My Eyes...A Saga. Part 2.

Oddly enough, my eyes never hurt, themselves. The drops we had to get felt like millions of tiny knives stabbing my eyelids for the first day (multiple times a day). By day 2, that feeling was gone.

The recliner became my new best friend. I laid there for three days straight, then moved to the couch, and finally to my bed, though propped up on pillows. The dilation of my eyes lasted at least 48 hours, well past my next-day check up. So glaring and light caused a dull ache in my head for as long.

The first night I had eye shields to tape to my face to keep my from touching my eyes in my sleep. At the appointment the next day, they gave me goggles, which were WAY more cool! I still wear them to sleep (as prescribed by the Dr.) and sometimes to watch TV to cut the glare.

Although not planned, I did receive a suture on each incision (one per eye). These will be removed at my one-week check up. This can also cause some added vision problems while they are in place, which I have experienced. My eye pressure has remained steady and in a good place. Everything feels good, although since returning to work, I've gotten some dry eye issues. I use drops constantly, and still have two prescribed drops that are steroids and antibiotic.

My restrictions for this week have been this:

• No lifting more than 20 lbs.
• No bending with head below waist (which I translated to no bending at all b/c it makes my head swim).
• Sleep propped up on pillows (super uncomfortable and thus not sleeping well).
• No water in eyes (which has resulted in less than clean hair, although I DO shower daily...very carefully).
• No strenuous activity.

I thought the lack of working out would kill me, but I've hardly noticed. I'm exhausted after 7 or 8 hours of working. My eyes burn from trying to read and the dry air of the library and the wind from outside.

My vision is decent. Focusing on specific tiny details and reading continue to prove difficult, but I've been told that the vision will continue to improve and work itself out for up to 30 days. It's hard to do my job, which has caused me to be fairly unproductive this week. But I did teach two research sessions with two different classes, as well as work on a project that I've started and am hoping to finish soon.

I'm excited to get my stitches out tomorrow. That will hopefully help with some of the focusing issues, and I should find out if I will need glasses. While I do hope, desperately almost, that I won't need them for at least a year, I have to be realistic. I was on the upper end of the prescription end for people to get this surgery. Which means that risks for complications, as well as for less than 20/20 vision are much greater. I do, however, still believe in miracles. Someday, I'll need reading glasses, and I'm hoping that until then, I will see only with these implanted lenses. Here's to believing it's possible!

I will have to post some pictures of the pre-op excitement, the post-op dilated crazy look, the eye shields, the goggles, etc. I refrained from taking pictures of my bloody left eye. The upper portion of the white area, above and touching my iris, were BLOOD red. It's been lessening every day, and my boss now says he can't even see it when talking with me. So that's good. I was worried about making people cry when I looked at them at work.

Thank you to all who supported us in prayers and those of you who supported us financially. We could NOT have done it without you. I will report in tomorrow or this weekend about what the Dr.s say in my one-week check up.