I'm typing this one all by myself...progress!

I'm spying a lot more with these little eyes than I'd hoped for in just a week.

Monday: Day 4

This was my first day at home without Sean, so I got wild! That is, I played my podcasts without headphones. I know, I know...scandalous behavior over at the Walsh house.

Podcasts aside, each day definitely added a little frustration. When recovering from my ear surgeries, I could read, color, or spend as much mindless time on social media as my heart desired to kill the time. Without my eyes...rough. It's literally eat, sleep, podcast, or sit and do nothing. My Fitbit step count would make me cry if my eyes weren't already teary.

Speaking of my eyes, the sensation has transitioned from scratchy/sandy to dusty/scratchy. I was very liberal with the use of artificial tears.

I could look at the phone and computer screens for just a few minutes before my eyes felt tired.

Tuesday: Day 5 + First Follow-Up

Sean left work early to take me to my follow-up appointment. It was rough being outside in the daylight for the first time, even with sunglasses, but I adjusted faster than I expected to.

A major shout out to LasikPlus for their promptness. I was seen immediately when I arrived.

The appointment was just a few minutes and included a vision test (they say I'm doing better than they expected for me), removal of the bandage contact lenses, and a quick look into my eyes with the light (OUCH!). For now I'm to keep up with the different eye drops as directed.

By the end of the day, my eyes felt a lot more comfortable with the lenses out. Vision is still blurry and I'm being very liberal with the artificial tears.

Wednesday–Thursday: Wrapping Up Week One

Wow! I've been really worried about how quick my vision would return, and I've been pleasantly surprised. It's not perfect, but it's better than I expected—like wearing an old glasses prescription where you can see reasonably in front of you but more detailed things like reading are fuzzier. My eyes were mostly comfortable (a little scratchy on Thursday), and I've been keeping up with frequent use of artificial tears.

I've been letting more light into the house and on Thursday we even had a field trip to Target for more eye drops! I couldn't read the aisle signs (let's be real—I know exactly where everything in Target is anyway), but everything else felt normal.

Night vision is odd and I think will be for awhile. The "halos" you hear about are real. I've been going with Sean for Anise's late night walks and I tell him the street lamps look like spiders.

What's Next

A week from today marks 12 years since I drove in the snow to a movie theater two towns from my own for a first date. Never mind that I tried to get out of that date or that the guy in question has since admitted he chose a movie date in case conversation was lacking. Clearly, neither of us had high hopes for that first date.

Next month marks another anniversary, however: 12 years since that date led to an awkward DTR talk along the lines of "so, are we exclusive now?"


I think we all know how the story goes from there since this June marks another anniversary...our 7th wedding anniversary!

I logged onto my computer, turned the brightness down, the text size up, and already my eyes are watering...and quite frankly, I can't see what I'm typing. I guess I'm passing this onto Sean:

Thursday: Surgery Day

Everything happened so much faster than I expected. I arrived at 1:30 for my 1:40 appointment and was immediately whisked away for all the pre-procedure eye tests to confirm my prescription. My prescriptions were confirmed and the FSA account was promptly emptied. I met with the surgeon for final questions before heading to the O.R. at 2:15. The procedure was quicker than ever expected. From all accounts I read the procedure was supposed to take a few minutes per eye. For me the laser portion was no more than a minute per eye and was followed by a series of drops, a rinse of cold water per eye, and the placement of contacts which is to act as a bandage for the time being. We had the all clear to leave and were home by 3 pm.

I wasn't expecting anything terrible from Day 1, however we learned very quickly the issue of light sensitivity. I've always loved the fact that our house is full of windows and skylights that flood the house with natural light, but on this day it proved to be my enemy as it seemed we could find no room dark enough to rest comfortably post-op. The residual light peering through blind & curtains in different rooms all proved too bright and caused my eyes to burn and water uncontrollably. Eventually McHenry was kicked out of the basement den as the room had a window small enough to be covered from the light shining in. I spent the remainder of the daylight hours there to recover while Sean went to the pharmacy to pick up an optionally prescribed pain medicine that proved necessary to handle the pain. Once the sun went down I was able to return to our bedroom for the final round of eye drops and eye shields before going to sleep for the night. (The eye shields are in place to prevent inadvertent rubbing of the eyes.)

I wear these and lose these every time I sleep. WHY ARE THEY CLEAR?

Friday: Day One

Sean woke up early enough before the sun rose to move me back down the den. I listened to a few podcasts he downloaded for me ahead of time and later in the morning I was able to eat breakfast upstairs comfortably while wearing sunglasses. I felt a lot better than expected; my left eye had very minor discomfort, my right eye felt like nothing had ever happened. We even had a friend pop by for a few hours. While I was not able to see her clearly, I was feeling comfortable throughout the visit (while still wearing sunglasses).

Afterward I had some more recovery time down in the den, then dinner in the living room, by that point I was worn out so I completed my last round of eye drops and was in bed by 7.
On a side note I noticed I was able to read larger text like Sean's alarm clock, but could not comfortably look at TV or phone screens.

I can read these giant letters! Progress.

Saturday: Day Two

The doctors had warned that Days 2 and 3 would be the worst. While they were not as bad as the pain experienced on surgery day I would have had to agree. My right eye that had felt so good yesterday felt as if something was stuck in it and had been burning and tearing all day. The left eye although still uncomfortable is not as bad as the right. Vision remained blurry in both. I spend the day in and out of bed while looking forward toward the next round of eye drops (prescription drops are twice a day, artificial tears are hourly).

Sunday: Day Three

This day was pretty much the same as Day 2 but with blurrier and scratchier eyes. I washed my hair which was challenging as you're not to get your eyes wet. While uncomfortable I was able to get fresh air on a walk with Sean & Anise once the sun went down. I am hoping that Days 2 & 3 truly are the worst so that going forward I can stop taking the prescribed pain medicine and continue with only ibuprofen.

Tuesday is considered Day 5; on that day I will have the first followup appointment which will include the removal of my temporary contacts. I hope to update after this.

Other PRK Posts

Why I Changed Providers
1 Week Update

Today, I will walk into a doctor's office and allow him to remove my corneas before zapping my eyeballs with lasers.

Sound nice?

I promise to be responsible and donate, but right now I'm daydreaming of running these glasses over with my car.

I'm getting PRK surgery which is almost the same as LASIK except for the whole cornea thing: LASIK cuts a flap in the cornea and replaces it post-op. PRK bypasses the flap issue and removes the whole cornea which heals back over a number of days.

I found reading the real mundane day-in, day-out details on other blogs to be very helpful beforehand and I hope to do the same (or at least have Sean do so for me) for anyone else out there considering corrective vision surgery.

While I'm sure it will be a few days before I'm ready to sit at a computer and record an update, the whole process really does begin pre-op. I had a consultation last November and I was told I wasn't a candidate for LASIK, but that I could do PRK. I was also told that due to my high prescription (in contacts, I'm a -9.0 and a -7.5, so pretty bad!), a full vision correction might not be possible. I was kind of bummed by this, but figured some correction was better than no correction, so we worked out a price and scheduled my procedure for January.

I mostly forgot about it until the New Year when things started to nag at me. Was partial correction the norm for someone like me? What was recovery really going to look like? Why hadn't I met my doctor let alone been informed who would actually be treating me on the day of the procedure? Why did the whole thing feel more like a timeshare presentation than a medical appointment?  Why was I being cornered into visiting an office so far from my home when there was one much closer?

I reached out to my provider with some of my questions, but I also decided to do some more research on my own. I read lots of blogs, found every review I could, and ultimately realized I needed to get a second opinion for my own peace of mind. I decided to visit the Baltimore LasikPlus location for a consultation...three days ago.

The whole process was significantly more thorough than the first and I felt I received better answers to all of my questions. When I mentioned what the previous provider had said about a partial correction, I immediately saw surprise on the person's face before being told that LasikPlus would not accept a candidate if they did not feel they could offer complete results.

I defnitely felt more at ease at LasikPlus, but the I knew the big question could be a deal breaker: what was it going to cost me? I had already budgeted for the cost quoted by my initial provider and I knew their cost was lower than the competition. But how much lower?

I had a max number in my head and thankfully, their quote was right in the range I'd been thinking of... and they could treat me the same day I'd originally scheduled elsewhere, I knew I was making the switch! I set everything up and called right away to cancel my original appointment.

It's too soon for me to say "go for it!" if you're considering LASIK or PRK (I suspect in a month or so, I'll be singing its praises), but I do want to say this: get the consultation. See what is or isn't right for you. Take your time. If you don't feel comfortable, think about why and if that means asking more questions or even interviewing other doctors until you feel the fit is right, do it. What is done to your eyes can't be undone.

Albeit last minute, I'm so glad I made a switch and I'm looking forward to kissing my contacts and glasses goodbye.

If you have questions or your own vision correction experience, I'd love to hear more in the comments—I'll hopefully be back in a few days!

Other PRK Posts

2017 has had a silent start here on the blog and I can safely say that there may be more silence yet as I am prioritizing something a little different in the coming days and weeks : myself and my health.



There are the not-so-fun things like the filling of 5 cavities (my punishment, I suppose, for avoiding routine dental cleanings most of my adult life), the mundane necessary things like constantly monitoring this rogue ear of mine, and the more exciting, albeit terrifying, upcoming PRK procedure (think lasik with a longer recovery time; my prescription is crazy strong).

I'm also starting to bully convince Sean to take similar steps for himself. We've started with baby steps—replacing our manual toothbrushes with the electric variety—but soon enough I hope to see him sit in a dentist's chair for a routine visit (hopefully with  a more pleasant outcome than what I had)

Working most of my life in customer service has left me with great skills when it comes to helping others...helping everyone but myself. For years, I've carried the unnecessary guilt of taking time off to meet all my needs. Recently that meant I only took time off for my ear and let all other needs fall to the wayside.

I'm recovering from that slowly thanks to a much more supportive work environment, and my time sheet certainly shows me depleting a significant number of my accumulated sick days.What's especially nice about this is that I don't have to apologize.

Nor do I want to.

How can you give yourself a little more care this year?