My LASIK experience, part 2

I already told you about the before and during surgery part. Here's all the post-surgery fun stuff.

Since we had over an hour drive home, they recommended I take the other half of the Xanax to help me deal with the tabasco sauce feeling in my eyes, which was a thousand times worse when the sun hit my eyes. I had to keep a towel over my face, the sunglasses weren't enough. The Xanax worked and I was pretty out of it for the whole drive, until we got to Chick-fil-a to get me some lunch. When I tried to open my eyes, the tears felt like they were literally pouring out of my eyes. I pretty much ate with my eyes closed. Then I took the Lunesta they gave me and passed out for the next four hours.

I woke up to the sounds of the kids being loud after dinner, but I waited until Lorelai was in bed before I got up. Adam and I didn't want her to see me and get upset that I couldn't be with her. I was super groggy and still had my eyes taped and they were watering like crazy so I couldn't really do much. I was able to tuck the boys into bed and let them know I was ok, then laid on the couch for a bit and went back to bed at 9pm. I wasn't supposed to read or watch TV at all for the rest of the day.

I woke up at 5:30, just in time to drive back to Greensboro for my 7am follow-up appointment. It was a really quick appointment where the doctor checked my vision on the chart (almost 20/15 not even 24 hours later!) and made sure my flap was in place and healing nicely. It was such a pain to have to drive all the way back there for a 20 minute appointment, but they say it's so important because they can catch any problems early on and correct them to avoid permanent damage. Sounds good to me! Anyway, on the drive there in the dark, I noticed I was seeing halos around lights, but it wasn't too annoying. This is totally normal and should lessen over time. I didn't even notice it as much when I drove home at dusk yesterday.

I do have red bruises on my eyes from the suction ring they used to hold my eyeball in place while they cut the corneal flap, but all except for a little bit is under my top lids.

ew. awkward and very unflattering pic, but just keeping it real...

The worst thing ever is that I can't wear eye makeup for a whole week following surgery! I totally wish I could wear my sunglasses inside so no one could tell. Ha, I'm so vain.

I'm totally kidding. Honestly the biggest issue at this point is the dry eyes. Oh my freaking goodness, it's so uncomfortable and annoying, especially at night. When I wake up in the middle of the night, it feels like a dried contact stuck to my eyeball. It's not as bad during the day, but staring at a computer screen all day certainly doesn't help things. And almost even more annoying than the dryness itself is the blurriness that lasts for several minutes after I put the lubricating drops in my eyes, which I have to do numerous times a day. I'm still searching for a drop that I really like...

I know the dryness is normal and I was told to expect dryness for at least 6-8 weeks following surgery, but in some cases it lasts 6 month, a year, or never gets better. I can't tell you how much I wish/hope/pray I'm not in that last category. If so, I may end up regretting my decision :( With all the drops that I have to put in my eyes, I'm not to the point where my eyes are any less maintenance than when I was wearing contacts, which was certainly a huge appeal to LASIK.

As of now though, I love that my vision is so much more crisp and clear. It's really nice being able to actually see what I'm doing in the shower and once I stop needing the eye shields at night, it'll be nice to see the alarm clock (assuming my eyes aren't so dry when I wake up that my vision is blurred). I'm especially Looking forward to the summer when I can go to the pool or beach and not have to worry about losing my contacts in the water. I'll reserve judgement on how happy overall I am with my results until my eyes fully heal and if/when the dryness goes away, but I'm very happy with how the procedure itself went. 

And I can't say enough positive things about my doctors at TLC. Dr. Stonecipher performed my surgery, and Dr. Marino did all of my pre-op appointments. The entire staff in both locations was super nice, and overall they were very thorough. Granted, I didn't shop around too much, but I got several good recommendations for them, including from my eye doctor and the research I did on Dr. Stonecipher turned up extremely positive reviews. I'd definitely recommend them if you're local and considering having it done.

So there you have it, my experience. Hope it was helpful (or at least not too boring)! I'll update again just as soon as the dry eye goes away--I'll be shouting that good news from the rooftops fo sho!