Surgery Report: Praise God all went well!
To start with I allowed a photo of me in glasses to be taken – just to document the whole thing. I had to wear glasses for at least three weeks before surgery. This was to let my eyes get back to “normal” after wearing contacts.
Brian and I drove to Henderson to meet Dr. Craig the the three of us drove to Dallas, arriving about 2:30 in the afternoon. We proceeded directly to the Laser ward where I filled out paper work and prepared for surgery (put on a hair net 🙂
Treatment!
I lay down near a machine and tried to hold still while doctor and nurse put a suction disk on my eye – causing the vision to go dark. They put me under the machine, counted down 30 seconds and I was done; my eye had been cut. The second eye didn’t go so smoothly; the suction kept popping off and each reapplication was more irritating until I had to ask them to stop and let me recover a second. I prayed for God to calm me down and relax my eye so I wouldn’t squint and pop it off again. We tried it again and it worked! The whole process was more uncomfortable than the right eye but I didn’t die or anything and on the whole it was only about ten minutes total (though it seemed longer). It did cause some minor trauma to the eye (broken blood vessels) which will heal up fine but it looks kind of scary right now.
Laser
After letting everything settle for ten minutes or so I walked over to another room and lay down again. (I brought the teddy bear with me that they let me hold). They secured my head, taped back my eyelashes and put me under a bright light (sound like an interrogation room or something). Dr. Craig used something that looked like a thin wire to finish the cut and pull back a flap of my cornea. Unfortunately the numbing drop had sort of worn off so it felt like the wire was scratching my eye but I tensed my whole body and tried not to move. Next they put me under the laser, and told me to watch the flashing light. Next thing I knew, something that looked like an explosion on a bugs bunny cartoon – the kind where the whole screen shows pulsating colors – flashed at my eye, I heard a zapping sound for about 15 seconds and there was a burnt smell. That was it, my vision was corrected! They pulled me out and flipped the conea back in place. The nurse noticed how tense I was and asked if it hurt. I said yes and she put a drop in my eye and I felt nothing! Why hadn’t I asked sooner? She put several drops in the left eye before they started on it and that eye went through painlessly – ah, you have not because you ask not.
Everything being done, they gave me various eye drops, some really cool goggles and a bunch of instruction that Brian heard. We got back in the car and headed home. They said it was good to keep your eyes shut for a while so I dozed until the numbness wore off then it burned sort of like when you get smoke in your eyes. Then, because they felt bad, I could hardly get them to open and tears kept running out of them. We stopped for a Starbucks 
and then some place to eat (honestly, I didn’t really see much of it) I barely cracked an eye so I could manage to eat. Brian was really kind the whole time – it was reassuring to hold his hand and just know he was right beside me though I couldn’t look at him. He read the menu to me so I could order, lead me everywhere I needed to be, put eye drops in when it was time, and on reaching his parents house, made sure we had everything then just sat on the couch with me while we listened to Father Gilbert. Later he went on a walk and my eyes were feeling better and I could open them up. Already I could tell a difference in my far vision – I could see! The burning stopped around 8:00 and by bedtime they weren’t bad at all – amazing, considering what had been done!
This morning we went in for a quick check up and I have 20/30 vision and this was less than 24 hrs. after surgery, it should finish clearing up to 20/20 in the next few days as my cornea heals. Right now I just have to put in eye drops, wear my googles at night and these cool shades during the day for about a week. Brian’s wearing his from his surgery a year and a half ago. My eyes feel fine today and things keep getting clearer, this is amazing! God provided in a big way to make all of this possible, the outcome was in His control and I feel incredibly blessed. All praise to Him!
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