Over the years I've been told by multiple eye doctors that it would be in my best interest NOT to get contacts or wear my glasses often because then I would "get used to it" and never be able not to have them. Seems a little backwards I know, but I guess it sort of makes sense. They said as long as I was able to manage that it was ok. LASIK has always been on my mind and I'm not even going to lie here, but I wanted to make sure I knew what my children looked like before I did it...just in case...and I can now safely say that I think this is the best thing I've ever spent money on (although I feel like I just recently said that about something else. I don't care, this trumps ALL!) And I did take each little kiddo's face between my hands and memorize it before I left for the surgery, you know, just to be sure.
The procedure was definitely bizarre. I was really nervous once I got there and my heart rate clocked in at 83 just while they were telling me what I'd have to do post-operatively. They gave me a valium when I got there but it didn't kick in yet when I was ready to start so it was VERY nerve-wracking. I was clenching my teeth and gripping my belt with both hands!! The first eye went a little better only because I didn't exactly know what to expect. They tape the upper and lower eye lashes open and then put a speculum in my eye so I wouldn't blink. I felt like I was trying really hard to blink any way and for the first minute or two after it was put in it hurt a tiny bit like on the outer edge of my eye, more like my skin not my eye. They had already put in numbing drops so I don't think I could feel anything on my actual eyeball. So then this machine comes down and put enormous amounts of pressure on your eye/face. Weird. You look at a red light the whole time. I think it's mostly to keep you focused on where you should be looking and they take pictures and count down from 30. They had told me they would do the countdown so I thought I was DONE after that but no, those were just the pictures. Then they focus the laser on you and lock it in so if you do move, it moves with you. Good to know. They start the 30 second countdown again and this time there's noise and it smells like burning flesh. Awesome. Way to calm you down right?! So the laser does it's work and then they need to smooth the flap that they just created back down. This is by far the most bizarre but least nerve-wracking part. It looks like your looking through a window and that they are wiping it clean but in your brain you know that in actuality he's touching your eye! Crazy! So they let you just marinate for a minute and put lots of drops in before they move on to the other eye.
During the second eye, after the intense-pressure machine or as it was coming off my eye for some reason my whole body convulsed. Kind of like when you are about to fall asleep and you feel like your body "jumps". Well I did that and I almost lost it. I kind of gasped and whispered "sorry". And he was like oh it's ok, just the suction of the machine. I was SO horrified that I could move that much and worried that I would when it actually mattered but somehow was able to calm myself down and get through the last couple minutes and be done! All in all it only took about 5 minutes per eye. Then I sat up, got down from the table, and went home to rest all day!
I got to have a nice little break the rest of the day. They told me that the first two hours would be the most uncomfortable and so I should try to SLEEP not just rest if at all possible. No problemo for me. We all know I can sleep at any time of night or day. I popped myself a second valium and out. I did wake up when the kids were in the dining room at noon. But other than that I got my two hours in before I got up at 1:30pm to eat some lunch. On my way back to bed I met Cal coming out of the bathroom and he gasped and said, "Momma you can open your eyes!" which was funny because it was the exact same thing Ben said when he saw me later in the day for dinner. I managed to take advantage of a quiet naptime for the boys and went right back to sleep for another two solid hours. Ahh...the bliss of daytime naps. I WAS getting a little worried about how I was going to sleep at night. I stayed up the rest of the day and listened to my pre-arranged book on CD, The Girl With the Dragon Tatoo. It was fun and different since I've never tried that before. By the time dinner came around and then I chatted with Eric at night, it was bedtime, and surprise surprise, no trouble sleeping the night away. Had to make a quick stop for a checkup first thing Saturday morning where I was dubbed "best flap of the day" and told I now had 20/15 vision and then went back to MA for the weekend.
The fact that I can now see FROM MY HOUSE if the flag on my mailbox is up or down is just A-MAZING to me. Eric laments that now he has to hear about, FOR MONTHS, what I can now see. It's cool, ok?! Think about having a disability and then curing it! Had a minor setback on Day 5. I was in the middle of something and my hands weren't free when Seth came barreling towards me and whacked me in the eye. Not good. He didn't poke me, my eyes were shut but considering I can't even WIPE my eyes or take a shower with my face in th water because the water pressure could be too much for a whole week, I figured a good wallop to the eye was pretty serious. So I called and sure enough they wanted to see me ASAP to make sure I didn't dislodge the flap (although they were pretty sure I didn't because I would be in a lot of pain apparently) and/or to make sure it wasn't wrinkled at all. All was well when I got checked but my other eye was a little blurry and upon examination much drier. So she put a plug in my puncture. In other words, she took what looked like a tiny piece of plastic and with tweezer inserted it into my tear duct...all while I was just sitting there. I was thinking holy shit, what if I blink but she didn't even mention it. She did get it in there easier than I thought and that was that. She said it melts away in 3 months and will prevent the eyedrops and I guess natural eye juice from draining and help it stay moist. I'm told the wetter my eyes the better, faster, and easier they heal.
So that was my eye journey so far. I'm SO looking forward to Saturday when I can wash my face and get all this dried up goop off my eyelashes and eyelids. Soon I can also stop two of the three eyedrops I'm using and I can move to putting the last one in only once an hour instead of every half hour! It's been a little bit of pain but totally worth it!!Check out explanation of pics below!
My thunder grey toilet!
As promised, here are the pictures of the finished part of the basement. We just got the carpet installed today and the boys think it's wonderful they don't have to put shoes on to go down in the basement! They took the liberty of playing golf in the bedroom before the furniture gets put in! It's REALLY hard to do the bathroom justice in pictures. I have to say, I do love, love, LOVE it. It came out better than I could have hoped for. The only major thing left to do is put in the glass for the shower and then there's a few odds and ends the carpenter has to finish up but otherwise - DONE! It feels good not to have to deal with people in my house constantly anymore and I can't wait until someone uses everything!!!! 
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