Saturday, March 21, 2009

I can see clearly now.....

my glasses/contacts are GONE!!!! I can happily say that I am no longer legally blind, in fact, I have 20/20 vision that continues to improve!

Thursday morning, I had LASIK. I have been "visually impaired" since I was about 13 years old. Once my vision started to go, it went at a rapid decline....by the time I graduated high school, I could not function without the use of contacts or glasses. For the past 5 years or so, my prescription has remained stable and I have often thought of "taking the plunge" and going in for corrective surgery, but never actually took the steps. I mainly wore contacts, and was a fan of extended wear disposable lenses. I could put in my contacts and leave them in for an entire month without having to take them out for cleaning, etc. For the most part, my impaired vision wasn't too much of a hassle.

The day before we left for Long Beach for the CFA seminar, I was starting to have some issues with my contacts...I think I must have scratched one of them or something....anyway, I went to put on a new pair and realized that I was wearing my last pair! So, for the week of Seminar, I had to rely mostly on my glasses. I could only wear my contacts for about 5 hours before my eyes would start watering uncontrollably. After having to wear my glasses for so long, I decided to go ahead and "take the plunge" and seriously look into LASIK. So, when we got home from seminar, I made my appt. I first saw my regular eye dr. who referred me to Woolfson Eye Institute. This just happened to be the same place that a friend of mine had his surgery done. I went for the consult and found out I was an excellent candidate and scheduled my surgery! I had to go a minimum of 2 weeks without wearing contacts (they change the shape of your eye). Wearing glasses full time was probably the hardest part of the waiting game. Finally, the big day arrived!!!

My appointment was at 9:00 and by 12:00 I could see! The actual surgery only took about 10 minutes. I was awake the whole time...they simply numbed my eyes with drops. It was a strange experience...and I must say, if you are the least bit squeemish about having someone touch your eye...you might not want to try LASIK! I'm not sure what my vision was immediately post surgery, but I was able to read my post-op instruction sheet at arms distance easily when prior to surgery, anything I wanted to read had to be within 5 inches of my face! At my one day post-op appt., my vision tested at 20/20! My surgeon said that my vision could continue to improve over the next 2-3 weeks.

I'm amazed at the technology available these days! If you are considering eye surgery, let me know....I can recommend a great doctor!

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