Bulbs

It's been a while since I have posted. I'm sort-of posting in "the blind" at the moment :)

As most of you know, I have been wanting to get my eyebulbs fixed for quite some time and as of a month ago, I decided to go ahead and schedule my LASIK procedure for 4/24. I was extremely nervous about someone poking around in my eyeballs, but ready to go for it anyway.

On Monday 4/20 I had my pre-op with my eye doctor (Dr. Izzard), got my eyes dilated, checked and rechecked. He said I should be good to go, pending my surgeon (Dr. Koch at Baylor College of Medicine, awesome guy) approval of my corneal maps. On Thursday 4/23 my eye doc and surgeon both called me multiple times in the afternoon to discuss my pending bulb-slicing and zapping (while I was at work, mind you). It turns out that my corneas were something like 1/100th of a millimeter too thin to perform LASIK on, per my surgeon. If I did LASIK, risks to my cornea are increased and my vision could likely be unstable post-procedure, rendering the procedure useless and maybe causing more damage to my eye. My eye doc explained to me that in addition to my surgeon being exceptional at what he does, he is also generally pretty conservative - which is why he recommends him to all his patients. He also mentioned that since I am "borderline" for LASIK, I could find someone to perform the procedure on me if I wanted, but he and my surgeon were recommending instead, PRK (Photorefractive Keratectomy). Of course, I decided to take the advice of my eye doctor and surgeon and go ahead with the PRK. Conservatism with my eyes?? Yes please. Dr. Koch also mentioned that after some more corneal mapping tests upon my arrival at the medical center, it could be that I was ineligible for PRK based on the shape of my cornea. Not likely, but possible. He wanted to make sure I was prepared. Oh yeah, my eyes are apparently dry normally too (I didn't really know that or notice), so I had to lube my bulbs every hour the night before the procedure too. SUPER!

So, a little off-kilter and nervous from the late-breaking change in procedures, I prepared myself for a 2:30pm arrival at Baylor for the procedure. Upon arrival to the center, I did my few corneal mapping tests, got cleared for surgery by Dr. Koch and proceeded to get outfitted for the procedure. They cleaned my face, put a hair net on my head, put gauze over my ears to catch any eyedrops that fell from my eyes while on the table, and stuck a sticker over each eye to remind them which one was which (Left PRK, Right PRK).



Here's the difference between LASIK and PRK, at least in "Jaime" terms:
LASIK: A flap is cut in the cornea, flapped open, lasers zap the inside, then the flap is replaced. Recovery time is very fast, vision results near immediate. Eyes generally more dry than before procedure.
PRK: The epithelial layer of the eye is scraped away from the top of the cornea, then lasers zap the cornea to reshape it so the light is better focused and vision improves. A protective contact lens is placed over the eye for 5 days, the end. Recovery time is slower and vision results not immediate. Eyes less dry than with LASIK, post-procedure.

Anyhoo, after the hairnet was securely in place, they took me to the laser room, laid me on my back on a dentist-chair looking surface (only totally flat), administered a topical anesthetic to my right eye, covered my left eye, strapped my head to the table, squished a pillow around my head to secure it in place, taped my eyelashes (top and bottom both) down, put a speculum (I call it the "Clockwork Orange") on my eye and I was ready to go. They walked me through each step of the procedure, which was extremely comforting...especially given the fact that my eyes were open and I had to watch them poke and prod and swab at them and shine giant BRIGHT FRIGGIN' LIGHTS in them the entire time. Good stuff!

First, they stated by removing the epithelial cells from my cornea. They put a metal ring around my cornea and dropped some kind of liquid on my eye. Then, they took a rotating brush type thing (think your Oral-B rotating toothbrush with the little round head, except it didn't articulate but rather just spun in a circular motion) and scrubbed the epithelial from my cornea. I was smiling this whole time because all I could think of was to laugh at them toothbrushing my eyeball :D. They commented on how relaxed and "even smiling!" I was. Of course, only I would be smiling while people scraped layers of eyeball from my eye. Nice, Jaime. After I was good and scrubbed, they wiped my eye to get the cells and moisture from it. Next was the actual laser part, where I had to stare at this point of red light while it pulsed purple light all over my eye and burned my cornea away. It does smell a little like burning tissue, but nothing gross really - as long as you're prepared for the slight odor. This whole process took at most 5 minutes per eye. To be honest, the worst part was them ripping the tape off of my eyelids/eyelashes on each eye. C'mon people! I just paid you to burn my corneas, the least you could do is be gentle when removing the tape :)

My vision was significantly better immediately after the procedure, but hazy and definitely not crystal-clear. According to Dr. Koch, my vision will get increasingly worse for the next few days and around Monday it should tank to its worst, as the cornea is regenerating healing cells from the outside of the circle, in and trying to recover. After that, I should see improvement steadily.

I have to put in antibiotics and steroids into my eyes for the first week until the contact lenses are removed (Weds, I think) and then I'll have to administer drops for 4 months on a regular basis (4x/day 1st month, 3x/day 2nd month, 2x/day 3rd month, 1x/day 4th month). They also gave me a whole boatload of pain killers to take if I needed them and frankly, I was worried that I would need them based on the blogs I had read about people post-procedure.

Ninnies. I slept fine last night with an "advil-equivalent" they make me take for the first 3 days. Today I am more light-sensitive, I think it feels like a small piece of something is in my left eye (right eye is the pimp) and they are super dry so I'm lubing them all over the place. Either way, I'm doing quite well and actually really happy I did PRK vs. LASIK. The more I think about them cutting into my eyeball, I get super creeped out.

I know this is the longest post ever in life, but I thought I would let you all know how it went, how it felt, how I'm doing. Went: Great. Felt: Weird. Doing: Super! Vision recovering: Okay (near and far sight is "off" at the moment). Work: Returning Monday or Tuesday if I can, gonna play it by ear.

Love you lots!
-Me and my enhanced bulbs.