Today is the day! Last night I went to bed feeling like it was Christmas Eve. At the same time, I felt like I was forgetting something.  I quickly scanned some laser eye surgery websites (not blogs this time) to make sure there wasn’t something I needed to remember to do (or not do) just prior to surgery. I did have a list of do’s and don’ts from my clinic, but it only gets into the after surgery timeline.  It looked like as long as I didn’t drink alcohol, coffee, tea, etc. I would be just fine.   It was just my luck that during my google search I found a forum site relating to PRK surgery disappointments. I didn’t open it, but being disappointed was really the last thing I wanted to think about. I went to bed and shut it out of my mind.  Then my mind went to the pre-op eye exam.  What if the doctor decided I wasn’t a candidate after all?  I wondered how often that happens. I wondered whether I would get drugs to calm me down. I don’t have a lot of experience with medical procedures, aside from getting my wisdom teeth out, having a c-section, and having some cysts removed from my scalp.  Oddly enough, the procedure I was least worried about (the cysts) ended up in me nearly fainting at the end. What if I fainted during the procedures? I really hoped they would give me something to calm down, I figure that would save me from passing out at least.

I wake up and it really is like Christmas morning. I am more than happy to jump out of bed at 7 a.m. and get in the shower. I make sure to wash my hair because I’m not allowed to shower for a couple of days (bath is ok). My husband then drove me to my 8:30 pre-op eye exam with the surgeon himself. This will be the first time meeting the surgeon. I was in and out of there in 30 minutes, which was pretty awesome.  He confirmed I was still ready to go for surgery. That was such a relief.  I felt like I could actually get excited at that point. The surgeon was extremely friendly and definitely put me at ease. He showed me pictures of my eyes that the various machines had made.  He also showed me how I saw the letter E compared to people who can see properly, if you could even call it an E.  It was more like a fuzzy blurry splodge.

blurry e

I asked him some of the burning questions I had from last night and the ones I mentioned in my earlier post.

  1. During today’s examination, what’s the likelihood of being turned down for surgery at this point after going through the first consultation?   The answer was that this only happens 1% of the time and it tends to be when someone’s vision has changed since the consultation.
  2. I know I am getting AST with cross linking. From what I’ve read, PRK sounds very similar to AST. What’s the difference between the two?  This is probably a dumbed-down version of what  I was told, but from what I understood, AST is a more advanced version of PRK.  The laser is different and there are some different medications used at the end.  He mentioned there is another generation of PRK just emerging called SMILE.  I found an interesting site that compares PRK, SMILE and LASIK.  I just showed this to my husband and he said I should maybe wait for the SMILE version.  Funny man!
  3. The clinic doesn’t do Lasik, why? What I was told boiled down to post-op complications.  Too many people didn’t abide by the post-op instructions (especially surrounding outdoor activities) and ended up with issues from their corneal flap.  The surgeon decided offering Lasik wasn’t in the best interest of his patients.
  4. Most importantly, will I be given something to calm me down? The answer was yes! I would get Ativan if I needed.

All my worries put to rest! I’m about 1.5 hours away from check-in.  I’ll report back when I can!

More posts in this series (or scroll down for previous & next post links)