Sweet boy

I totally forgot to update the blog when N turned 10 months. We are only 2 weeks from his 11 month mark, so we'll just keep on moving.

(Fake goose)

The thing I want to remember forever is how sweet this child is towards animals. Real or fake. We noticed a few months ago that he has a funny little noise he only made when he saw the cat. It was like a real quiet high pitched squeal/whimper (those two words are probably opposites). Since then he makes that noise towards all animals! I have tried to tried to get him on video, but of course as soon as I pull my phone out he quits or gets fascinated with the phone. I think I finally got a few seconds of it though.

But the thing that I love is how he will take a moment to stop and hug an animal when he's playing. Unfortunately my two crazy dogs won't let him near them. We have a constant game going on that he heads towards them excited as can be, one growls and runs and the other jumps up like its the first time she's ever seen him.... every single time.

 

Logan - the grumpiest dog alive.... maybe this is why.

 

My mom's lab lets him crawl all over her and lay his head on her. Precious Lola. 

 

I think he's trying to plank on Lola.

 

My brother's dog... tolerates N pretty well. Up and over!

A friend's cat

I anticipate this child will go through a time that I have to tell him to stop pulling the dogs tail or smacking it, but for the moment, I love how sweet this little boy is to animals. 

Here he is squeaking to Sierra

PRK Recover Days 6 - 10

I haven't updated because there really was nothing to update. I went back to work Wednesday (Day 6) and my vision was pretty blurry. I used rewetting drops (Systane Ultra) constantly which helps a ton. When I put them in I can see crystal clear until I blink them away.

Every day I would look at the eye chart in my work suite (I share a suite with a nurse) and every day my right eye was MUCH fuzzier than my left. So much so that I'd close it most the day when reading my computer screen, etc. I did the eye chart and my right eye was 20/50ish, my left around 20/35. Every night I'd go to sleep and pray that I'd wake up with better vision. I was VERY frustrated. I started reading other PRK blogs and kept waiting. I had nearly convinced myself this was as good as it would get.

Well, the day finally came today. Day 10 (Sunday). I finally noticed an improvement. A small one, but I didn't have to close my right eye today to concentrate and my vision is crisper! It really renewed my hope that this was not the end. (I even read a blog that said most of the healing comes AFTER you stop the steroid drop... which for me will be in 3 weeks.)

I spent most of today walking/shopping and being outside so by 4pm my eyes were exhausted! I think it was too much sun, squinting or really trying to bring everything into focus. I put ice on them and laid down for a bit and it felt so much better. It even helped my vision. Now that it is 9:30pm my vision is pretty hazy again, but this morning it was better. While we were shopping I could see myself clearly in the mirror! Its weird though, the vision would come and go. When it would come into clear, crisp focus I didn't want to blink or anything because I knew I'd lose it! I even think my right eye is a little better than my left right this moment, which hasn't happened at all. I was really worried about that right one.

The entire time though, I've been able to read the computer screen (I did zoom it at work to make it more comfortable), do nearly all my daily activities (haven't started wearing make up again yet), its just the vision is blurry. No ghosting or double vision at all, just haze/blurriness. I am not even any more light sensitive than normal. I can see 90% better than pre-surgery, but I'm very ready to see clear road signs, billboard, books....  

I am excited and my patience has been renewed. I have my follow up appointment in 3 weeks and had already told myself I wasn't going to panic until then. I'd give it at least until then.  However, after PRK your eyes can heal all the way up to a year later! Much different than LASIK for sure.

PRK Recovery Days 3-5

Day 3 PRK

 I wear my sunglasses at night, so I can, so I can.....

Today is the worst day for sure. I cried twice today, which compared to yesterday is an extreme difference. Today it feels like my eyes are burning. It is very difficult to open them and they are extremely sensitive to sunlight. After I laid down for an hour or so I was able to get back up and eat dinner with my sunglasses on and even took N for a walk. I wore a hat and sunglasses, which really helped my sensitivity to light. Its not painful per se, but more just really constantly uncomfortable, constantly stinging.

Today is also my worst as far as vision is concerned. Everything is much blurrier. In fact, I’m typing this with my eyes closed and will go back and proofread later, but I didn’t want to forget how things felt in the moment. {Pain level on a scale of 0-10 is probably a five or six. Yeah, a six.

I am off work tomorrow and very anxious at this point for things to feel better and be able to see better.

Ow.

Day 3.5 – 4

I woke up at 3am Monday morning in HORRIBLE pain (Had the surgery Friday morning). After all this I’ve celebrated the fact that there wasn’t a ton of pain and it was only mildly annoying, but with this I would say it was a 9 out of 10 in pain and discomfort. In that moment I in no way thought this whole thing was worth it.  I broke out the ‘only use in case of emergency’ numbing drop and numbed my eyes. This was a HUGE relief, but the doctor told me not to use it unless I couldn’t stand it because it keeps things from progressing a bit. So it was an hour of pain before I gave in.

I made it until 6am when I called my doctor on his cell phone crying. He asked if I had anything for pain and to use the numbing drops again. Fortunately I had oxycodone from my delivery and he said take one and go to sleep, to call when I woke up.  I was a little mad that he didn’t say, ‘Rush in, let me take a look!’. But I did what he said and amazingly when I woke up the pain was gone, I mean literally zero. Strange thing, but he knew what he was talking about. He said it was not a typical response, but that it sounded like the exact spot the cornea was healing was a painful one (maybe he said a nerve? Or in my line of sight? I can’t remember).

The rest of the day today (Monday) went by fine. Vision was pretty blurry, but using the ipad I was able to zoom in HUGE and check facebook :).

Ben dressed N today while I was laid up in bed, navy, red stripes and green/blue plaid. Precious :)

Day 5 (Tuesday)

No make up for one more week, I was trying to get a pic of my necklace so I could share it with the person who made it. 

But here I am waiting on the dr, with NO glasses on, hurray!

Today was my first follow-up appointment. As the doctor said I could, I drove myself to his office (about 35 miles) very warily. I could see the road fine, but signs and things were still blurry. I went slow and stayed in the same lane. All was fine. At the office, he checked my vision (a very hard to believe 20/30) and corneas, said everything was healing well and removed the contacts. It was a huge relief to have them out, but immediately made my eyes VERY sensitive to light. I couldn’t even open them. Fortunately, that lasted only a few minutes and he sent me on my way.

I am certain that after removing the contacts my vision went from the said 20/30 to something HORRIBLE! I left though and sat in my car a few minutes thinking about what to do. I didn’t have anyone within 50 miles who could come and get me and the doctor said I was legal to drive. The very scary part is thinking there are other people on the road who drive with this vision! Anyways, I drove, but trust me, it was not fun. I was very nervous, but knew if I went slow, I knew my way home well enough. I could see the road and other vehicles, but everything was very very blurry.

I ended up calling work and telling them to change my half day to a whole day, that I didn’t think it was a great idea to drive the hour and 15 minutes from the dr. office to school. I made it home and immediately went to sleep hoping my eyes would heal some more.

Sure enough I woke up about 3 hours later and my eyes were even better. I’m pretty sure sleeping is the key to all of the healing. My eyes currently are the best yet. They are still fuzzy, but I have moments of clarity. I can occasionally read the guide on the TV which I have not been able to do since having the surgery. I am not taking any more days off work (I can’t believe I’ve taken 3 days off to begin with) so I am hoping when I wake up tomorrow I’ll be able to see even BETTER!

My next appointment is in 3 weeks. I’ll update tomorrow.

PRK Vision Correction Recovery Day 2

Today was a good day. I felt well enough that I told Ben he could go riding with a group of guys if he dropped me off at his mom's house. Otherwise I would have gone stir crazy. She helped a lot with N.



I was up to go riding around to consignment shops looking for a walker for a few hours and then went to Uptown Art Uncorked (formerly Sips n Strokes). I even managed to paint a fairly decent picture! I wore my sunglasses most the time and used drops a lot, but everything feels pretty good.

I have to say so far my recovery is MUCH better than the blogs I read of other people's experience. My eye doctor called to check on me last night and a nurse tonight. She said tomorrow may still be tough.

Overall my vision is decent. It looks like I have great vision but am looking through a really dirty windshield. Everything is really blurry, but still better than pre-surgery. They gave me Systane rewetting drops and as long as I keep those in every hour I'm not too uncomfortable. The feeling is like I stayed up crying all night. When your eyes sorta sting and feel dry. Pain from zero to ten is like a 2 or 3.

 

What I won't miss -  wearing my glasses and sunglasses together. Hah!

PRK Vision Correction

Today I had PRK which is a vision correction surgery and I wanted to document how it went because when I googled it, I only found a few blogs about it. I did not qualify for LASIK because I have thin corneas. The difference (I am told) between the two is a little bit longer recovery time. Also, instead of cutting a flap in the cornea, fixing your eye and then putting the flap back, they disolve the cornea and then your eye has to heal again. That is what makes it a little bit longer recovery time.

Gross I know.

Anyways, I asked my doctor today how many people get PRK and he said only about 10% of his patients do not qualify to LASIK.

I was VERY nervous, but still opted not to take the valium because I respond TERRIBLY to medicine like that. I get very panicky and feel like I'm in a nightmare that I can't get out of. Yuck.

I went to pre-op yesterday afternoon, they took lots of measurements, did vision tests, dilated my eyes, etc. Painless. This morning I arrived at 8:15. They put some drops in, put a cap over my hair and I was ready. The whole process took less than 15 minutes. They laid me on a table/chair thing and put little guards to hold my eye lids back, then pushed me under a little machine where I had to stare at a little blinking red light for about 5 minutes each eye. As I did a little tool seemed like it was sort of washing my eye (I'm assuming this was removing the cornea) then he said okay, hold still and the red light I'd been looking at made a buzzing noise and my eyes went in and out of focus. It smelled a little like burned hair (sorry gross again), but not much. He put a drop in which rinsed it and I could see! He also put a comfort contact lens on that has nearly 0.0 prescription, but is meant to protect the cornea I do not have. It was so easy, I told him it was MUCH better than dental work.

The longest part was waiting on Ben who decided while he was there should get his eyes examined. He hasn't had them examined in 20 years and felt like he couldn't see. The result was he has 20/25 vision with astigmatism. He was ready to sign up for contacts! I told him if he thought he really needed to see better, he could get glasses and see how often he even wore them first. I just got rid of paying for contacts and didn't want to sign up for that expense for 20/25 vision.

Anyways, currently I can see pretty well. He said I was 20/40 when I left, but everything is pretty hazy/blurry. Sort of like I have good vision, but I'm underwater. The font on the screen is hard to see because its fuzzy, but it is 100 times better than this morning since I can tell there even is a font on the screen. I can actually see my feet! I came home and took a nap, and when I woke up my eyes did sting a bit and itched, but as soon as I put in all the drops (4 different types) I felt better. And really on a scale of 1 to 10, they were only probably a 3 in discomfort. I just have to remember I can't rub them.

He said the worst day will be Sunday as far as discomfort and vision. It is anticipated that my vision will be good today, better tomorrow, then worse Sunday and Monday. Tuesday he said I can drive myself to the doctor to have him remove the comfort contact lenses and should be able to return to work. After that my vision will fluctuate less and less over the next few weeks.

I'm very excited for it! I can't wait to be able to get up and find N's pacifier in the middle of the night. Its the little things :)