I can see clearly now, Part Three.

I was as ready as I could be. I had filled the prescriptions I needed - antibiotic drops, Prednisone drops, sterile artificial tears, and a small amount of Vicodan.

Also, The Charming Man had arranged to work remotely. If you are going to get LASIK, you cannot drive yourself after the surgery. You might want someone to drive you for the next couple days after, too.

The day arrived! I was both thrilled and terrified by the unknown.The appointment itself was for two hours. The major part of it was taken with careful measuring and more eye tests - double and even triple checking the changes in my eyes.

My regular optometrist and I had decided on the monovision option - where one eye is corrected for distance  vision, and the other is corrected for close work. (Note for the ages: I love my monovision. I no longer need reading glasses!) If you chose this, be sure to tell your eye doctor to tell the surgeon what distance you want the correction to be at. I learned that several doctors forget to add this important information to the files.

After the tests, they gave me two tablets of Valium and took TCM and I to a relaxation room to let the sedative kick in.

I immediately fell asleep. :) When the nurse came in twenty minutes later, I could barely be bothered to get off the sofa.

Which means the actual surgery is a bit fuzzy in my memory. I have to say it was cool as hell, though.

Dr. Teplick was a complete rock star. The entire surgery took less than five minutes and he talked me through the entire thing. I felt completely comfortable and safe.

They taped my eyelashes down so I couldn't blink and applied a little suction to my eyeballs to make sure they were nice and prominent. This actually felt pretty cool. I thought I would hate it, but it was not a problem at all. The laser machine then flipped into place above me. My right eye got corrected first.

I saw some blinking red lights above me, then a steady red light. This was the laser cutting and reshaping the cornea. They repeated the pretty light show on my left eye, then. The Charming Man even got to watch the whole thing in a special viewing room. Awesome-sauce, indeed!

My eyesight was a little blurry from all the drops, but I could tell my vision was different. Then Dr. Teplik gave me some really cook Kareem Abdul Jabbar goggles to protect my eyes.

I had to wear them for the first twenty-four hours, then sleep in them for a week afterwards.  And they work great if I have to work with dusty things, too!

The Charming Man then gently led me to the car and took me home.

My next post will be about the after care and how I've been adapting since.

I can see clearly now, Part Two..

After I determined I wasn't going to deal with near sightedness anymore, I took the first steps to making it happen.

First, I had to talk to my optometrist. I had heard it couldn't correct astigmatism or other common defects. (True fact - it actually can fix most astigmatisms). When I went in for my usual appointment, I asked her to check my eyes for my suitability.

I was a go! Right there, I made an appointment with a surgeon, Dr. Teplik of Teplic Surgery. I am happy to report that Dr. T was in no way, shape, or form a money-grubbing knife jockey. Whew!

My consult included a number of extremely thorough eye exams, including a map of my eyes that showed the shape of my eyeballs and corneas. Dr. Teplik told me what surgery would entail - cutting open the cornea with a laser (no knives, therefore much cleaner healing). Also, no one had ever gone blind from LASIK. That was a huge relief!

Since I had worn hard and gas permeable lenses for so long, I had to wear my glasses for about five weeks for my eyes to relax back into a natural shape. If you wear soft lenses, this time period is much shorter.  This was the only part of the procedure that I didn't like. I felt fatigued all the time, and as my eyes adjusted, I would develop dreadful headaches. I spent a lot of time napping and grumbling.

A week before the surgery was scheduled, I had another checkup with Dr. Teplik and his super-awesome staff. More eye tests and mapping to determine if my corneas had stabilized enough.

They had! I could have surgery on my scheduled day.

Next time - surgery itself.