Eye Surgery, too.

As proof that I was not completely oblivious to the excellent blog-material that is eye surgery, I took lots of before and after photos. Here I am with contacts about a week before the surgery:

For a week before the surgery, I had to wear only glasses to allow my eyes time to relax. I thought it would be a more difficult week than it was, but I still didn't enjoy wearing glasses. Jeff said he knew that my glasses weren't correcting my vision because I didn't complain all week about his dirty windshield! (I hate a dirty windshield.) The only cool thing about my glasses is that they are super-cute. Here I am looking cute in them:
Jeff took four days off this week so that he could focus on the surgery. On Wednesday morning, we went in for a pre-op appointment, which was a little annoying because the assistants kept saying I was too hyper. (I was insisting on not taking the valium they give to patients right before the surgery to help them relax.) On Thursday morning, after taking the valium - and only because my mom said it was okay, Jeff snapped this shot of me eating a cookie:

Then it was time for surgery. Jeff was not allowed to be in the room with me, but I stayed calm by reciting the alphabet. (Amazingly, the valium didn't seem to do much, though I don't even want to think what the surgery would have been like without it!) The surgery itself is pretty uncomfortable and psychedelic, something I might have enjoyed if I'd ever been much on drugs. There were lots of blinking lights, drops, and then the smell of something burning. Oh, right, that was my eye. Here's a shot that one of the nurses took while I was having the first part of the surgery: After surgery, we went right home, which was honestly the thing I was most worried about. I've never really liked being in moving vehicles and riding with my eyes closed only makes the carsickness worse. Luckily, Jeff was kind enough to take the route I requested and kept me posted on where we were at all times. About half way home, my eyes really started to burn, and it only got worse over the next few minutes. By the time I got to the bed for my prescribed post-op nap, I couldn't believe the pain. It felt like someone had put drops of hot sauce in my eyes. Jeff gave me some Tylenol PM and I finally drifted off. When I woke up, I had no pain, I could see, and I looked like this:

One of the coolest parts of the whole thing is that I finally got to throw away all the contact solution, contact lens cases, glasses (which I plan to donate), and other vision-challenged paraphernalia. Here's what the collection of stuff from my house looked like:

What isn't quite so cool is that the space created by the removal of all the above stuff was immediate filled with all the things I need for a speedy and healthy recovery. I have to put two different types of drops in 4 times a day, and some tear-like drops in every two hours, and I have to wear those crazy goggles at night so that Jeff doesn't elbow me in the face and ruin all of the hard work. Here's what it all looks like:

This morning we went back to the doctor for my post-op appointment. Just 24 hours after my surgery, I can see 20/20 in my right eye, and 20/15 in my left. And things will only get better! As the eyes heal, vision improves, so there's a chance that I might see even more clearly in the next few weeks. Even if I don't, I'm not concerned. The fact is that I have been given a gift more precious than I could ever have imagined. Yesterday, when I looked at my garden without glasses, I saw this:

Yesterday afternoon, without glasses, I saw this:

That may not look like such a miracle to you, but it does to me. It's the second miracle I've experienced in my life. (The first I'm living daily with the man of my dreams. Thanks for making this possible, Jeff.) I know that this type of surgery isn't available to everyone who needs it, and I feel so special to have been lucky enough to experience it.