To See or Not to See? That is the Question.

My Sister, Kristin and I used to have a gourmet popcorn business back when Dave was in grad school and we lived in Utah. When we moved to Texas for his post doc at UT Southwestern, I wasn't able to keep up with the business anymore, but Jason and Kristin made a real go of it for awhile until they ventured off into the restaurant business. At that time they sold the business and I wasn't expecting anything from the sale of the business for a couple of reasons:

1. I know there were a lot of debts from the purchase of equipment that needed to be paid off and I didn't know if there would be any money left over.
2. Since I had moved away and wasn't really involved anymore, I honestly didn't deserve any of the profits from the sale.

Those are two of the reasons I was really surprised one day to go to the mailbox and see a gift certificate from my sister for LASIK eye surgery. I was blind as a bat (to put it mildly). If you know anything about diopters (how they measure eyesight variations), 0 is normal eyesight. Negative numbers indicate nearsightedness and positive numbers indicate far sightedness. Mine was -8.50 in my right eye and -8.00 in my left eye which is pretty bad. I couldn't see my alarm clock or even my hand in front of my face without contacts. Everyone in my family (except my mom) has had it done and has had nothing but good to say about it. I had wanted to get LASIK ever since I knew it existed, it just was never something we had money for and so this was such a cool surprise. The only problem was that when she gave this to me, I was recently pregnant with Phillip and found out that not only could I not get the surgery while I was pregnant, but I had to wait until I had been done nursing for 6 months as well. That set me back another 2+ years

Fast forward two and a half years and I finally got to have the surgery last Thursday (May 15). At my original consult I was told that my corneas were too thin for IntraLase (where they make a flap in your cornea and laser the underside). This meant that I could still have the laser surgery, but it would have to be PRK which gives you the same end result, but recovery is much longer and they only do one eye at a time. But when I went in last Thursday, they re-tested everything and my cornea readings had improved enough to where I was able to get IntraLase. How did my corneas change? The doctor said that they could have changed because the last time they checked, I had been off of contacts (glasses only) for 5 days, and last week was closer to two weeks. I personally think that the priesthood blessing Dave gave me before we went in had a lot to do with it.

Now, it's been almost a week since the surgery, and I'd like to say that I see perfectly, but I don't and I'm not sure why. At my post-op appointment, the doctor said that since I had such a big prescription change that my corneas were quite traumatized. I'm hoping that is a huge factor and that things will start to improve when my corneas heal. I also have these lovely red marks from the pressure of the instrument that made the corneal flaps. I don't know if that's normal or not, but my sister said she didn't ever have any marks when she had it done. I feel like there's a film over my eyes and things are kind of hazy. Nothing is clear. It's quite annoying. I go in next week for another check-up and I hope things start to get better soon.

I included a picture of what my eyes look like so that you could all feel sorry for me. Looking at the picture, I'm not sure if you'll feel sorry for me about my eyes or about all my wrinkles (or my crooked nose)!!!! I've got to get photo shop so I can airbrush that stuff out!