Intraocular Lens

It's 8:30 the night of my surgery, and I thought I'd report in about my day! 

Ryan & I arrived at the surgery center at 6:30 this morning and I was brought back to the recovery/prep room. Just like my other appointments, this one started out with a regimen of eyedrops. First, a bunch of antibiotics and dilating drops, and then some anesthetic drops. The last "drop" was a slimy anesthetic that coated my eyes and made it difficult to open them. That was fine with me - the room was too bright for my dilated eyes anyway. Shortly after 7:00, they brought me to the operating room. It was kind of surreal walking into the room because there were at least half a dozen people in there - not that I could be certain without my glasses on... I know besides the surgeon, anesthetist and nurses, there were reps from the company who makes the lenses.

They got me comfortable on the chair and put a mild (very mild) sedative in my IV to calm me down. I wasn't panicking, but I was nervous and a bit teary. They put a drape over my face that covered everything but the eye they were working on, retracted my eyelids a la A Clockwork Orange and went to town. Yeah, that's about as specific as I can get. I had no idea what they were actually doing at any point during the surgery. I could hear them talking quietly, and every so often something would hurt a little, or a soothing bit of saline would get spritzed on my eye. But other than that it was, "Please look at the light.  Please look up. Please look down. You're doing good." kind of stuff. It took a good five minutes, I'd say, and then they did the other eye, which seemed to take even less time.

Here's what my left eye looks like now. The red spot is where my contact was injected.

Just as the surgeon predicted, I was able to see as soon as they got me up from the table! Not terribly clearly, by any means, but I could tell immediately that my vision had improved. They shuffled me back to the recovery room, gave me a cup of cocoa and 20 minutes later I was on my way.  Ryan brought me home and I went right to sleep, getting up just in time to go back for my post-op appointment. My vision was even better at that appointment - which, you know, better is a relative term! But my vision has improved little by little all day, and I can't wait to SEE what it's like in the morning! So far, I have much better distance vision than close-range.

My eyes are a bit achy, and very sensitive to light. I have a regimen of 3 different drops I will use 4 times a day for 1 week, and then 2 I will continue using for another 3 weeks. I think my recovery is going to be cake! I've been dozing and eating and listening to my iPod all day, and every once in awhile I'll get this flash in my brain like, "Gee, my eyes are tired, I should probably go take out my contacts." Pretty crazy to be a functioning human being without glasses or contacts! I think I'm going to like it!