Details, details and more details (part 2)

I've already posted details about the surgery day, now I'm going to post details about the few days in recovery.

Day of Surgery - Friday Nov 17, 2006

Once I arrived at my parents place, I was hoping to pass out for a few hours but instead, I was wired awake, probably from all the adrenaline and since I had to keep my eyes closed as much as possible, I had nothing to do. My mom decided to take the rest of the afternoon off and sat on the bed with me and we gossiped until my stepdad came home. My parents were going out so my brother and his gf offered to "babysit" me. They cooked me dinner and brought it up to the bedroom where I ate in low light. My eyes even with the sunglasses provided, were extremely sensitive to any source of light. I watched CSI with them with my eyes closed and went to bed around 10:30pm.

4:30am - I awoke with excrutiation pain in my eyes and my general sinus area. It was soo painful to open my eyes and they were still swollen as well from the surgery. I didn't know what to do, I didn't know what was going on since the entire afternoon after surgery I wasn't in pain at all. I finally caved in and woke my mom up at 530am when I couldn't handle the pain anymore. Turns out, that I was supposed to take the oral painkillers (2 of them) every 6 hours and when I was due to take them (at around 1230am) my mom felt bad waking me up so she hoped I'd sleep through it. WRONG! Regardless, she brought me my painkillers, I put my numbing drops in my eyes and put a cold compress on my face and within 20 mins I was sound asleep with all pain recollection long gone.

24 Hour Checkup - Saturday Nov 18, 2006

Saturday wasn't a bad day, I was still scared to open my eyes for long periods of time and plus it stung quite a bit. Kind of like you had been chopping onions for many many hours. That's exactly what it felt like. My vision wasn't clear especially with the protective contact lenses in place. I went in for my 24 hour check up and the optometrist said I had to have my contact lens replaced b/c it was full of protein buildup. I was freaked out that he'd be touching my eye but frankly you don't feel it at all! He put sooooo much lubricating drops in my eyes and then made me close my eyes and told me to look up, down, left and right three times. Then I opened my eyes and he put more drops. He asked me to look towards my nose and he gently pulled the contact away from my pupil and pulled it out. I didn't feel nothing! He did the same process to stick a new one back in. My vision was tested at 20/30!!

48 Hour Checkup - Sunday Nov 19, 2006

Everyday seemed to get better and better. My eyes were still stinging which the doctor said was completely normal. I was taking 2 painkillers orally every 6 hours and 3 different types of drops throughout the day. The cold compress every few hours also helped with the swelling of my eyes and my humidifier helped as well! I highly suggest a humidifier cos your eyes get suuuuper dry! At my check-up, my eyes had worsened 20/60 but the doc said this was completely normal while my cornea was healing, it would go up and down in vision. Only pain I felt this day was again the onion cutting sensation. Was able to watch some tv but not a heck of a lot as focusing for long periods of time gave me headaches. Still wore sunglasses all the time. Even for my showers.

72 Hour Checkup - Monday Nov 20, 2006

I was able to walk around my parents place without my sunglasses without any problems. It was only whenever I went outside that the light bothered me and I had to whip out the glasses. At my check-up, my vision was 20/40. TV watching wasn't a problem at all, though reading a book or anything on a computer screen still was a bit bothersome.

I went back to work on the Tuesday. I've had minimal problems at work. I've stopped using the sunglasses except when out in direct sunlight. I still can't see properly on the screen and I'm hoping within a week I should have that stabilized b/c it's bothering me long term for my line of work to not see super well up close for now. Though I've heard some ppl can take up to a month to stabilize so here's to hoping I won't! I'm down to just 1 type of eye drop 4 times a week. I can now drink alcohol and I"m glad now that it's the weekend.

It's true what everyone says, it is one of the best decisions you could have made. Yes it totally sucks going through the 3-4 days of pain but in the end, when you realize how long you'll have perfect vision for, it's sooooo worth it! I highly recommend it!