Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5
When I arrived at my room at the inn, my eyes stung so badly I could barely keep them open. I fumbled through my belongings for the pain pills that the doctor had given me and quickly downed those. The really expensive eye drops were next. Lotamax is an anti-inflammatory drop that I had to apply four times daily for two weeks; Vigamox, an antibiotic, I applied four times daily for one week. Preservative free artificial tears had to be applied every fifteen minutes for two weeks, tapering down over the next three months.
Before settling into bed, I had to adhere a bug-like clear plastic shield over each eye. This was to prevent subconscious rubbing of the eyes while sleeping. When I awoke four hours later, my eyes felt much better; thank God for pain pills. I made my way to the downstairs restaurant to find dinner.
Unfortunately, the restaurant was adjacent to a smokers’ lounge. As I waited for my meal, the pain pills started to wear off. This, combined with the cigarette smoke wafting in from the lounge, made for a rather unpleasant meal. I understand the need for smokers to feed their addiction; what I don’t understand is the total disregard for others exhibited by those who smoke inside public buildings, but I digress. I was unable to keep my eyes open to eat my dinner, so I navigated my plate by touch. After wolfing down my food, I stumbled back to my room and tried to sleep until morning.
The next morning, my eyes felt considerably better. There was still some minor discomfort, but most of that was alleviated when I returned to the doctor’s office to have the protective contact lenses removed. The most amazing part was that I already had near perfect vision without glasses. Unfortunately, because of the unpleasant business with the suction device, I would look like an extra from a horror movie for the next four to five weeks (below).
So I finally drove myself home, stopping at almost every rest stop so that I could put in the drops. Dry eyes are a huge part of the first few months of the recovery period. The severity of my ocular hematoma exascerbated the discomfort of letting my eyes dry out. Dozens of small plastic ampules of artificial tears littered my home, my car, and my office.
In a way, having my coworkers shink in fear at the grotesque appearance of my eyes was kind of fun. To remember to put in my drops, I set my Mac to announce the time at quarter-hour intervals. For the first two weeks, I was not allowed to exercise, put my face under water, or rub my eyes.
Three weeks after my surgery, I returned for a check-up appointment. My flap was healing perfectly. The whites of my eyes were still somewhat of a misnomer. My vision in both eyes was 20/20 with a slight astigmatism in my left eye. The doctor assured me that this would probably correct itself by the time of my six-month follow-up appointment.
To be concluded…
Loved the recounting of your lasik experience. I read the whole thing. I just had customview wavefront intralasik done a week ago and im about to be done applying endless drops of expensive ass vigamox, econopred and tobradex and i still have the horrible looking horror movie extra bloodhot eyes and i cant wait for that to go away so that i can look normal again. My vision is way better than before but not quite as sharp and crisp as it used to be with presctiption glasses, so you could say im not 100% satisfied with the procedure,, but then again, its only been a week and all the docs keep telling me that my vision will improve over the next 3 to 6 months???? did yours??? (i had considerable nearsightedness with a little astigmatism)