Tuesday, May 15, 2012

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.

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