And the games continue...

So I went for another eye checkup this am.   I really should stop doing that ;-P

They told me my eye is looking significantly better!  Woohoo!!!

Contender for my next profile pic?

So pics on the left are last checkup, pics on the right is this one.  I honestly have no idea what the coloured ones are indicating.   But in the black and white -- notice how much smoother the shading in the right one is?  Apparently this is the goal ;)   When it comes to eye-pics, colouring in the lines is good.

I explained about the fairly funky intermittent vision I have and asked “is this normal”?   The doctor just laughed and said he thought at this point my eye would never be considered normal.  Sheesh.  Okay fine, but what I really should have asked was “is this something you’ve seen before and is there any chance my vision will improve?”  Right – I don’t actually know if they’ve seen it before, they definitely seemed bemused by my description.   Did say though that there’s still hope for improvement over the next few months.

Okay great, thanks.  I can go back to work.

Yeah, it’s never that easy.

So while the back of my eye is doing much better (see above beautiful picture) apparently the front is having some challenges.  The iris has fused to … something?   I didn’t catch what – my grasp of eye anatomy is way better than I ever wanted it to be, but still lacking some key details.   Anyways, this essentially is impacting the eye pressure which can cause other issues.   As he put it – “the eye plumbing is blocked”.

Awesome.

The result?  Laser surgery – today.  Oh goody.

So I fill out the consent form.  This always amuses me – they bring it to you in the waiting room and tell you to read it, then come to the front desk to sign.  Fair enough, signature needs to be witnessed, and they make a point of asking again at that time if you know and understand all the risks etc etc…   But I read really fast and usually end up back at the desk a few seconds after they do.   Now to be fair, most of their clientele move at a significantly slower pace than I do, and for many English isn’t a first language (common enough there’s a spot for the translator’s signature as well).   So that alone probably takes more time.   But I always get the oddest look when I get there.

Back to the waiting room for me.  Now I had laser surgery after the very first operation – and it hurt.  Everything I’d read and seen had said it wouldn’t, but it did and I was not thrilled about doing it again.  Especially as this doc had told me straight out it might hurt, but would be very short.   However, I’m even less thrilled about being blind so…    At least no anesthetic required – anesthetic does fairly awful things to me.

So my turn comes and the setup is very much like every other exam room.  He froze my eyeball (that had already been frozen once that day) and then went to stick something in my eye – it looked like a small but thick plastic ring.  My assumption is that it is to hold the eye open.  But as soon as it touched me I shot backwards.  Seriously dramatic reaction – I was slightly appalled.  But ow.   And said ring was covered in goop, so when I shot backwards this was now all over.  Ugh.  So cleaned up and he froze the eye again ;)   This time when he did it it felt slightly uncomfortable and there were moments I could see some fun flashing lights (fyi – if you ever see flashing lights, esp in a circle, and it’s NOT because a doctor is poking around at your eye, get it checked out by a specialist.  Even if it’s just a few seconds.  Trust me on this one.) but otherwise it was no big deal.  

Then you put your chin on the stabilizing bar and they shine a ridiculously bright light and everything looks and feels very much like a checkup except you know they’re going to laser you.  And he warns me that “It might hurt, don’t flinch away.”

I just about laughed – not sure how I’d control an involuntary reaction, but sure.

And then…

Wait.  What?   Was that it?   The tiniest little zap.  Complete with cool sound.  And I felt it in my jaw and my head, not my eye at all.   For the farm kids out there – you know the feeling when you touch the electric fence?   Like that, but 1/1000000 of the intensity ;)  Honestly just a slightly odd feeling, and so minor I almost didn’t know anything had happened.   So he zapped about half dozen times, sometimes with moderately long pauses between.    And then “that worked really well.”  Excellent.  Takes all the gear away and I wipe the goop off and I’m done.  New script for more drops and “come back in two weeks.”

Perfect – I’ll be back at work by lunch.

Except no.  Within a few minutes I had a blinding headache, and then nausea.  And then booked it to the washroom because of said nausea.  Lovely.   Had put it out of my mind that every time they use those freezing drops I feel ill afterwards – apparently I’m the only one (lucky me!) and they need to use them, so I just suck it up.  But evidently three times in an hour is a little more than my body was okay with *sigh*

So I got to hang out a while longer till my body decided to behave itself, and then it was suggested that maybe returning to the office wasn’t the best idea for the day and since thankfully my work is incredibly supportive, I took that advice and went home.   It’s been several hours now and I’m feeling significantly better – disproportionately tired for some reason and my head is still unimpressed, but otherwise all good.

And thus ends the latest chapter of “eye surgeries I used to be happily ignorant about”.  Sheesh.