My Experience:
I'm a bit
afraid. I've read
dmd's wu above, and what if it happens to me? I'm only about 3
diopters down.
The big day. I go to
Mass Eye and Ear Infimary, and, after jumping through the
check-in hoops, go to the
Morse Laser Center. The
nurses are great - they offer to
take custody of my
convertible, since I won't be able to drive with the
top down for a week or two.
They give me valium. It'll peak in six hours, but the operation is in one hour. I figure out later this is so I can go home and sleep it off.
The first eye is terrifying. I lie down on operating table, which will swing under the laser. They tape my eyelids out of the way, and then pin them in place with a monocle. A suction device drops onto the eye, and my vision goes black. I hear a whirring, sort of like a Lilliputian skilsaw.
My vision comes back, and I can see the opthamologist pull the cornea away. My vision goes all blurry, and I hear the technician say, "20 seconds." I hear a clicking for, you guessed it, 20 seconds. The cornea is folded back into place, and he starts moisturizing it with a small squeegee.
That's it. Twenty minutes later, he checks that eye, and then does the other. Twenty minutes after that, I'm free to go.
I can see. I don't have halos. No haze. My left eye isn't perfect - it's 20/30 - but my right eye is dead on.
I wake up in the middle of the night - I can see the clock that sits across the room - it's been twenty years since I could do that. I can see the stars, and the moon, and blades of grass.
Dayenu - If I go back to being blind, this alone was worth it.
I saw the doc this morning - he says I can drive if I want to, so I do. I go to the Galleria and buy sunglasses - my first pair in a decade that don't have a prescription. As I walk in, I revel in the feel of wind against my eyelashes - I haven't felt that in ages. My vision is so sharp I want to cry with joy. Is this how everyone else sees the world?
My parents come down from
Vermont today to make sure everything was all right. The four of us went to the
Skywalk at the
Prudential Center, and I went around and arouns watching all the people and things in Boston and
Cambridge. (I could see people playing
tennis at
MIT!)
I'm back at work. I can make half the room
queasy by describing the surgery, but a lot of folks are
envious. Vision in my left eye seems to be improving, and the dryness in my right eye is lessening.
It's been one week since eye surgery. I have
20/20 vision in both eyes.
I can see!
It's been 5 months, and I can still see fine. My eyes are drier than before, so I have to use eyedrops about once a day. No biggy. But I've discovered the joy of
polarized sunglasses!