LASIK Surgery (aka The Twilight Zone)

Been awhile since I've posted.....Having a pretty decent, but busy summer. The 4th of July was awesome. We had a little family reunion in Alliance, NE @ my parents. Both of my brothers and their families were there too, so that was some good times. Anyways, this post is about my experience w/ having LASIK surgery. It was such an odd experience....sooo weird.

I arrived at the surgery center around 11am. Paid them some $$ and signed a couple papers. The nurse came a called me in the back room about 10 minutes later. She put me in a little room and made me wear a shower cap and the same type of thing over my shoes. The nurse takes my blood pressure (yaaay, High Blood pressure, 152/90 I think) and then she puts some numbing drops and antibiotic drops in my eyes and asks if I'm going to take the valium to help relax me. I tell her I'd rather not. She says, "Ok, I'll be back in a bit to put more drops in." She comes back about 10-15 minutes later and puts more drops in and leaves. I sit another 10-15 minutes....keep in mind there is nothing at all to do in this room, no magazines, no TV, no radio...just sitting there and thinking about what's going to happen next. This happens a total of 4 times and then she says Doctor Meyers is here early so we'll be starting soon. Yay! The nurse comes back and leads me to another room w/ a table/bed that has a head rest so your head's in a pretty secure position so you can't really move from side to side. Doctor Meyers is there with 5 other nurses getting everything prepped. I also see Curious George laying on the bed too...and when they positioned me on the bed they handed me Curious George and had me lay him about stomach/chest area and told me not to move my hands from there. I said, "Sweet I have a toy...thanks." Then a nurse puts some more drops in my eye and dries the area around my eye and puts a patch over my left eye and then uses a little piece of tape on my right eye to hold it open. Then they tape the eyelashes out of the way and use this weird device to pry my eye open so I can't blink. They get the laser lined up above my right eye and once it's in position, Doctor Meyers presses this device down on my cornea and tells me she's going to cut the flap over my eye. I say,"Ok", and feel quite a bit of pressure on my eye and then she turns it and everything goes dark. :| Next she lifts the flap up and my vision is somewhat restored. I can see the blinking green light on the laser and they tell me to keep my eye on that. Around it I see the red beam of the laser and 4 other orange lights that are in a square around the green light. I hear one of the nurses say the laser is starting and will complete in 15 seconds. Then I feel and sort of see the red area moving around the outside of my pupil, while I stare at this green dot. I hear, "25% complete, how are you Mark?" I say, "I'm doing fine." "50%, 75%, and complete." During this all I'm seeing is this green dot and these lasers arranging my eye particle and it's pretty crazy. The right eye is finished....Doctor Meyers moves the flap back over my eye and more drops go in and then I can finally close my poor, laser burned eye. They proceed by asking, "Would you like to go ahead with the other eye?" "Sure," I say. Great....now I know what to expect for the left eye and let's just say I wasn't to thrilled about it. I haven't moved an inch though....and I heard Doctor Meyers say numerous times, wow this patient is great, and he hasn't even had valume. I'm thinking to myself....yaaaa, but my heart sure is pounding and right now I don't really like you Doctor Meyers. So they go about putting the patch over my right eye and prying my left eye open. My left eye seemed a little dry, but they noticed it and got drops in and started the procedure. The left eye was the worst....not only did I know what was coming, I think the eye numbing drops had wore off a bit, because it was quite discomforting when she cut the flap. This time I hear from Doctor Meyers, "Mark, take a breath...make sure you breath." I then noticed I was pretty tense and it was taking all I had to keep my left eye focused on the, now infamous, green dot. I manage a couple of breaths and didn't slow anything down with the surgery. I hear the nurse say, "25% done, 50% done, 75% done, and complete." Doctor Meyers puts the flap back over and they finish up and the bed moves back from under the laser. They help me sit up and I could somewhat see...very cloudy though. I get up and realize I'm still clinging to Curious George...I reluctantly let go of him and put him back where he belongs. :( Doctor Meyers says, "I'm impressed, most guys that have the surgery, without valium, need to be held down, you were very calm and didn't move a bit, I wish more patients were like you. Since everything went so well today, I would like to see you at 4pm, instead of tomorrow." So I get these little packets of eyedrops and they send me on my way. My ride was already there .... so I got home and took a couple 30 minute naps and now I'm typing this w/ cloudy eyes. Can't wait until I can see clearly again!