'Eye's' Fine!

I wasn't going to blog about my laser eye surgery but a couple of people have asked why I haven't done so yet, so here it is. No pictures though.

On Wednesday my good friend Mickey drove me to the hospital to have the surgery. I had no idea what to expect except that the opthamologist told me beforehand that the most painful part of the whole process was paying for the parking!

I've always been very nervous about anything to do with my eyes - just can't imagine life without my sight and don't like to take any risks with it. The process (it's hard for me to call it surgery when there were no knives involved!) was a necessary pre-emptive strike to prevent my narrow-angle glaucoma from developing into close-angle glaucoma, which leads quickly to blindness. My problem is that there's almost no space between my iris and cornea and the natural drainage that occurs there was impaired, causing pressure in my eye, which is glaucoma. In order to prevent the total blockage, the opthamalogist's goal was to shoot two holes is my iris with the laser, thus facilitating drainage. The process is called an iridotomy. Here's an article that describes almost exactly what I had done, with pictures.

http://www.glaucomaassociates.com/laser-iridotomy.html

That article pretty well says it all. My eye was numbed with eye drops to constrict my pupil. Then I went to the treatment room. Mickey timed how long I was in there - only 10 minutes. I sat on a stool and put my chin in the holder and my forehead against the forehead bar and then the Dr. put a special contact lens in my eye (the most uncomfortable part of the whole procedure, but very bearable) which focused the laser and kept my eyelids open and my eye still. Then she shot the iris. I could see the laser beams in my eye and felt a small pinch, but virtually no pain. When it was all over, she removed the lens, and said I was good to go. Mickey drove me home (after a detour for lunch at Burrito Libre) but I think if I had waited half an hour I would have been able to take myself home. I'm glad Mickey was there though because the vision in that eye was a bit blurry and I felt a bit off balance for a little while.

So we'll go through the same process on April 28 in my left eye. And I'm not the least bit apprehensive about it. In fact, I'm a big fan of laser eye surgery now and would even consider having surgery so I wouldn't need glasses anymore, but I kind of like wearing glasses.

I realize this is a rather dry blog entry, and boring to most of you, but it might help any of you who might be facing similar procesures to feel less apprehensive. It's really a quick and simple procedure. We're so lucky to have such technology available to us. I know I appreciate it.

And thanks to Mickey for being such a good and helpful friend. Everyone should have a friend like her.