On the outside, I try to project an image of having it all together. But underneath that, I'm kind of a disaster. Hence... the name of the site: GlossyVeneer. On Thursday, my husband Kevin had LASIK done on both of his eyes. We got to the surgery center, they had him dress up in the typical garb of shoe booties and a cap. Since he buzzes his hair, the cap kept catching on his head stubble, making for a very stylish look!
They took him back for surgery, leaving me to hang out in the waiting room. After about an hour an employee came out to tell me that he would be up for surgery in about 5 minutes and that I could watch through the window.
There were blinds on the window so it wasn’t real conducive to picture taking. Plus I was just using my iPhone and even if I repeatedly took shots, most of them would look about the same. His procedure seemed to take longer than mine did, but then again in LASIK they have to cut a corneal flap and in PRK like I had, that isn’t part of the process. When I asked, they confirmed what I suspected… his actual surgery took longer. Plus the fact that they were doing both eyes and I’ve only had one eye operated on thus far.
After surgery I watched him get up and leave the surgery room, so I figured he’d be out in a couple minutes. I didn’t take long after my surgery before I emerged to leave. But after about 5 minutes they came out and told me the doctor wanted to keep him there for about 30 more minutes, just to make sure things were okay with his one of the flaps.
After 50 minutes I was just about to start panicking. I asked the receptionist what the hold up was and she said she would check. After another 5 minutes he was escorted out, wearing the stylish goggles they require. He was pretty woozy and needed some guidance to walk out of the building and to get in the car.
We got home and he fell asleep for about 3.5 hours. Then he got up, ate a little and then went back to bed. All in all he probably slept about 12 hours.
The next morning he woke up and came into my office and asked me, “If I told you one of my eyes was hurting really bad right now, which one would you guess?”
I took a look and immediately said, “Your left eye.”
He said, “Yeah… that’s what you’d think. But that eye feels fine. My right eye hurts a lot though.”
I drove him to his day-after-surgery follow-up appointment and he mentioned the pain. That’s when they explained that the cornea in that eye was “stickier” than the other and required more forced to peel it back. That’s why they kept him longer after surgery, they wanted to make sure it was okay. They gave him some pain relieving drops to use. They said the redness/bloody look was fairly common considering his eye just went through a somewhat traumatic experience and was healing.
Then they checked his vision. They asked him to read a line of letters and he rattled it off no problem. Smaller and smaller, he could read the letters. I was really excited for him to have clear vision, but I was also immensely jealous that I couldn’t read the same letters yet. But his vision tested as 20/20, and that’s still with healing time to come. I have a feeling he’s going to end up with great vision.
He has a few different drops to use, but not as many as I had post-surgery. And basically, he should be all healed in a couple days. We went to Costco today and he commented, “Whoa… the sign is so clear.”
I wish I could have had LASIK, it seems like the recovery is way easier. Of course, I knew this going into my surgery… but witnessing it firsthand with my husband while I’m still in the middle of my clear vision journey is slightly irritating!
But honestly… I’m happy for him!
