The decision...

I work as an optician secularly so I have the advantage of having lots of eyeglasses and loads of experience with contacts. But, when the eye doctor that I work with mentioned that he was considering Lasik, I was instantly intrigued. I have always thought "I would totally have Lasik if I had a chance" but never thought I would actually have the chance.

Then, I found out that I could get quite a deal on the surgery and I started thinking about it seriously. So I went for a consultation.

I found out that I have nice thick corneas (never thought of that as a strength until now) but that they were somewhat irregularly shaped. Also, my eyes were somewhat dry so they told me to take a month more off of contacts, take fish oils, and come back. At my second appointment, my eyes were no longer dry however, they were still not symmetrical. And so, they recommended PRK. I had never heard of PRK (Photorefractive Keratectomy) before this and so I was skeptical. They explained that it's less invasive than Lasik but that the recovery time was more extensive and could be more uncomfortable. I have a feeling that "uncomfortable" is the "nice" way to say-"it really hurts". But after doing lots of research and reading what feels like a million blogs on the matter, I decided to procede. I have the assurance that my vision should be 20/20 and crisp with in a time line of at least 6 weeks. That may sound like a long time but I should be functional within 3 days to a week. For someone who has been in glasses since 2nd grade, a few weeks of functional, but somewhat blurry vision seems like an ok trade off. We Shall See (ha ha).

I just got finished reading and initialing all of the consent forms and that has kind of freaked me out. It of course tells you about all of the possible side effects which range from dry eyes to ... death. But what helped me look past this was the memory of the papers I signed when I had an epidural administered for the birth of my 2 children. It turned out to be a great decision and not only did I thoroughly enjoy the relief the drugs brought but I also thoroughly enjoy the children that it helped me give birth to. I hope that I look back on this decision to sign the documents with as much gratitude that I remember having for the anesthesiologist.

So there it is. I am having PRK done in 1 week. Friday, July 8th, 2011. I will update you as soon as I can bribe Reed to type for me on the 8th.

P.S. For those of you considering PRK: My prescription is about -4.25 with a very slight astigmatism in both eyes.