I have LASER vision!

Okay so not really "laser vision" but I did have my eyes lasered to correct my blindness :)
I went to Dr. Boothe in Plano, TX yesterday and had my vision corrected. Since I've wanted to have this done for YEARS and I know other people are likely interested in what exactly happens I thought I'd do a post about it.

Well a few things I wish I'd known before hand:
1. You can not shower for a full week, in fact you can't get any water in your eyes for a week and you're not supposed to even touch your eyes for fear of shifting the corneal flap that the laser creates.
2. You'll have to put eye drops in your eyes at least every 15 minutes the first day you have the surgery and antibiotic drops every 2 hours, and no sleeping for at least 5 hours after surgery. I opted to NOT take the Valium before surgery b/c I had no one to drive me home since Michael was stuck in California. BUT if I had I know I'd likely have wanted to go home and sleep.
3. It hurts. You don't feel any "cutting or burning" b/c they numb the cornea BUT the rest of your eye fells pain, so when they are making the flap you definitly feel pressure and very uncomfortable. When they said, oh it's nothing, it's like 30 seconds per eye, I thought ahhhh piece of cake, well let me just say that it was the longest 30 seconds EVER! I was counting backward from 30 in my head just to give me something to focus on so I'd know when it was over. After several rounds of counting through 30 I realized that it's not 30 seconds it's more like 50 or so and you feel every one of them.
4. It's a 2 step process. Once I got through with the first step I thought I was done and I was like, yes, it's over, and then they took me to another station and said okay now we'll actually correct your vision...wait WHAT, it's not over yet?? The second step wasn't as uncomfortable as the first but they will have to put the speculum in your eye and you can smell the burning from the laser and I think the hardest part is that your eye wants to close but it can't and you don't want to move. The second time I had to count in French just to make it more difficult so I could keep my mind off of what they were doing.
5. They do several people at once so there are times when your eyes are taped shut and you're just waiting for your turn and then all of a sudden someone's pouring drops in your eyes so it can be kind of jolting.

Now with all that said would I do it again - HECK YES! Is it worth being anesthetized? no I don't think so. You can live through it and once they are done you're painless at least until the drops wear off. So I left there happy as a clam in no pain and I could see 20/20 immediately. Which brings me to my next recommendation:
*Do not drive yourself home! Even if you don't take the meds b/c once the drops wear off you're in a world of hurt for about 2.5 hours. I was stuck in traffic for exactly 2.5 hours on my drive home and I seriously contemplated pulling over and renting a hotel room to lay down and close my eyes b/c they were burning so badly. And I'm not even kidding when I say that when I got into Aledo my eyes felt 100% better. It was like all of a sudden it just stopped and I had NO pain again. I think it was residual heat from the laser. Like when you burn yourself and you put ointment on it and it just traps the heat and continues to burn, well that's what it was like in my eye b/c they put a contact lens on post-op and I think maybe it just traps the heat in your eye.

Post-Op photo:


I have to wear these protective cups on my eyes every time I am sleeping for a week. They aren't uncomfortable at all surprisingly.


I now feel great and have to go for my recheck appointment to get the contact lenses removed. I'm very glad that I did the surgery and would do it again in a heartbeat but just wish I knew better what to expect. I still have a halo around things and can't see super clear but it's amazing to be able to SEE!