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No sign of superpowers yet!
April 25th, 2003 11:09 pmFinally, on Thursday, I went ahead with my laser eye surgery. I've been thinking about it for a while, and been actively planning it for the last couple of months. Still I was pretty nervous as we headed for Reading where the clinic I had my appointment with is located. Once again, it felt strange to be wandering through an ordinary Boots store to have my eyes laser corrected - downstairs for cosmetics, shampoo, upstairs for NASA level technology :) The first thing that they did was redo a few of the tests to get the exact shape of my cornea on the day and then double check my prescription to make sure that they know exactly what changes are to be made. Once you've signed your consent form and paid the money (and received a million advantage card points!) they give you the drops to dilate your eyes and you've got half an hour to wait before they go ahead and change things. I found it really hard waiting for my eyes to dilate enough to go on to the next bit - it takes about half an hour - particularly because it's not really very comfortable to read as it's pretty difficult to focus when your eyes are that dilated. Finally it was my turn and I was into the treatment room.
The procedure itself is almost impossible to describe, because it's like nothing else. There are no reference points that I can give you for what it feels like. Even though they're good about telling you exactly what’s going on and reassuring you - I had a nurses hand to hold throughout - it's viscerally terrifying. Someone is fiddling around with your eyes and all your instincts are that this is not a good thing. But it is.
( Not for the squeamish ) Once home, with a cup of tea, I just felt really wiped out. I was already noticing my focus improving but I was just exhausted by the whole procedure, so while Alex popped home to get a tie for his interview, I went upstairs for a nap.
After an hour or so of dozing with the radio on, I was feeling miles better. The stinging had completely subsided and my eyes had stopped watering pretty much. I was able to watch Buffy and Angel and even read the subtitles without any problems. After a night's sleep protected by the eye shields again I seem to be able to do pretty much all my normal activities. I can read comfortably and I seem to be doing alright on the computer - I can focus fine on it, although it is becoming a bit tiring now. Although it's not something I'd want to do again in a hurry, I'm so pleased I went through with it. I just can't quite believe that I won't have to take my contact lenses out when I go to bed because now it's intrinsic. I lay there last night and every now and then as I dropped off I would suddenly think "Bugger - I've forgotten my contact lenses!" and then remember that no I haven't. That's the whole point.
The procedure itself is almost impossible to describe, because it's like nothing else. There are no reference points that I can give you for what it feels like. Even though they're good about telling you exactly what’s going on and reassuring you - I had a nurses hand to hold throughout - it's viscerally terrifying. Someone is fiddling around with your eyes and all your instincts are that this is not a good thing. But it is.
( Not for the squeamish ) Once home, with a cup of tea, I just felt really wiped out. I was already noticing my focus improving but I was just exhausted by the whole procedure, so while Alex popped home to get a tie for his interview, I went upstairs for a nap.
After an hour or so of dozing with the radio on, I was feeling miles better. The stinging had completely subsided and my eyes had stopped watering pretty much. I was able to watch Buffy and Angel and even read the subtitles without any problems. After a night's sleep protected by the eye shields again I seem to be able to do pretty much all my normal activities. I can read comfortably and I seem to be doing alright on the computer - I can focus fine on it, although it is becoming a bit tiring now. Although it's not something I'd want to do again in a hurry, I'm so pleased I went through with it. I just can't quite believe that I won't have to take my contact lenses out when I go to bed because now it's intrinsic. I lay there last night and every now and then as I dropped off I would suddenly think "Bugger - I've forgotten my contact lenses!" and then remember that no I haven't. That's the whole point.
