i once was blind...

BUT NOW I CAN TOTALLY SEE!

amen for lasik. that's right - i finally took the plunge and underwent the laser. after 3 reschedulings and 2 full months of wearing glasses (UGH!), the day finally arrived where i could pitch the frames for good. i never quite understood those people who WISHED they wore glasses - are you crazy?! i still vividly remember the day back in the 4th grade when i got the fateful news that i needed corrective lenses. i cried and cried into my mother's arms, begging that the reality was not true. but alas to no avail...so i got some supercool early nineties glasses - y'know the ones that took up half your face, yeah - and tried my hardest to believe i was no dork.

but after a year of annoyance, i was successful in coaxing my parents that i was mature enough to get fitted for some contacts. although i certainly had my fun with them, sporting various colors throughout my teen years, i also suffered many a times with angst - from the oops, "kitties sleeping on my pillow will definitely cause irritation" days in the 6th grade to the severe infection/inflammation months in the 11th. and then eventually things just normalized, and the routine became something that went without thought. except for those brief moments every morning and evening when i was reminded my true state of vision...i couldn't see squat. ok, ok, maybe 3 inches in front of my face - but does that count?

although i have always had in mind the magic age of 25 to get laser correction, it wasn't until i changed eye doctors a few years ago that things really started to come together. i have to say my eye doctor is GREAT. i recommend him to anyone that i know and have at least 5 friends who have gone and have recommended him to their friends. of course, it is pretty cool that he's also the team eye doctor to many of the Washington sports teams...Wizards, Nats, D.C. United to name a few. like i said, he's GREAT. whereas most optometrists are monosyllabic as they go through the routine eye exam, dr. smithson is very personable and actually explains to you what he sees and why it matters...or doesn't.

when i went in for the first time back in 2006, i found out much to my surprise that i had astigmatism in my right eye...and while my contacts were both regular lenses (not toric as the right should have been), my glasses had BOTH lenses corrected for astigmatism! seriously, i'm never going back to a mall eye doc ever ever ever again. i was shocked!

with that quickly fixed, i was again stunned to find out that i had in fact dry eye syndrome. although my contacts NEVER bothered me, my poor eyes were severely suffering from oxygen and moisture deprivation. i wouldn't not have thought much of it, until dr. smithson quickly explained the consequences of corneal neovascularization, which is basically the blood vessels grow in toward the cornea to bring oxygen to an otherwise suffocating eye. and that if something wasn't done, this condition could worsen and ultimately lead to blindness upon rupturing of one of those vessels in the cornea. eek!!! so i listened, and wore my oxygen permeable, properly fitted, regular on the left and toric on my right, lenses during less hours of the day. and sure enough, just as he described those encroaching blood vessels did a literal u-turn as my eye started to breath again! amazing.

and then following 2 solid of years of showing overall eye health improvement and a stabilization in prescription, i was finally given the green light this past spring that i was a good-to-go lasik candidate! after 15 years of utter dependency, i was more than ready for freedom. yesss. once i was put through a battery of tests, i was scheduled with dr. mark whitten of tlc vision (tiger's doc among other athletes) for my oh-so-anticipated surgery.

now it was originally scheduled for 4/11 but after a major misunderstanding on my part (who knew the lenses actually SHAPE your eye?) preventing accurate waveform topography measurements during the pre-op, that didn't happen. ooops. so instead of risking the irreplaceable, my surgery day got pushed a month later to 5/23. of course only to find out on my next pre-op appt they didn't realize one of my lenses was a toric...apparently this shapes your eye more than a regular lens...and that i needed to be out of my contacts for a full month before measurements could be taken. sigh. fortunately, cindy, dr. whitten's right-hand technician for the last 15 years, was great in working with me to move the surgery back just one more week and scheduled me to come in the day before the surgery to redo the measurements for validation.

so after everything checked fine on thursday (finally finally), i rolled in friday morning with my designated driver in tow. after a quick exam, i was given some valium :), a surgical cap and escorted to the surgical suite. while stephen watched from the window, i was assured that there was nothing i could do to screw things up - whew! after being flooded with numbing drops, the whole procedure was done within a matter of minutes. not more than 10, honest! and dr. whitten was so encouraging...every second he would say, "great", "perfect", "beautiful", "fantastic" - certainly helped put me at ease! and as soon as it was over, i was able to see - whoa what a feeling.

i was left with some tylenol PM so between that and the fully in effect valium, all i would want to do was to go home and take a nice long nap. i called my parents on the drive home, eyes closed because of the dryness but so elated that if i did open, i could totally read the road signs! stephen swung by wendy's to pick up my usual #1 plain with cheese and was so patient in helping me eat as i tried to keep my eyes rested. once my belly was full and my whole being fully relaxed, i collapsed in my freshly made bed (thanks hon!) for a nice long nap...of course i didn't forget to wear my new fashionable sleep goggles.

after 5 blissful hours of sleep i woke up refreshed and seeing better than ever, especially upon the commencing my new 5-eye-drops-an-hour regimen. feeling ready for some more grub, i enjoyed my all time favorite comfort food - ritzy chicken casserole - that i strategically pre-made that morning. stephen and i then packed up a tote with a bottle of wine, glasses for 2 and picnic blanket. we walked 2 blocks to rosslyn's gateway park to celebrate my new eyes by watching the free friday screenings of james bond movies held throughout the summer.

perfect weather, free popcorn, a 007 movie classic with the occasional engine roar of DCA airplanes flying straight overhead... it was a truly great way to end a life-changing day. here's to modern miracles.