the extra money and be done with this once and for all. Since there was no way to get the FSA money back, we decided to go forward with it, though had I known from the beginning that it was going to cost that much, we never would have done it.

Over the next week and a half I met the surgeon and had a bunch of testing done to make sure that everything was healthy and safe for me to go ahead with the surgeries. At the end of that week I went in for the first part of the surgery: cutting flaps for the LASIK. I can’t say that I enjoyed it. They have to cut the flaps for the LASIK before they do the implantable contact lenses because it puts too much pressure on the eye (or something like that). You heal pretty fast, but you have to do lots of eye drops, which are a pain and no make-up.

So a week later I go in for the implantable contact lenses. I was pretty nervous. You are actually in a surgery center that looks like a hospital room, they hook you up to an IV and drug you up to relax you. You also get lots of numbing drops in your eyes. The Dr. was really good, and explained everything as he went along. It’s weird, but it wasn’t painful. I went home and slept for a few hours, then had a follow up appointment the next day. My vision was drastically improved, but as the days went on it kept feeling like it was getting worse and worse. I could function, but not very well. It took me a couple of weeks to be able to get glasses, so I was quite frustrated with not being able to see (and getting headaches from squinting all the time).

I had to wait 6 weeks I think to be able to do LASIK. LASIK does not appear to be nearly as big of a deal as the implantable lenses. You are sitting in a room with a ton of other people waiting and waiting to go back. Each person is in there for probably about 10 minutes. The whole process is just very weird and uncomfortable. When I got out of there, my eyes hurt so bad. It was hard for me to even open them so that they could do the check up right after. They wouldn’t stop watering either. The whole drive home was pure torture. It hurt so bad that I was starting to get nauseous. I felt much better after I was able to sleep, but it took awhile to fall asleep because they were still hurting quite a bit.

They next day I could see pretty well, but over the next few days, I could tell my vision was getting worse. When I went in for my check-up, they told me that it will continue to improve, but I wasn’t feeling too confident. They made me wait a couple of weeks to get a new prescription in my glasses. Then I make the long drive out there to pick them up, and the lenses didn’t fit in my frames, so I had to wait another week. The worst part is the in betweens of not being able to see clearly. (That and dragging the kids with me to probably 20 different appointments, and the 25 minute drive each way). They finally believed me that my vision was not perfect yet, and I got scheduled for an enhancement, December 28, the day after we got home from CA. (And 4 months after my first surgery).

LASIK the second time was pretty much the same as the first. Wait forever, then weirdness, then a lot of pain. They could tell afterwards that I was in a lot of pain, so they gave me extra numbing drops, which really did almost nothing at that point to help the pain. The first time around, I thought the pain was normal, but by the second time, I could tell that she was a little concerned. I can tolerate pain quite well, I’ve had two children with no drugs, so it’s not like I’m a wuss. I’ve asked a couple of other people that have had LASIK, and they didn’t have as much pain as I did. Maybe my eyes are extra sensitive (which would explain why contacts always made my eyes so tired).

When I went for my follow-up appointment, my vision was 20/20. Hallelujah. Sometimes I still struggle reading things that are small and far away. I’m not sure if that will continue to improve or not. At this point, I’m done for now. If it gets worse in the future, I will get it taken care of. I must say this whole thing has been quite the ordeal. Pretty much anything with my vision is always an ordeal because it is so much worse than the average person. But, I must say it is sure nice not to have to take contacts out at night, or put them in in the morning when your eyes are super tired, or you are camping and can’t seem to get all the little dirt particles out of them. So, now that all is said and done, I’m happy with it. That is all.