Eye Surgery Officially Sucks....

It's been less than 24 hours since I underwent PRK and I'm still questioning whether or not I was in a competent state of mind when I decided to get this surgery.

Recap of yesterday and this morning:

I woke up pretty early and spent most of the morning keeping busy to avoid thinking about what was going to happen to my eyes later that day. I went downstairs and played Rockband for almost four hours....it was a great distraction! (As a side note, I was able to complete the solo tour with the guitar on easy and medium with five stars on every song, 107 songs total, - except three....I'll be trying those again later when I can see again!)

Anyhow, Ben stayed home with the kids while Joe and I left for the appt. at 3:30pm. The place was absolutely packed and I didn't even make it back to pay my fees until after 6pm. They then took me in and put plugs in my eyes to help keep my eyes from drying out. Then I got to put on a hair net, booties and they cleaned my eyes with Benadine - that's why my eyes are all yellowish brown in the pics. The surgery itself took all of five minutes. I laid down on a surgical chair and they gave me a little black dog thing to hold. He had me stare at a orange dot, which was difficult because some of the crap he was putting in my eye blurred my vision so bad I couldn't see anything, much less the darn dot.

They had doused my eyes with numbing drops which helped a lot, but when they scrubbed my eye, after putting the alcohol on it, it still hurt - sort of like sandpapering your eye....yuck.

After they finished, they checked my eyes, gave me some cheap sunglasses to wear and kicked me out. I made it home around 7:30pm. Joe gave me a hydrocodone and sent me off to bed. It took forever to fall asleep because my eyes hurt. I was able to sleep for about two hours and then had to get up and take all of my drops. I have four prescription drops and then a bunch of Refresh Plus drops to help keep my eyes wet. One of them is suppose to help with the pain, but it doesn't work too well. I suppose it would work better if I could consistently put it in every hour, but I don't like the idea of waking up every hour to use it. So, every time I wake up from sleeping my eyes are on fire. It sort of feels like the contact they put in is made of onion peel. That's the best way to describe it, like you are consistently cutting onions....that horrible burning with occasional sharp pains....it sucks!

This is me just after I got home, sexy I know.

Anyhow, I went to bed just after 11pm, woke up at 3am and put more pain killer drops in and took half a hydrocodone. I feel back asleep and woke up at 7am and put all of my drops in and took another half a hydrocodone (the full pill makes me really queasy so I've resorted to chopping them in half). I went back to bed and got up just after 9am and used more of the pain drops and then got dressed and Ben took me to my follow up appt. Again it was a packed house. I could barely open my eyes because they hurt so bad. Every time I tried to open them they would start gushing tears. I must have looked pretty bad because one of the nurses came over and asked if I wanted her to put some numbing drops in them. I said, "Yes, Please!!!" The numbing drops were like liquid gold! They took the pain away almost immediately and it was nice to have a break from the pain.

The doctor checked my eye sight and the chart was pretty blurry. I could read the same line as before with my right eye, but everything was pretty blurry with my left, I could only see the very first two lines (the ones that are HUGE)!! So sad. The doctor said my eyes looked great though and were healing fine. I have another appt on Thursday to check them again and take the contacts out.

This is me just after I got home from my appt today, a little less swollen, just as sexy!

So life sort of sucks. My eyes hurt and I have a headache. On the plus side, however, Ben and Joe have really been wonderful. They've been taking care of the kids, cooking meals, changing dirty diapers and keeping the house really clean. The kids have been very well behaved as well. It's been really nice. I have tried to help out with laundry and stuff, but it's difficult to do much when I can't keep my eyes open for more than a couple seconds at a time. Hopefully another day of rest will help.

I know it seems retarded to be complaining about an 'optional' surgery which I elected to have done, especially one which has become so common. I must sound like a big chicken, but I forewarned you all that was exactly what I was....there were a few moments during the last couple of days I've thought giving birth again would have been more pleasant! I think it is the fear of the unknown which makes it so darn difficult. I hate having no assurance as to my recovery and not knowing how bad the pain would be or how long it will last...it all just sucks. I want you all to know how much I appreciate all of your thoughts and prayers though. Thank you and I'll keep you all posted on my, hopefully speedy, recovery!