21 Years Later

I remember the first time I heard about Laser vision correction. J and I were newly married and attending church just down the street from our apartment. During Relief Society I was talking to another sister and found out she had just gotten Lasik recently. That was about 12 years ago. I remember thinking at the time, someday, someday.... Since then both my parents and two siblings have gotten Lasik with great results. I let them be the guinea pigs.

I got my first pair of glasses when I was in 6th grade (except for a brief flirtation in 3rd grade). When I was 16 I switched over to rgp lenses and managed to stick with those the next 17 years. They weren't perfect, but my eyes were too dry for soft toric lenses. My eyes were pretty bad, I had astigmatism and a pretty high prescription. 3 years ago we switched to a high deductible plan with an HSA for our insurance. I started thinking that if we didn't have too many medical emergencies maybe someday we could save up enough to pay for Lasik. Well, one pregnancy, several croups and a broken arm later I started wondering if it would ever happen. J finally convinced me the beginning of this year to just go ahead and get it done. We could always put more in the HSA and have it tax free at least. One and a half months into the process we found out Loofa needed his tonsils out. I didn't think we would have enough in the HSA for both UNTIL I figured out we could do a prior year contribution to our HSA. Anyways, enough of the financial crap, IT WAS GOING TO HAPPEN!

My surgery date was yesterday, April 7th. Wednesday night I was freaking out, but refusing to admit it to myself; to the point I was physically shaking. Sadly I had no more xanax.

We woke up bright and early on the 7th to drop the kids off and get to Vancouver by 9:40am. The whole process was simple and streamlined. Before the surgery they gave me a valium and vicodin. That was nice. When they actually put me under the lasers I had a brief moment of panic, but they are quite experienced and just kept talking to me through the whole thing. I think the actual surgery took no more than 5-10 minutes. It was all laser, intralase, so they never touched my eye with a knife. It blew me away when I stood up and could see so clearly. J drove us home and then I slept for four hours thanks to the v drugs and a couple of tylenol pm.

Right now I have a lovely halo around lights and my vision is slightly over-corrected. They do that so that as it heals it will settle into the perfect correction, hopefully. I can't read very well because it made me farsighted temporarily, but I bought some reading glasses that will hopefully help. That stuff should all be better in about 3 months or at least mostly better. It is strange to wake up in the morning and not have to put on glasses or contacts.

I feel truly blessed to enjoy this miracle and I really do believe it was a miracle. I really appreciated the prayer Dr. Will said right before the surgery, I thank god for medical advances such as this. We truly live in a miraculous time.