Normally a post with a title like this you’d expect to be all about entering the new year with new perspective, a new outlook, projects…. all that stuff. But in my case, they’re literally new eyes. On December 22 I had laser eye surgery, correcting my eyes after wearing glasses or contacts since grade 3.
As I sit here writing this I’m getting nervous about how the results are going to go.
My eyes are -6.50 and -7.50 (thereabouts… if you don’t know what the numbers mean, just think “coke bottle glasses”), with astigmatism, and every time I’ve talked to anyone about laser eye surgery that I’m “a perfect candidate”, but had yet to find the several thousand dollars needed. I finally decided to just go for it and damn the torpedo (or in this case, credit card bills).
I won’t describe the procedure to you, but needless to say it’s pretty boring… lots of drops, then stare into the flashing light, and then more drops, then it’s over and move onto the next eye. The procedure type I had was called PRK, which is different than the more normal “Lasik” that most people get. With Lasik the tasered eyeball is protected in a different way and the recovery time is measured in days. Because of my high prescription, they recommended PRK, which has a recovery time that’s a lot longer, measured in weeks.
Three weeks in I’m getting a bit worried. Not really worried, more impatient I guess. My vision is at about (I’d guess) 80-90% of the way to 20/20. I can read my phone, close to my face, and the TV across the room, but the computer screen at mid-distance is still not good. Right now I’m writing this with the screen zoomed in (thank you Apple for providing a nice easy shortcut key to zoom into the screen (ctrl+scroll up/down)) and even though the letters are pretty big, they’re still blurry. If I put drops in my eyes or squinch a bit it gets better, but to comfortably read email I need to basically be in 100 year old man mode, with things zoomed in so only 5-10 lines of text fit on the screen.
I use my eyes all day. For my day job of computer programming I stare at computer screens with lots of text on them all day. For my passion of photography I spent all the rest of the day staring through the viewfinder of a camera or at a computer screen editing and needing to see how sharp images are.
So the potential of not being able to see is pretty scary.
That said it’s getting better. The other day for the first time i could see the odometer in my car and not a blurred LCD readout. I thought it might have been because I’d just put drops in my eyes (I hadn’t) but no, it stayed as sharp as it was. And then the next day it was still there, maybe a bit sharper. Today I could kinda use my computer at work without it zoomed in all the time, whereas at the beginning of the week I had to either have drops just put in my eyes (they magically turn the world super-sharp by smoothing out my lasered eyeballs, and it only really lasts for a couple of blinks) or be really zoomed in.
So it’s getting better.
A friend who had the same procedure done over the summer told me it takes about 4 weeks (maybe a bit more) to get back to 100%. So that made me feel a bit better. I haven’t really shot any photos since Dec 22. Nothing real though, but man I’m itching to. All the stuff you’d expect from a “new year new vision” post on a photographers blog, just assume that I’m thinking all that stuff. But mostly I just want my vision to be back like it was before. Don’t get me wrong, it’s awesome to still reach for my glasses in the morning before I remember that I can see really well. I’m just impatient I guess 🙂
(But even if I need sunglasses 24/7, I think I can totally rock this look…. I think) 🙂