Since rebuilding the server, I moved the lasik site into this blog format which will allow me to update it more easily, and with any luck, more frequently…
[January 20, 1999]
And so the research begins! I don’t know why, but lately I have been seeing advertisements for LASIK surgery everywhere. Maybe it’s because I have been thinking about it – again – recently. My Dad had RK, but to tell you the truth, the procedure scares the hell out of me. LASIK looks much more advanced, but I don’t have a clue as to where to start. No one I know has had this done, and since I worked for an advertising company, I get pretty turned off by the hype I see in the ads. A local radio station is running a spot for LASIK that says, “You can have 20/20 vision in about the same time it takes for a routine eye exam.” As much as I would love to buy into that, I have my doubts.
A little background on my eyesight – I’ve been wearing glasses since I was seven years old (I’m 31 now). I’ve tried contacts – I’ve tried EVERY contact!! Every brand, every type: hard, soft, gas permeable, torric, daily, disposable, you name it. Even with the softest type, which turned out to be the daily disposables, I was only able to wear for about six hours, and my eyes would start turning red from the irritation. I have even had contacts disintegrate in my eyes while wearing them.
My prescription as I write this is -8.00 in the left eye, and -8.25 in the right eye. Translation: Without corrective lenses, blind as a bat.
[March 5, 1999]
I’ve been rummaging through the internet, looking for every piece of information I can find on LASIK. It was easy to find clinics in my area, but I found the newsgroups to be of much more use, due to the personal experiences listed there – both good and bad.
[March 22, 1999]
I am checking out some of the clinics in British Columbia, and I cannot believe what a price difference there is between Canada and the United States. The US is three times as much! There has to be a catch here somewhere. My girlfriend asked her eye doctor about going to Canada for the surgery, and he told her not to assume since they have been doing it longer, that they are better at it… Hmmmm… Well, I suppose there could be a case made for that, but I also suppose that a doctor in the US that performs LASIK surgery, may also have a vested interest in keeping patients from going north of the border. Getting unbiased information from experienced professionals may turn out to be more difficult than anticipated…
[August 15, 1999]
I went skydiving today. Jump number 148. It was a solo dive from 8,500 feet. Immediately after exiting the aircraft, everything went blurry. I had a freakish thought that I had jumped without my goggles on, but a quick check to my face assured me they were still in place. Somehow, a blast of air had gotten in behind the rubber seal of the goggles, and blew both my contact lenses out. This sucks.
I needed to buy myself some time to evaluate this situation, so I pulled my pilot chute. Checking my wristmount altimeter revealed I was at 5000 feet. Normally I would pull at about 2500 feet, and start looking for landmarks. Locating the landing area usually is completed in a matter of seconds. But with no clear view of anything on the ground, that was not going to happen as quickly this time.
I could see Mt Rainier (it’s the big white triangular blob), so I was able to identify which direction I was flying. Next, I made out the gray snaking pattern of the access road to the airport, and from that I was able to make out the student landing area which is roughly an acre in size. I found I could use the contrast in colors to make out a cluster of trees, grass, and roads. Combining this with my memory of the lay of the land, and I was not in bad shape at all. At 2000 feet, I looked below me and saw a bright orange parachute turn on final approach and land, so now I even knew which way the wind was blowing. I landed in the field without incident.
After collecting my parachute, I took a look at my goggles. There were my contact lenses, plastered firmly to the inside of the goggles, and hard as a rock. The air passing through the goggles must have taken every bit of moisture out of them. They were toast. I walked back to the hangar, dropped off my parachute, and fetched my glasses from the glovebox of my car. I decided that was my last jump of the day, packed up my parachute and headed home, now more determined than ever to fix these eyes once and for all.
[December 27, 1999]
My girlfriend Lola, and I, are spending Christmas in Guam. This is weird – it’s the end of December, and it’s 80 degrees outside! We went scuba diving in Apra harbor, and explored a beautiful coral reef. However, I am noticing myself clearing my mask every sixty seconds or so, because I am so paranoid of washing out my contact lenses. I feel almost as if I’m doing a disservice to the awesome sights contained here – they deserve my full attention!
[February 12, 2000]
I have been leaning towards a clinic in Surrey, BC called Lexington Laser Vision. I am impressed with a piece of equipment they use called the MEL-70 Laser. It is arguably the most advanced laser for LASIK operations in the world, and at this time does not exist in the United States. Besides its accuracy, the thing that has grabbed my attention is its active eye tracking system. The unit tracks your eye movements during the operation and compensates accordingly, yielding more precise results. I have filled out a form on their website to receive more information by mail.
[March 2, 2000]
Ok – time to put my money where my mouth is. I called Lexington Laser Vision to schedule a pre-op screening. When you call though, you do the whole ball of whacks, meaning have your credit card ready, baby! If you turn out not to be a candidate, then they refund you your money. I scheduled everything including the surgery in the same phone call. I’m scheduled for June 30th!! By the end of the phone call, my mouth was totally dry. Guess I am more nervous than I thought!
Besides the equipment at Lexington, they have a pre-op and post-op facility in Bellevue, Washington. The clinic in Bellevue is called Focus Eye Care. That way, you only make one trip to Canada for the surgery. Everything else is handled down here, and it’s all included in the price. The only thing extra I went for is a $50 bus ride (round trip), that Lexington provides. It’s their own shuttle service, and takes you from the clinic in Bellevue, to your hotel in Surrey, and then they have shuttles in surrey that take you from the hotel to the Lexington Laser Institute. Had I not opted to pay for the bus ride, the shuttles in Surrey are still free of charge to Lexington patients.
[June 17, 2000]
First hurdle encountered. I had my pre-op screening done yesterday at Focus Eye Care. During the test, they found that my intra-ocular pressure was abnormally high. A normal rating is 15-20, and I clocked in at a whopping 29. Dr Jang at Focus sent me to a specialist, Dr Morton, of Eastside Eye Specialists. Dr Morton wanted to ensure that there had not been any ocular nerve damage as a result of the high pressure. He explained to me that some of the pigment of my eye color had “spun” off, and clogged the drain holes that normally allow fluid to escape the eye, resulting in higher than normal pressure. It’s this type of thing that can cause glaucoma. Everything checked out ok, and Dr Morton prescribed some drops (AlphaGan) that should bring the pressure into check. He told me to come back in a month, which of course was beyond the surgery date I had scheduled, so I will have to get a new date from Lexington.
[July 15, 2000]
I just got done with my followup appointment with Dr Morton, and the drops are working great. I am down to a 15 in both eyes, so we are go for launch! I asked Dr Morton how long I would need to take these drops, and he explained that they were necessary regardless of the LASIK surgery, but that it would be evaluated as time went on. As long as the drops kept my pressure normal, I should continue using them as a preventative measure. I just take one drop in each eye in the morning and before I go to bed, so it’s a pretty easy regimen.
I asked Dr Morton today if he was still taking patients, because I didn’t have a regular eye doctor. I had never been this impressed enough to stay with one doctor or clinic, but Dr Morton really blew me away with his easy going nature, and ability to clearly explain what was going on with my eyes. Additionally, he never once steered me away from going outside the US for the surgery, even though he provides his own LASIK services. To me that was a very good sign.
My new surgery date is September 28th.
[September 27, 2000]
Holy crap, I am nervous as hell. I scored a line on some valium from a friend of mine to take the edge off a little. My second motivation for the valium, is that it is the general consensus of other LASIK patients I have talked to, that the sedative they give you on the day of the surgery is a sugar pill, since they noticed no marked improvement in their anxiety levels. I’ll pop one of these in my pocket tomorrow, and if I feel I’m going to hurl on the ride from the hotel to the clinic, I’ll use it. Call it plan B 
[September 28, 2000]
Lola and I caught the shuttle bus from Focus at 8:30. The trip up went very fast. We were to our hotel in two and a half hours. We checked into the Ramada Inn, which appears to be tightly knitted with Lexington because Lexington’s logos are everywhere, including the room keys. It turns out that our reservation was at a Ramada about 10 miles away, but Hub, the truly excellent reception person at the front desk bailed us out and worked us into a room. To anyone making a reservation at the Surrey Ramada, and that’s having surgery, it’s the one on 104th, NOT the one on Highway 10!
We had a couple hours to kill, so I laid down on the bed in our room and tried to nap. Right. Ok, so I spent most of the time nervously flipping through Canadian cable channels.
My appointment was at 4pm, so at 3:45 we went down to the lobby and caught the shuttle to the clinic. We arrived promptly at 4:00 and went inside. After a short wait, my name was called, so I bid Lola farewell, and headed back to the exam area.
I was asked if I would like a sedative, and I was shocked to hear myself say “No Thanks….” This is how it always works with me though. I psyche myself out during the anticipation period enough to make myself nauseas, but when it comes to the actual event, I’m cool as a cucumber. Weird.
The topography of my cornea was measured, and I was given another eye exam. They checked my ocular pressure, and everything was right on the mark. The technician was very frank with me, and said that because my prescription was so strong, I may have halos, especially at night. Also, for the same reason, I might have to come back for an enhancement. In my case, I also had pupils which were a bit on the large side (7mm) and he said that also would contribute to haloing. Although these complications didn’t sound like much fun, I believed that these risks were calculated, and it wasn’t like I was blindly jumping into something that had never been done before, so we proceeded.
Next I was handed off to a patient counselor named Beth, who went over the consent form. This was the standard deal where I wasn’t going to sue them if something went wrong, and if I DID decide to sue them, Celine Dion would come to my house and sing that damned Titanic song until I promised to back off. I don’t know how binding those consent forms are. It always seems like people get sued no matter what gets signed. The form had been mailed to me six months earlier, so I had plenty of time to read it before hand. I signed away.
Next, Beth went over what eye drops I would need to take over the next week. They put it all in a fanny pack for you, so it’s easier to carry around. Also included were emergency phone numbers, Tylenol, and some eye shields for sleeping in. When she was sure I understood what everything was for, I was taken to another waiting room. The room was very small. I’m talking like only two people could fit in there comfortably, but they do that on purpose. A nurse came in, and gave me an eye wash. I had my eyes closed the whole time, but it was some sort of pasty material they put on my eyelids, and around my eye. Then they wipe it off with a cloth. She put shoe covers on my feet, and a very stylish hairnet on my head. I wish Lola could have seen, me because she would have been laughing her ass off. I really looked like a dork. Then, to another waiting room!
I was only there a minute or so, when another nurse brought me in to a small area where the surgeon consults with you briefly before the operation. The doctor came in, and introduced himself. It was doctor Boyd. He got right to the point, and wanted to know if I had glaucoma. This threw me a bit, because I thought we would be talking about the surgery from here on out. I told him I did not. He asked, because he saw I was on AlphaGan to keep my pressure down. So I explained to him that doctor Morton had put me on that as a preventative measure against nerve damage. So then he says, “So you do have glaucoma then?”
I firmly remember, that it was at this point in time, where I had even the slightest twinge of doubt about the competency of this organization. Ocular pressure is a big deal, because during the procedure it is raised to nearly twice that of normal. So during all the screening, they check this. With me, they checked it more times than I can count. And as stated earlier on this page, I even went to a specialist to have it verified. So don’t you think a minor detail like that would be listed on my chart??
I guess Dr Boyd was trying to make sure I wasn’t trying to pull one over on him, because he definitely was concerned that my earlier eye pressure had been so high. I just felt that the proper person to ask about the technical details of my condition would have been Dr Morton, or one of the doctors at Focus that had been following this since the beginning, not a freaked out patient 90 seconds before going under the knife.
We agreed that whatever the case was, my pressure was normal now, and the surgery could proceed.
He lead me into the operating room where two nurses in scrubs were waiting. “Meet the A-Team.”, he said. The A-Team. I could just see Mr. T sitting there in a surgical mask going “I pity the fool who messes with my MEL-70 laser!” One of the nurses greeted me, and asked for my glasses. I handed them over, and didn’t realize it until later, but that was the last time I would ever take those glasses off!
They brought me over to the operating table and had me lay back. They started with the right eye. The left eye was taped closed, and my eyelashes on my right eye taped out of the way. Numbing drops were applied, and a speculum was placed to keep me from blinking. You can insert the scene from A ClockWork Orange here. The scene, is for the most part, right on target. Once the speculum is in, you couldn’t blink no matter how hard you may want to. The nurse was talking to me the whole time, telling me everything she was doing. This had a noticeable calming effect. More numbing drops, and plenty of lubricating drops.
Dr Boyd positioned the microkeratome, “Suction on…”, he said. “Suction is on…”, replied the nurse. I heard an airpump turn on, and then everything went really dim. No pain at all though. I mean ZERO pain. Other than the speculum, it was virtually without sensation. The microkeratome motor started up and created the flap. It moved back making the same noise. “Suction off…”, Dr Boyd said. “Suction is off…”, said the nurse. The pump turned off, and I could see light once again.
Dr Boyd moved the flap back out of the way. “Ok, just look straight up at the light…”, the doctor instructed, “..are you ready?” I was as ready as I was ever going to be. “And were off!”, he said. Instantly the laser started firing away with pulsating clicks. I saw a swirling starburst pattern of colored light, and then a brilliant crystal clear red beam, right in the center of my eye. That was the last I saw of the colored starburst, but the red beam itself looked like it was swirling around the outside of my pupil, and then would come in dead center for a few seconds. My perception of time was a bit warped, but it seemed like it took about 90 seconds. During the procedure, the nurse would count off “10 percent…. 20 percent… 30 percent…” That gave me a pretty good idea of what pace the procedure was moving at.
And then the laser turned off. Dr Boyd positioned my flap back in place and smoothed it out. The speculum was removed, and my eye taped shut.
The laser was positioned over my left eye, but this one didn’t go quite as smooth. After the flap was made, Dr Boyd said it would be about 60 seconds while they input the numbers into the computer. I’m not entirely sure why this was, or why they didn’t put the numbers in first, and THEN cut the flap. So there I lay, a flappin in the wind while the computer was readied.
The laser started up, but during the procedure I noticed that I was having a really hard time keeping my eye completely centered on the red beam. It was drifting down just a bit, and the circling motion of the beam before it centered in was almost hypnotizing. I don’t know what the heck my problem was. Midway through the procedure, Dr Boyd stopped the laser and repositioned my head. He said I was beginning to move off center. When the procedure was done, it took longer to get the flap smoothed out. I would be willing to say that the left eye took twice as long as the first.
The nurse helped me orient myself when I sat up. “So, can you see us?”, she said. But actually, out of my left eye I could see nothing but light and shadows. My right eye could barely focus on the nurse, and it looked like the room was full of steam. “Foggy….hazy…”, I said. I sounded like Neanderthal man speaking his first words. But I was a bit disoriented. I noticed something strange in my left eye – it was dim! Much dimmer than the right, and very noticeable.
The nurse handed me my glasses back, not that they were of any use to me any more, and lead me through the hall to a dimly lit waiting room where the other patients were recovering. I laid back in a comfortable chair, and was instructed to keep my eyes shut. With my eyes closed, I realized I was still holding my now useless glasses. I slipped them into my jacket pocket.
The anticipation of my new vision was killing me. I opened my right eye just a slit… everything was still pretty foggy, and pretty blurry too. When I opened my left eye, I felt a twinge of panic. Right in the middle of my line of sight was a black perfectly round disc. Completely impenetrable. It was solid black. I could see around the outside of the obstruction a little bit, although it was very blurry. I closed my eyes quickly. Again, I checked my right eye, but when I went back to my left, there was the black disc. I had never heard of this happening to anyone, so I started to get a little scared. Had the laser done something to my retina? Maybe something had gone wrong. Or maybe the laser just got turned up to high, cut a hole through my eye and continued through my brain and out the back of my head! That extremist thought brought a slight smile to my face, and almost instantaneously my left brain hemisphere kicked in and provided a reasonable explanation:
The next time before you go to bed, stare directly at the light bulb that is illuminating the room for about 30 seconds. Then turn the light off. Let your eyes relax, and you will see an after image of the light you were staring at. It’s like the image gets burned into your retina temporarily. Well, that’s exactly what had happened to me. My eye had been subjected to a very bright light source during the procedure, and that’s exactly what I was seeing now. The image was not present in my right eye, because it had time to recuperate while the left eye was being operated on.
It took about 15 minutes, but eventually the black disc started to dissipate from the center, and move it’s way out towards the outer edge of the disc. Of course if I would have followed instructions, and left my eyes closed….
A technician came in and checked my eyes. He used the standard scope that they use to check your cornea, where you rest your chin on one rest, and your forehead against another. It hurt to have that light shining in there, but everything looked good. We returned to the hotel.
[September 29, 2000]
At 3:00am I woke up in pain. My left eye was throbbing. My right eye, although very irritated, was ok. Things were still blurry and foggy, but I could deal with it. My left eye was very puffy around the lids, and was nearly swelled shut. It was watering pretty bad. I noticed that the tears were almost hot, as they rolled down my cheek. It was a strange sensation. I took some ibuprofen, then forced my left eye open to apply some lubricating drops. Going back to sleep was out of the question. Lola brought me a bucket of ice and I soaked a washcloth in it, then applied that to my eyelids. It felt fantastic. Since that worked so well, I took my eye drops and put all those in the ice bucket. It looked like I was chilling down champagne bottles for a bunch of mice or something. For the rest of the night, I put in my “ice drops”, and it did wonders. By 8:00am, I could open my left eye without any pain. It was irritated, and still very blurry, but I felt the worst part was over.
My post-op appointment was not until 2:00pm, but we checked out of the hotel early and went up to the clinic to see what was going on. They were really good about getting me in early. The technician, had me read the eye chart with my right eye, and I was already at 20/40. But when it came to my left eye, I couldn’t even see the chart… or the wall for that matter. The technician kept increasing the size of the letters, but I was like, “Dude! Give it up!” He took a closer look, and decided it would be best if a surgeon checked me out.
We went back over to the building where the operating rooms were, and Dr Hollands met with me. He was very upbeat, and put me at ease. He prescribed some cortical-steroids for the left eye, with some Ocuflux for antibacterial purposes. Dr Hollands suggested I stay another night, but I was not looking forward to that. My option was to do a strict schedule of drops over the weekend, and see my doctor at Focus first thing on Monday morning. I thought that would be best. We grabbed the shuttle van back to the hotel, where we met the bus for Seattle.
Outside the hotel, a small revival was going on. There was a group of successful LASIK recipients who were absolutely giddy about their “new” vision. I thought I was at an Amway meeting. Come to find out, most of them didn’t have prescriptions more than a -2.00 or -3.00 before surgery. To hear them say they “couldn’t see a thing!” before surgery made me want to give them a good kick in the appropriate body part. But I suppose it’s all a matter of perspective. Someone with a prescription of -13.00 would probably laugh at my measly -8.25 prescription.
[October 1, 2000]
The weekend was not comfortable, but I kept up my drops schedule, and used the iced washcloth trick. My right eye was doing good. Good enough to drive by Monday with one eye. My left eye was doing better too. Things were hazy but I was able to make out things around the house. The worst part about the weekend was that I missed my 10 year class reunion at the Art Institute of Seattle. That really sucked, because I was looking forward to seeing those gangsters.
After subjecting a significant amount of fellow drivers to my one-eyed driving skills, I met with the doctors at Focus Monday morning. They said my cornea was enflamed, but it was still too early to tell exactly what was going on in there, so I would have to come back the next day. I kept up my drops and just kept my eyes closed most of the time. That’s what made them feel the best.
[October 2, 2000]
Back at Focus, I met with Dr Z (sorry, I can’t pronounce the last name correctly) She took a look, and knew exactly what she was looking at. The condition was known as DLK (diffuse lamellar keratitus). It turns out that six patients were seen with this complication, and all six of us had our surgery on the same day. It’s not known what causes DLK exactly, but some good guesses are the cleaning agent used on the equipment, or something circulating in the air during the procedure. Two of the patients were sent back up to Canada to have their flap raised, and irrigated.
People have asked me how I feel, since I wore glasses for so long, and now I’m walking around with none. But it really hasn’t hit me yet. The way my eyes feel now, are exactly how they felt when I would wear contact lenses. It actually feels like I’m wearing lenses right now. Even to the extent of the haziness. That’s exactly what would happen when I would wear contact lenses too long. So I think my brain is just going, “This is nothing new.”
I was feeling pretty good after the appointment, but made the stupid mistake of going back to work. By 2:00pm, my head was pounding, I was nauseas, and my left eyelid was spasming like no other. I looked pretty pathetic. I went home early, and took the next two days off.
[October 12, 2000]
Gee, guess what? The place where I had my LASIK surgery done is being sued. I think I’ll probably attribute this to the same phenomena that allowed me to become the only person on the planet that has actually lost money investing in Microsoft, and not think about it too much.
[October 18, 2000]
Up until October 12, I had a reoccurring eye exam every morning. Each day, the DLK got a little better, and now I go in to Focus once a week. My right eye is still 20/20. My left eye I feel has lower acuity though. I won’t know for sure until tomorrow morning when I have my exam, but I am going to guess it’s at about 20/40. The irritation has really relaxed, which has been the best part about this experience so far. I can tell the left eye is still affected by the DLK, because it will get scratchy every once in a while. Some eye drops take care of that. I’ve also been weaning myself off the lubricating drops. The drops tend to crust in the corners of my eyes, or on my eyelids. I believe the residue of the drops is partly to blame for some of my irritation. So I have been using saline solution as an alternative. It’s been working great. If my eyes become really fatigued, I have found that laying on my back and giving my eyes a direct “wash” with a steady stream of saline does wonders.
Halos and starbursts are still pretty nasty at night, but aren’t too bad in the morning. I took Lola to pick up her car from the garage last night, and the drive back by myself looked like a bad acid trip. (not that I would know what that looks like of course). It will be a while before I can drive at night, especially in areas that I am not familiar with.
[October 19, 2000]
I saw Dr Jang today at Focus. There is just a trace left of the DLK, so I’ll be back next week. My right eye remains at 20/20, but my left eye has noticeably regressed. Last week I was able to make out the 20/25 line if I squinted. But now that line is impossible to read. I can make out the 20/30 line though. I noticed that it is considerably harder to read the eye chart, because the lights in the room are off. The eye chart, being an illuminated projection, still creates a lot of glare for me. Just seeing beyond that makes it difficult.
Today was the first time since my surgery, that the doctor used the apparatus with all the lenses in it to see if my vision was correctable to 20/20 in the left eye. Aside from the glare, it was. My guess is that the steroid drops promoted corneal tissue regeneration, negating the tissue that was removed by the laser surgery.
While the doctor stepped out of the office, I snagged the remote control that flips through all the eye charts. I was going to try to see if I could make out the 20/15 line with my right eye, but ended up displaying a bunch of Egyptian symbols on the screen which I then could not get rid of. Next week I’ll make it a priority to figure out how that thing works. So far the only other thing that has kept me entertained in the exam room, is the buttons that make the chair go up and down, but the novelty of that wore off in a few minutes.
[October 26, 2000]
My vision has not improved or regressed, but when Dr Jang checked my eye pressure, the right eye was now TOO LOW! So he suggested I only take the AlphaGan in the left eye, and we’ll see how the right eye goes in a couple weeks. Right eye was 20/20, left eye around 20/30. I’m still taking Inflamase in the left eye twice a day.
[November 9, 2000]
I was very curious today as to what my eye pressure was, since I stopped using the AlphaGan in the right eye. It measured a quite normal 14! So what the heck is going on here? My right eye is doing great. My left eye, with the AlphaGan drops measured a 17, so I’ll continue to take the drops twice a day. Dr Jang asked, “Are you sure you are not using the drops in both eyes?” He had no explanation as to why my pressure stabilized, but I’m not going to look a gift horse in the mouth.
We attempted to find a lens that would correct the astigmatism in the left eye, and the results were fantastic. I’m not in favor of wearing glasses of course, but until today, achieving 20/20 in the left eye even WITH a lens was tough, and now the results look really good. So at this point, my worst case scenario would be 20/20 correction with lenses. (Actually just one lens, since my right eye is still 20/20).
The healing process continues. I’m glad to say though that the irritation I had previously is practically non-existent, and my eyes are not nearly as tired at night. Low light conditions still suck, and I have a noticeable loss of contrast in low light conditions. Regular daylight yields HIGHER contrast than what I was used to previously, and colors are rich and deep. It’s a definite trade off.
I was up at my friend Dave’s house in Lake Stevens last week, and ended up talking about and watching skydiving videos. The itch is really starting to come back to me, and I think I may have difficulty honoring the “six-month-no-extreme-sports” rule that the doctor told me about. Jumping without corrective lenses would only add to the feeling of freedom you get anyway, and I can’t wait to do it.
[November 28, 2000]
Hafa Adai! (Greetings) from Guam! Lola and I are spending the Thanksgiving holiday here this year, and I thought I’d update the website at least once, just so I can say I’m updating it from half way around the world. We went snorkling today. I know I’m not really supposed to be swimming yet, but if you think that I can pass up 72 degree water in November, you’re nuts. Before I had the surgery done, I imagined such a simple pleasure as this – how great it would be to enjoy the ocean without worrying about washing my contacts out. I was having such a good time, and interacting with so much of the sea life, that I didn’t even think about how I was able to see it all. It wasn’t until a week later when I realized, Hey!! That was great! For the first time in my life, my full attention was on the event, and not babysitting my lenses.
[December 2, 2000]
We’re back in Seattle. It’s freakin cold. This update has nothing to do with my eyesight. It’s just freakin cold out and I am whining about it. That’s all.
[December 13, 2000]
Three more weeks of Inflamase drops, and they are cutting me loose. Dr Jang examined my eyes last week, and the DLK condition is completely gone. But he said he still saw a bit of swelling in the left eye. So I will continue to use the drops. Eye pressure was about the same – 14 in the left eye, 14 in the right, and that’s without using the AlphaGan drops in the right.
I’m at the point right now where most people would be one week after surgery. My next appointment is one month out…
Uncorrected visual acuity is 20/25 in the left eye and 20/20 in the right. I’m still getting starbursts at night, but they are much more noticeable after a days work than in the morning, even if the light levels are identical. Depending on how tired my eyes are, I’ll get some degree of ghosting when viewing bright light. The full moon is a perfect example. I’ll see the moon, and then just a bit of a ghost image of the moon right next to the original image. They are overlapped. But results vary day to day.
[January 4, 2001]
Happy New Year! Just got back from Focus Eye Care, and an exam with Dr Jang. The pressure in my right eye is elevated. It registered a 21, so it looks like I’ll be back on the AlphaGan drops in both eyes…. But that’s ok, because today I read the 20/15 line!!!! Can you believe it? I’m 20/25 in the left eye and 20/15 in the right. Still no halos, but I’m getting some pretty good glare at night when driving in the rain. The headlights of cars look so big that I have a hard time judging how close they are. Otherwise, if it’s not raining, my vision is pretty decent.
Drop Status: I’m off all topical steroids and anti-inflamatories, and continue to use AlphaGan in both eyes twice a day.
[April 4, 2001]
Had my three month followup at Focus. No change, still 20/25 left, 20/15 right, 20/15 together. However, nice little surprise at the end of my appointment – a bill! At the end of the appointment, Dr Jang told me that since my eyesight had stabalized, and they were simply treating a non-lasik related condition (high intra ocular pressure), that the appointment would not be covered in the cost of the lasik procedure. Nice technique – wait until AFTER the service was performed THEN tell me I owe you. Well, it was only $45, and I paid that, but said I would go to my own doctor from now on, since my insurance covers the treatment for my eye pressure.
And anyway, isn’t that illegal?
While we are on the topic of pressure, my eye pressure again was too low. It registered a 10 in both eyes. Nothing critical, but I’ll ask Dr Morton about it.
Lexington Laser’s competitor went out of business yesterday, leaving thousands of people who had already ponied up the $1000, hanging high and dry. Pretty weak. Here’s a link to the article: http://seattlep-i.nwsource.com/business/17385_lasik05.shtml
Update: As of this last update, Lexington Laser is out of business. Something to consider when your potential lasik center offers “lifetime” enhancements. Lifetime must refer to the lifetime of the business.