Kelley's LASIK Surgery

Hi, this is Owen. I am guest-posting for Kelley while she recovers her eyesight. The reason for this is she had LASIK surgery on both eyes on Tuesday. She had been determined to have this done for some time now and the stars finally aligned in 2007. Her new job's flexible reimbursement account and health insurance made the procedure more affordable and we found some room in the budget to make it happen. Kelley has had problems with her contacts ever since I've known her and the glasses she'd been wearing had a bunch of scratches.

Although she really wanted to have the surgery done, Kelley grew terrified at the thought of going under the laser. I could tell she was nervous the day of the surgery, but she held it together pretty well as we waited in the doctor's office. Kelley was given 10 mg of valium, but she didn't think that it was making her more relaxed. Still she was ready when the nurse called her into the laser room.

For the next 30 minutes Kelley was a trembling, crying, lid-squeezing, nervous wreck. I got to watch through a window, but it was difficult to see her like that and be unable to help. The surgery on the right eye was fairly quick although she was crying and moaning the whole time. However, once that was done, I think Kelley decided that she'd had enough LASIK for one day and really put up a fight when they moved to the left eye. The first thing that the doctor has to do is remove a thin circular "flap" on the cornea so that they can use the laser to correct the eye's surface. To cut the flap, they use a small blade and it's kinda gross so I won't go into details, but they have to be able to keep the patient's eyelids completely open with a speculum. Well, this wasn't able to do the job because Kelley was squeezing her lids too strongly for it. So they decided to give her a shot of a novocaine to relax the eye muscles. This helped them get her eyelids to open, but she still struggled more while they worked on her left eye.

Kelley was taken to another room and after about 30 minutes or so she was able to calm down. I told her that it was okay to be scared because, honestly, it's a pretty frightening thing to go through. However, she was experiencing some pain in her left eye. She thought the protective contact that was in that eye may've been the culprit, but she also received the painful shot near that eye. Kelley was sent home wearing a nifty Bill Laimbeeresque mask to protect her eyes overnight.

The pain didn't improve and we had to call the doctor and meet him back at the office at 10:00 that night. Upon inspection, Kelley had an abrasion on the bottom of her eye that was causing the pain. This must've happened when they were cutting the flap on the left eye. So Kelley was sent home with some anesthetic drops to help with the pain. The next morning she woke up with good vision in her right eye, but very blurred vision in the left eye and still a lot of pain. That afternoon, during the follow-up appointment, the contact lens was removed and that also helped with the pain. Her vision was 20/25 in the right and 20/400 in the left.

The pain has gradually decreased, but the vision in her left eye has not really improved that much. And you can see the bruising on the left eye from the novocaine shot and muscle strain. Kelley is wearing an eye patch much of the time now. Just take a look at the little scallywag!
Her next doctor's appointment is Sunday at 7:00 which will mark her 5th visit to the office in 6 days. She's now wearing a contact that will hopefully help the eye heal. So that's the big news this week! Keep her in your thoughts; she definitely misses being able to communicate through her blog!