Seeing the World Through New Eyes

Literally!

My LASIK surgery was last Friday and everything is going well so far.  In general it was ridiculously easy.  I was not nearly tranquilized to the point I thought I would be when we started the procedure.  But, I was okay.  The surgery didn’t hurt, a few times it felt weird and some of the optical effects I saw were REALLY weird.  It was really incredible that as soon as the correction was made, even the tracking lights on the machine snapped in to focus.

This little capillary break is the only thing visible from the surgery. It feels fine.

Recovery was a little rough.  The numbing drops wore off before the pain killer kicked in.  I had a long time where I just lay in bed and willed myself to fall asleep but I couldn’t because of the pain.  The Vicodin really didn’t kill the pain, it just made me feel weird.  I didn’t like it, but I took them anyway.  For about 4 hours I couldn’t open my eyes, but had to use the bathroom like every hour, which made my husband being home the best thing ever.  Thanks, P.  Seriously!

Then, around 6 PM I woke up and I could see.  The next morning I was 20/15 at my follow up.  I have no idea how long it’s been since I could see that well without glasses or contacts, at least since I was 12.

Post-op my distance vision is beyond sharp.  Closer up I have a harder time focusing, but that should get better.  I have night time halos but they aren’t as bad as I feared, and they’ll also get better.  I haven’t had a big problem with dry eye and I’m getting awesome about putting in eye drops.

I’m missing workouts, even with the annoyance of my glasses and I can’t wait to get going again.  And I’m very excited about swimming with my new eyes!  It’s going to make further triathlon training so much better.

Lazy before LASIK

I have NOT been hitting the gym as hard as I used to.  I haven’t been exercising outside much either.  And in a bit, I’m totally cut off for a week.

I’m getting LASIK surgery on Nov. 30!  I’m excited and it’s going to make the triathlon training and execution so much better.  I wear contacts most of the time, but you have to be in glasses for awhile before surgery so your corneas are relaxed and not warped by the lenses.  After the Race for the Cure on Nov. 3, I’d been only wearing glasses.  My surgeon called for 2 weeks, but I decided to make it more like 3.

Here I am in my glasses. Although they look sharp, It will be good to retire them.

Exercising in glasses is really annoying.  I’ve joked that it’s probably why I didn’t exercise enough as a kid!  I started wearing glasses in 7th grade, and they weren’t ever really optional, despite the fact I protested all of 8th grade and wouldn’t wear them to school.  I’m not functional without them.  So I’ve been dealing with them sliding down my face and fogging up constantly.  I’ve been going to training and trying to get in one or two other gym workouts in the same week.

I’m looking forward to having great vision, and not having to worry about contacts when open water swimming!  Because I’d be kind of screwed.  I’m not looking forward to having to take a week off from the gym after surgery.  I wonder if I can still do ab work?