PRK

I had my eye surgery Thursday evening. So, most people who get PRK are hit with the laser for 5 - 10 seconds. I had it for 60 seconds on my right eye and 40 seconds on my left. I could smell my eye burning. Seriously. 

Good news is that the scar tissue that was fucking up my sight is gone and they have this new shit they put in my eyes that should keep the scar tissue from coming back.

The thing is, I didn't realize I would be TOTALLY blind after the surgery. And in excruciating pain. The only thing I've done worse to myself is my knee surgery. My work friend C took me for the surgery and dropped me off at my house. She seemed worried about me but I assured her I was fine. About 5 minutes after she left everything was so blurry I was even bumping into furniture. I realized I didn't know which eye drops I was supposed to use as well. And I couldn't see what time it was to know when I was supposed to take them.

I ended up going over to the low income housing because there's always someone hanging around outside. A nice man there set alarms on my phone so I would know when to take my meds. I then spent Friday and most of the weekend in bed with my eyes closed and covered with ice bags. My eyes swelled up and turned bright pink. I know this not because I could see them but because I attended an art show at my neighbor's house and he thought I had fake contacts in because my eyes looked so bad.

A sculptor hit on me at the art show. My vision was so blurry all I could see was a general outline of him. I don't even know what color his hair was. He said I was a magnificent creature, what ever that means, and that he wanted to have sex with me as well as have me pose for a sculpture he's making for the Denver Public Library. After he propositioned me I decided to go home.

On Monday I opened my eyes and the pain was substantially better and I could see. I went to my doc's at 845 to get the bandage contacts out. In the process of taking out the bandage in my left eye I sustained a 6 mm corneal tear. That feels like having a nail shot into your eye. I was in so much pain I almost threw up. But I did not, at the time, know my cornea was torn.

They gave me some numbing drops and I started to walk home but the drops, as soon as I got into the sun, didn't do shit. My eyes were watering uncontrollably and I couldn't really see. Then, for what ever reason, my nose started bleeding but my vision was so bad I couldn't see the blood. I ran out of kleenex for my eyes and nose so was wiping both of the on a white scarf I was wearing. I got to this intersection where all the homeless people hang out. They usually block the sidewalk. For me they parted like the red sea.

I didn't really sleep much Monday or Tuesday night. But when I finally opened my eyes at 430 Wednesday morning I could see. So I drove over to a colleague's house to pick him up for work (he was leaving town and I offered to take him into work and to the airport because he gave me a ride the day of my surgery) and by the time I got there (it was only 2 miles) my eyes really hurt. I managed to survive until noon when we had to leave for the airport. My colleague drove us there and when I walked around the back of the car to get in the driver's side he joked "oh, this is a tearful goodbye!" because my eyes were watering uncontrollably. Then my left eye wouldn't open.

I got home somehow but it wasn't pleasant. I thought I was going to pass out from the pain. As soon as I got home I put ice on my eyes and decided to work from home Thursday. I also called my doctor's office and got an appointment.

The doctor admonished me for waiting so long to come in and put a bandage contact on my eye. It was like instantaneous relief. Everything is great today (though I still worked from home because people in my office had told my PM how bad I looked and how I was in pain and he told me to stay home and rest if I needed to).

I know my eyes probably won't stay this good re: my vision but I'm amazed what a huge difference the surgery made (colors are brighter, no more blind spots in my vision). However, I would rather have cancer twice again than do that surgery again. But, I needed to get my eyes fixed up for flying. And most of the difficulty was my fault. I should have taken my friend C up on her offer to take care of me. Oh well. It's a lesson I never fail to not learn...