I have had bad eyesight since I was very young. At ten I got my first pair of glasses. I can still remember right after I got them my mother telling me to put them in my lunchbox for the walk home so I wouldn't break them or lose them. I'm not sure why she told me that because I needed them to see distances and walking home I figured I would have needed them.
About the time I finished college, I decided to move on to contacts. I was getting married and didn't want to wear glasses in my wedding photos. It took awhile to get used to them, but there is a difference in how clear things are. I took very good care of my contacts and didn't have any problems. Then about ten years ago I started to have more issues with them. I would have to go to the eye doctor more frequently because they would tear and just not work right.
So I decided to bite the bullet and get Lasik. Just the thought of the surgery gave me the willies. I mean lets face it, they are shooting a laser at your eyeball and you are awake for it. Not something a sane person really does. And what happens if something went wrong? You only have one set of eyes. But I was tired of dealing with contacts.
When I went for my consultation I was told I needed to wear glasses for two weeks before the surgery so my eyes would reshape themselves. It had been so long since I had worn glasses (remember no contact problems) that the pair I had was about three prescriptions too old. So I had to go buy a pair of glasses for two weeks. I found the cheapest pair I could possibly get and I didn't care what they looked like.
Day of surgery I went to the clinic. Dan dropped me off and went to run errands. They numb your eyes and give you a valium. Soon its is time and they walk you into the room where they mark your eyes and then walk you to another room to do the surgery. It takes about 1 minutes for the whole thing. Then you close your eyes for about 30 minutes and you are ready to leave. They give you funky glasses to wear at home so you don't roll onto your eyes when sleeping.
In less than 6 hours I was reading the crawl at the bottom of the tv. I had never been able to do that without contacts and even with them it was hard sometimes. I can't believe how much better my distance viewing is after the surgery.
They warn you that it only corrects distance and you probably will need reading glasses eventually. And sure enough two years after the surgery I needed to get reading glasses. But I don't have to use them all time and I can get those cheap at the store.
All in all, I'm quite happy that I bit the bullet and got Lasik.
