Well, there is really not much to report here, other than the fact that I've reached my one-year anniversary since my ICL surgery. The great news is that I am still LOVING it, and I'm so glad I did it! I had my check-up and everything looks great. My vision is still 20/15 and my pressure is normal. I do use eye drops about twice each day, morning & night (just over-the-counter lubricating drops, for dryness). I haven't felt any negative side effects from the lenses. I still do "see" the lens moving after I blink--it's hard to explain...the best explanation I can give is if you've ever worn "hard/gas perm" contacts, they move a teeny bit with each blink, so when your eyelid lifts back up after a blink, you can see the very faint outline of the contact as it moves back into place. I never saw it when I had soft contacts, but it was very noticeable to me with my hard contacts. Anyway, since I've had my ICLs I do notice that again now. Definitely not annoying enough to wish that I hadn't done it though! (And not painful at all--with my gas perm contacts I felt like I had rocks in my eyes with each blink. This is only visual, not uncomfortable all all, thankfully.)
So that's that!
Showing posts with label ICL. Show all posts
Showing posts with label ICL. Show all posts
Saturday, February 23, 2013
Friday, March 23, 2012
ICL 1-month Follow-up
Today was my 1-month check after surgery. I have been feeling like things were getting crisper and clearer the last week or so (since I finished up my prescription eyedrops last Wednesday), so I was very excited about this appointment. First of all though, my doc said something about me being 20/25 at my last visit...I had to ask him to double-check. 20/25? I thought I was 20/40??--it certainly felt like things were pretty blurry. But he said that, nope, I was 20/25 at my 1-week check. So I guess I misunderstood, misheard, or just assumed I was worse than I was!
Regardless, I am happy to announce that I was 20/15 again today! Yeehaw! I am feeling so good about it all. My eyes are still quite sensitive in the sun (but they were that even before my surgery so it's nothing too new to me.) I'm just always going to be a sunglass-aholic. And I'm OK with that.
My eye pressure was 15 in each eye, so down just a smidge from my last visit. (Anything under 20 is good.)
Overall, I'm really thrilled that I did the surgery. It still seems surreal to wake up and not have to put in my contacts, or reach for my glasses. And at night, getting ready for bed, it's so strange to not get out the contact stuff and have to clean my contacts. It's awesome, I tell you! (We are planning a trip to California and Bryan asked me how early we should leave that morning...I said we should pack up everything the night before so all we'd have to do is wake up and eat breakfast and get dressed. I almost said, "the only stuff I'll need to leave un-packed is my contact stuff" before I remembered that I don't have to worry about it anymore! Wearing contacts for 20+ years makes it quite the habit!)
Regardless, I am happy to announce that I was 20/15 again today! Yeehaw! I am feeling so good about it all. My eyes are still quite sensitive in the sun (but they were that even before my surgery so it's nothing too new to me.) I'm just always going to be a sunglass-aholic. And I'm OK with that.
My eye pressure was 15 in each eye, so down just a smidge from my last visit. (Anything under 20 is good.)
Overall, I'm really thrilled that I did the surgery. It still seems surreal to wake up and not have to put in my contacts, or reach for my glasses. And at night, getting ready for bed, it's so strange to not get out the contact stuff and have to clean my contacts. It's awesome, I tell you! (We are planning a trip to California and Bryan asked me how early we should leave that morning...I said we should pack up everything the night before so all we'd have to do is wake up and eat breakfast and get dressed. I almost said, "the only stuff I'll need to leave un-packed is my contact stuff" before I remembered that I don't have to worry about it anymore! Wearing contacts for 20+ years makes it quite the habit!)
Wednesday, February 29, 2012
ICL 1-day and 1-week Follow-ups
Things are still going really great with my ICL. I'm so happy that I did it. The day after surgery I went in for my 1-day follow-up. On the way down to Salt Lake I was carefully reading all the signs on stores, etc. I would ask Bryan what he could see compared to what I could see. Bryan has always had great eyesight, and he was surprised when I could read things that even he couldn't! I was thrilled. At the appointment they checked my eye pressure...anything under 20 is good. The day of surgery I was at 10 in one eye and 11 in the other eye, then at my 1-day follow-up I was at 14 in both eyes. Also, my left eye had some inflammation on surgery day, but that looked much better at the 1-day follow-up. When he checked my vision I was 20/20 in my left eye and 20/15 in my right eye! I was so excited!
Since then I've been doing really well. No pain, occasional dryness, and lots of eyedrops--3 prescriptions, 3 times a day each, plus I do artificial tears for any irritation. But it will drop off to 2 prescriptions tomorrow, then 1 prescription next week. After 3 weeks I'll have no more eyedrops--just artificial tears as needed.
My 1-day follow-up was with my ophthamologist at the Eye Institute in SLC, but the rest of my follow-ups are just local with my optometrist. Today was my 1-week follow-up and I'll admit that I was a little bit nervous because I have noticed that things were not as "crisp" and sharp looking as the first day post surgery. For example, things like looking at the clock on the stove was a little blurry and I was pretty bummed out about it. At the appointment today the 20/20 line was a bit fuzzy; I got only about half the letters right and even those were ones I just guessed at. The 20/40 line was OK. When I expressed my worry, my optometrist said that it could be one of a couple reasons: first is that I may have just a bit of swelling from the surgery and the second (and most likely) is the eyedrops. I am using an anti-bacterial, an anti-inflammatory, and a steroidal eye drop. Any of those could affect my vision and make things just a bit blurry. So he thinks that it'll get better once I'm all done. My next appointment is in 3 weeks, so I'm crossing my fingers that I'll be back to 20/15, or at least 20/20. My eye pressure measured at 16 in each eye today. Again, I'm hoping it'll go back down when the eyedrops are done.
So that's it. I'm still really happy with things and I think that after the eyedrops are finished it will just be wonderful!
Since then I've been doing really well. No pain, occasional dryness, and lots of eyedrops--3 prescriptions, 3 times a day each, plus I do artificial tears for any irritation. But it will drop off to 2 prescriptions tomorrow, then 1 prescription next week. After 3 weeks I'll have no more eyedrops--just artificial tears as needed.
My 1-day follow-up was with my ophthamologist at the Eye Institute in SLC, but the rest of my follow-ups are just local with my optometrist. Today was my 1-week follow-up and I'll admit that I was a little bit nervous because I have noticed that things were not as "crisp" and sharp looking as the first day post surgery. For example, things like looking at the clock on the stove was a little blurry and I was pretty bummed out about it. At the appointment today the 20/20 line was a bit fuzzy; I got only about half the letters right and even those were ones I just guessed at. The 20/40 line was OK. When I expressed my worry, my optometrist said that it could be one of a couple reasons: first is that I may have just a bit of swelling from the surgery and the second (and most likely) is the eyedrops. I am using an anti-bacterial, an anti-inflammatory, and a steroidal eye drop. Any of those could affect my vision and make things just a bit blurry. So he thinks that it'll get better once I'm all done. My next appointment is in 3 weeks, so I'm crossing my fingers that I'll be back to 20/15, or at least 20/20. My eye pressure measured at 16 in each eye today. Again, I'm hoping it'll go back down when the eyedrops are done.
So that's it. I'm still really happy with things and I think that after the eyedrops are finished it will just be wonderful!
Thursday, February 23, 2012
My Implants are in!
No....not those kind of implants! My contact lens implants! The surgery was today and it went great.
First of all, I will say that I was fa-reaked out!! I could not sleep at all last night; I just kept thinking about the worst case scenario and thought I'd end up blind or something. I know that it was irrational, but I think I felt that way because ICL is so uncommon. I know dozens of people who've had LASIK, and a handful of people who've had PRK, but I don't personally know a soul who's had ICL, so I was very very nervous.
When we got there the first thing we did was pay our bill. (They made sure to do that up front!) Then we went up to the surgical center and got the eyedrops for numbing and dilation. Then the nurse gave me a Valium to suck on (if you swallow it, it takes much longer to take effect, but if you suck on it the effects are almost instant. It was disgusting to taste, but, boy, was it worth it!) I had to wear a hospital gown, but just on top of my clothes, mostly to keep them clean, and little foot covers over my shoes, and a surgical cap. At this point Bryan went into the waiting room and they told him he could watch the whole thing on a TV they have. (He recorded it on his phone, and I've included the video at the end of this post. It's really not too bad to watch; I thought it would wig me out to see it, but there's very little blood.)
They brought me back and I was surprised by how many people were in the room. There were probably about 6 people to begin with, and the surgeon wasn't even there yet. They laid my chair back, took my glasses off, and then swabbed a whole bunch of iodine around my eye. They started an IV, I guess with more sedation stuff. Then more numbing drops (yay!). Then they taped a big cloth/paper thing over my eye (I don't know any of the technical medical terms for these things, but I think it was kind of the same stuff as the little bib you wear when you go to the dentist, just to keep things sterile.) They also taped a black plastic cover over the eye that they weren't working on. Then they said they were putting something in my eye to keep it open. It was super quick and painless, but I gotta tell you, when I watched the video this evening, that thing looks awful! If you watch the video you'll see it...it's the metal piece that hooks under my eyelids and keeps my eye pried open. It looks terribly uncomfortable, but thankfully I felt nothing.
Then Dr. Cionni came in and got started. This is where the video begins shooting. First you can see him inserting the actual ICL into a little cartridge thing. He has to fold it up, put it in the cartridge and then I guess he reaches in and pulls it toward the opening of the syringe/cartridge thingy so that it's ready to inject. Next, you see him making 2 openings at the edge of my iris. He squirted some gel stuff (sorry, again I have no idea about the medical terminology...) in there--I don't know why--maybe to prevent infection?? Anyway, then he inserts the cartridge and pushes the ICL into my eye. You can see it unfold. (On the video there are 3 weird black dots that kind of freaked me out, but Bryan said that they're just bubbles. Also, it looks like the whole pupil of my eye is red--but that's not blood, it's just the light reflecting into my big dilated pupil.)
Next, Dr. Cionni inserts a tool that tucks the corners of the ICL under the edge of my iris, to hold it into place. Then he sucks out the gel and constricts my iris again. He uses a little sponge to sop up the blood from my eye, and he's done! Amazing! The whole thing took about 5 minutes (per eye.)
For my part, it truly was painless. I could feel an occasional tug or some pressure, but nothing terrible. The worst part was looking into the extremely bright light while my eye was dilated. Once in a while he would tell me to look up or look down a little, but that's it! Easy peasy!
Afterword they wheeled me into a recovery room where I just rested and slept a bit. About an hour and a half later they took me into an exam room to check my eye pressure. The pressure is supposed to be anything less than 20, and my eyes were 10 and 11, so they were good! He also did a quick vision test and I was already seeing 20/25! Isn't that incredible! The only weird side effect I've had so far is: when I blink and reopen my eyes I can see a little line lifting up. I guess that it's a bit of double-vision and I'm seeing my eyelid raise?? I don't know? It reminds me of when I wore gas permeable contacts and each time I would blink they would move a little bit up & down in my eye. It's not a really big deal, and I'm thinking that it will go away with time.
Other than that the only side effects I've had are: 2 of the 3 prescribed eyedrops sting my eye really bad when I put them in, but that's a tiny price to pay, and I only have to use them for about 3 weeks. And I have had some dry eye. It feels like I've been riding a motorcycle or something with no sunglasses on. Not a big deal.
So, all in all, I'm pleased as punch! I go back in tomorrow for a follow-up check. Hopefully from here on out things will just continue to get better.
First of all, I will say that I was fa-reaked out!! I could not sleep at all last night; I just kept thinking about the worst case scenario and thought I'd end up blind or something. I know that it was irrational, but I think I felt that way because ICL is so uncommon. I know dozens of people who've had LASIK, and a handful of people who've had PRK, but I don't personally know a soul who's had ICL, so I was very very nervous.
When we got there the first thing we did was pay our bill. (They made sure to do that up front!) Then we went up to the surgical center and got the eyedrops for numbing and dilation. Then the nurse gave me a Valium to suck on (if you swallow it, it takes much longer to take effect, but if you suck on it the effects are almost instant. It was disgusting to taste, but, boy, was it worth it!) I had to wear a hospital gown, but just on top of my clothes, mostly to keep them clean, and little foot covers over my shoes, and a surgical cap. At this point Bryan went into the waiting room and they told him he could watch the whole thing on a TV they have. (He recorded it on his phone, and I've included the video at the end of this post. It's really not too bad to watch; I thought it would wig me out to see it, but there's very little blood.)
They brought me back and I was surprised by how many people were in the room. There were probably about 6 people to begin with, and the surgeon wasn't even there yet. They laid my chair back, took my glasses off, and then swabbed a whole bunch of iodine around my eye. They started an IV, I guess with more sedation stuff. Then more numbing drops (yay!). Then they taped a big cloth/paper thing over my eye (I don't know any of the technical medical terms for these things, but I think it was kind of the same stuff as the little bib you wear when you go to the dentist, just to keep things sterile.) They also taped a black plastic cover over the eye that they weren't working on. Then they said they were putting something in my eye to keep it open. It was super quick and painless, but I gotta tell you, when I watched the video this evening, that thing looks awful! If you watch the video you'll see it...it's the metal piece that hooks under my eyelids and keeps my eye pried open. It looks terribly uncomfortable, but thankfully I felt nothing.
Then Dr. Cionni came in and got started. This is where the video begins shooting. First you can see him inserting the actual ICL into a little cartridge thing. He has to fold it up, put it in the cartridge and then I guess he reaches in and pulls it toward the opening of the syringe/cartridge thingy so that it's ready to inject. Next, you see him making 2 openings at the edge of my iris. He squirted some gel stuff (sorry, again I have no idea about the medical terminology...) in there--I don't know why--maybe to prevent infection?? Anyway, then he inserts the cartridge and pushes the ICL into my eye. You can see it unfold. (On the video there are 3 weird black dots that kind of freaked me out, but Bryan said that they're just bubbles. Also, it looks like the whole pupil of my eye is red--but that's not blood, it's just the light reflecting into my big dilated pupil.)
Next, Dr. Cionni inserts a tool that tucks the corners of the ICL under the edge of my iris, to hold it into place. Then he sucks out the gel and constricts my iris again. He uses a little sponge to sop up the blood from my eye, and he's done! Amazing! The whole thing took about 5 minutes (per eye.)
For my part, it truly was painless. I could feel an occasional tug or some pressure, but nothing terrible. The worst part was looking into the extremely bright light while my eye was dilated. Once in a while he would tell me to look up or look down a little, but that's it! Easy peasy!
Afterword they wheeled me into a recovery room where I just rested and slept a bit. About an hour and a half later they took me into an exam room to check my eye pressure. The pressure is supposed to be anything less than 20, and my eyes were 10 and 11, so they were good! He also did a quick vision test and I was already seeing 20/25! Isn't that incredible! The only weird side effect I've had so far is: when I blink and reopen my eyes I can see a little line lifting up. I guess that it's a bit of double-vision and I'm seeing my eyelid raise?? I don't know? It reminds me of when I wore gas permeable contacts and each time I would blink they would move a little bit up & down in my eye. It's not a really big deal, and I'm thinking that it will go away with time.
Other than that the only side effects I've had are: 2 of the 3 prescribed eyedrops sting my eye really bad when I put them in, but that's a tiny price to pay, and I only have to use them for about 3 weeks. And I have had some dry eye. It feels like I've been riding a motorcycle or something with no sunglasses on. Not a big deal.
So, all in all, I'm pleased as punch! I go back in tomorrow for a follow-up check. Hopefully from here on out things will just continue to get better.
Saturday, February 18, 2012
Last ICL Pre-op until surgery/Superhero!
I went in for my appointment with my local optometrist today, Dr. Rees. This was the appointment that had to be on a separate day from my big one last week (the appointment that stressed us all out because I hadn't known about it/scheduled it). I found out why they couldn't do this on the same day as last week: the "funnel" test (that's what I'm calling the awful water-in-my-eye-ultrasound test that they did last week) kind of makes your cornea swell up, so they couldn't do this test after the funnel test because the results would be skewed. And they couldn't do today's test before the funnel test because they had to dilate my eyes for today's test...and the funnel test has to have un-dilated eyes.
Anyway, the test was super easy, but a little weird. First, he dilated my eyes:
And here's my other pair, still nerdy, but a tiny bit less so, don't ya think? Remember, these are the ones that Miles tells me I look like a superhero in! Mrs. Incredible, right?
Anyway, the test was super easy, but a little weird. First, he dilated my eyes:
(This picture was actually taken about 7 hours AFTER my appointment and look how dilated they still are!)
Then he gave me another set of eyedrops which basically paralyze the eyes' ability to focus. The reason he does this is that normally your incredible eyes/brain can compensate and focus on things a bit better than they actually should be able to. For example, if someone with 20/20 vision were to put on a pair of weak glasses that aren't very different from their own vision, after a while their vision would compensate and they could probably see OK. Or, if I look at an eye chart with one corrected eye, and I know the letters up there, then switch to my other, uncorrected eye, even though it's fuzzy, my brain will compensate and make the letters a little clearer. So these eyedrops make it so that won't happen and when they test me they'll get a more "true" test.
It was all painless, but the weird part was after I was done and I put my glasses back on...I could see just fine far away (as is normal with my glasses) but looking at something up close was completely blurry! To read something close, I had to actually remove my glasses and just hold the thing closer to see it with my uncorrected eyes. Dr. Rees said that that's how it feels to have the middle-aged "short arm" syndrome that people get as they age...when they need reading glasses, but otherwise their vision is still fine. So I guess I'll have that to look forward to in 10-15 years (Dr. Rees said 20 years, but I'm sure he was just flattering me...)
In the meantime, he gave me another pair of those sweet sunglass inserts. Did I mention how big they are? I modified the pair I've been wearing for the past few weeks to be a lot smaller and a tiny bit less nerdy. So here's a picture of the new ones right out of the package:
And here's my other pair, still nerdy, but a tiny bit less so, don't ya think? Remember, these are the ones that Miles tells me I look like a superhero in! Mrs. Incredible, right?
So, now I just wait until the big day, on Thursday! Woohoo!!
Friday, February 10, 2012
ICL 1st and 2nd consulations
Back in November, after meeting with my optometrist, I scheduled an appointment at the Eye Institute. I met with L (I'll just use initials for staff members' names) for the initial consult. She was fantastic and very knowledgable. She did lots of measurements on my eyes to check for corneal thickness and shape, astigmatism, etc. She answered all my questions and I felt really excited. She said that I should come back after I was all done nursing Bree (to avoid those pesky hormone complications) and that I should also not wear my contacts for at least a week (blurgh....I hate my glasses.)
I got a follow-up call from J, another staff member who specializes in ICL, and she too was wonderful and just raved about ICL. She said that I'd absolutely love it! I've talked to her on the phone several times and she's great.
So today I go in for my next set of measurements after having worn my glasses for the last 10 days. (Did I mention that I hate them? They are super old and the prescription is out of date, so my vision is not so great with them...plus they're pretty dorky looking. But the worst part is that I can't wear sunglasses with them and my eyes have always been super sun-sensitive. It's been annoying, to say the least, squinting in the sunlight with my nerdy glasses. I got a pair of dorky sunglass inserts that go under my eyeglasses and look completely stupid. I'll have to post a picture of me wearing them. Miles is very sweet though, he says I look like a superhero in them...I guess because they kind of wrap around my head like the "Incredibles'" masks.)
When I got there today I met with M. Hmmm...what do I say about M?? Suffice it to say, I was NOT impressed with M. She seemed to fumble around the different machines and second-guess everything she did; I didn't think she really knew what she was doing, and my anxiety level was steadily rising... Plus she mentioned that I needed another appointment for another dilation/exam sometime after today, but before my surgery (this was the first time I had heard about this...) Bryan is out of town all next week, so he can't drive me to another exam (I can't drive myself due to the dilation) and if I don't get this other exam in time, they won't be able to order the correct lenses before my surgery. So we were scrambling around, trying to get ahold of my optometrist up here to get an appointment. Luckily we got one scheduled for next Saturday, so it will all work out OK, but I was beginning to feel pretty stressed out during my consult today. And the crappiest part is that I have to keep my contacts out for another week while I wait for this other exam.
After that was taken care of, M told me about the next test that she'd be doing. She said it felt "really weird, but it doesn't hurt." I was already feeling not-too-confident in her abilities, so I was getting more and more nervous. She took me back and showed me what looked a bit like a small funnel. She had to numb my eyes, then spread my eyelids wide and place the funnel thing in my eye. She had a hard time getting it in place and, again, kept second-guessing herself. Then she had to pour water into it. With the water floating around she placed the tip of a probe down into the water (thankfully the probe didn't actually touch my eye.) This procedure takes an ultrasound of the inside of your eye, to get another needed measurement. That took a while and both my eyes were watering like crazy! It did feel weird, but not painful, like she said. But by this point my anxiety level was really high and I was feeling pretty emotional. (Anyone who knows me at all knows that I'm really emotional--a.k.a. a bawl-baby--anyway.)
***I'm going to just take a moment here to rant a little bit to all medical professionals: whether you are really good at your job, or not really good at your job, you need to at least ACT like you are really good at your job!!!! There is nothing worse for a patient than a doctor/nurse/assistant/whatever who acts nervous about procedures. It's like a nurse trying to start an IV, and they fumble around, worried that they are going to hurt the patient, wondering if they can find a vein, yadda, yadda, yadda. Then, inevitably, they botch it and the poor patient ends up with a huge bruise on their arm. I think the best doctors/ nurses/assistants/whatevers are the ones who are confident and act like they know exactly what they're doing (even if, secretly, they don't.) OK, rant over.***
At this point M asked L to come in and take over. Because M was not as familiar with this particular procedure (surprise, suprise...) and she felt more comfortable with L doing it. So L did my second eye and it went much more smoothly. Even though the second eye went better, when L was done I just started crying. (Remember: bawl-baby) I felt dumb. And, wouldn't you know, this was the exact moment that Dr. Cionni happened to walk by and introduce himself to me for the first time. Felt more dumb.
M took me to the next room to dilate my eyes and then while I was waiting for the dilation I went to the kids' playroom to hang out with Bryan and the kids. I was telling all my woes to Bryan about M, and he was obviously bugged too. L came in at that point to show me the ultrasound of my eye. I took my chance and said, "Hey, do you think that M is competent? Does she really know what she's doing?" L assured me that she did, but she offered to take over for the rest of the appointment. Hallelujah! Yes! Please! So, for the next few tests/measurements, L and M were both there, along with Dr. Cionni at the end.
Dr. C said that I am a "perfect" ICL candidate. I'm really happy about that. And he promised me that on the day of surgery I'd be feeling fine (they give me Valium, or something like it, before the surgery.) I feel kind of like a loser... they probably think I'm the crying, whiny, complaining patient. But you know what? I don't frankly care. This is a big deal. My vision is not something to dink around with, and if I don't feel comfortable with my care, I feel like I need to speak up! And maybe cry a little! (Just kidding, I wish I didn't cry...but I just can't help it sometimes.)
So my next appointment is with the optometrist here in Layton. I'll keep posting about each part of this. In the meantime, if you see me with my glasses and dorky wrap-around sunglass insert, just remember that I'm really a superhero.
I got a follow-up call from J, another staff member who specializes in ICL, and she too was wonderful and just raved about ICL. She said that I'd absolutely love it! I've talked to her on the phone several times and she's great.
So today I go in for my next set of measurements after having worn my glasses for the last 10 days. (Did I mention that I hate them? They are super old and the prescription is out of date, so my vision is not so great with them...plus they're pretty dorky looking. But the worst part is that I can't wear sunglasses with them and my eyes have always been super sun-sensitive. It's been annoying, to say the least, squinting in the sunlight with my nerdy glasses. I got a pair of dorky sunglass inserts that go under my eyeglasses and look completely stupid. I'll have to post a picture of me wearing them. Miles is very sweet though, he says I look like a superhero in them...I guess because they kind of wrap around my head like the "Incredibles'" masks.)
When I got there today I met with M. Hmmm...what do I say about M?? Suffice it to say, I was NOT impressed with M. She seemed to fumble around the different machines and second-guess everything she did; I didn't think she really knew what she was doing, and my anxiety level was steadily rising... Plus she mentioned that I needed another appointment for another dilation/exam sometime after today, but before my surgery (this was the first time I had heard about this...) Bryan is out of town all next week, so he can't drive me to another exam (I can't drive myself due to the dilation) and if I don't get this other exam in time, they won't be able to order the correct lenses before my surgery. So we were scrambling around, trying to get ahold of my optometrist up here to get an appointment. Luckily we got one scheduled for next Saturday, so it will all work out OK, but I was beginning to feel pretty stressed out during my consult today. And the crappiest part is that I have to keep my contacts out for another week while I wait for this other exam.
After that was taken care of, M told me about the next test that she'd be doing. She said it felt "really weird, but it doesn't hurt." I was already feeling not-too-confident in her abilities, so I was getting more and more nervous. She took me back and showed me what looked a bit like a small funnel. She had to numb my eyes, then spread my eyelids wide and place the funnel thing in my eye. She had a hard time getting it in place and, again, kept second-guessing herself. Then she had to pour water into it. With the water floating around she placed the tip of a probe down into the water (thankfully the probe didn't actually touch my eye.) This procedure takes an ultrasound of the inside of your eye, to get another needed measurement. That took a while and both my eyes were watering like crazy! It did feel weird, but not painful, like she said. But by this point my anxiety level was really high and I was feeling pretty emotional. (Anyone who knows me at all knows that I'm really emotional--a.k.a. a bawl-baby--anyway.)
***I'm going to just take a moment here to rant a little bit to all medical professionals: whether you are really good at your job, or not really good at your job, you need to at least ACT like you are really good at your job!!!! There is nothing worse for a patient than a doctor/nurse/assistant/whatever who acts nervous about procedures. It's like a nurse trying to start an IV, and they fumble around, worried that they are going to hurt the patient, wondering if they can find a vein, yadda, yadda, yadda. Then, inevitably, they botch it and the poor patient ends up with a huge bruise on their arm. I think the best doctors/ nurses/assistants/whatevers are the ones who are confident and act like they know exactly what they're doing (even if, secretly, they don't.) OK, rant over.***
At this point M asked L to come in and take over. Because M was not as familiar with this particular procedure (surprise, suprise...) and she felt more comfortable with L doing it. So L did my second eye and it went much more smoothly. Even though the second eye went better, when L was done I just started crying. (Remember: bawl-baby) I felt dumb. And, wouldn't you know, this was the exact moment that Dr. Cionni happened to walk by and introduce himself to me for the first time. Felt more dumb.
M took me to the next room to dilate my eyes and then while I was waiting for the dilation I went to the kids' playroom to hang out with Bryan and the kids. I was telling all my woes to Bryan about M, and he was obviously bugged too. L came in at that point to show me the ultrasound of my eye. I took my chance and said, "Hey, do you think that M is competent? Does she really know what she's doing?" L assured me that she did, but she offered to take over for the rest of the appointment. Hallelujah! Yes! Please! So, for the next few tests/measurements, L and M were both there, along with Dr. Cionni at the end.
Dr. C said that I am a "perfect" ICL candidate. I'm really happy about that. And he promised me that on the day of surgery I'd be feeling fine (they give me Valium, or something like it, before the surgery.) I feel kind of like a loser... they probably think I'm the crying, whiny, complaining patient. But you know what? I don't frankly care. This is a big deal. My vision is not something to dink around with, and if I don't feel comfortable with my care, I feel like I need to speak up! And maybe cry a little! (Just kidding, I wish I didn't cry...but I just can't help it sometimes.)
So my next appointment is with the optometrist here in Layton. I'll keep posting about each part of this. In the meantime, if you see me with my glasses and dorky wrap-around sunglass insert, just remember that I'm really a superhero.
ICL
I have told many people that I'm getting ICL eye surgery this month. I've done a lot of research about it online (I'm always a little unsure about how accurate the stuff on the internet is...I take it with a grain of salt because I know that many things I read are just anectodal; experiences of the writers/bloggers who may or may not have the facts correct.) But, I have found it helpful to read others' blogs, detailing each part of the ICL experience, so I thought that I'd write about my own experiences with ICL. So here goes....I'll try to be pretty detailed, so forgive me if this is lengthy.
First of all, about my eye history. I first got glasses in fourth grade and I've been wearing contacts since 7th grade. I've worn both gas permeable and soft contacts. (I HATED the gas permeable; I wore them for less than a year.) I'm lucky that I don't have any astigmatism and I've always had full 20/20 correction with my contacts. Right now my prescription is -6.0 in my right eye and -8.0 in my left eye. I asked my ophthamologist today about what my vision is in terms of 20/20...am I 20/500? 20/900? I had no idea, except I knew it was bad. He said that 20/200 is legally blind, and that they don't really label it beyond that. He said that I was well beyond that, and for me it would be more accurate to say that I'm 10/something...meaning that I can't really see anything from 20 feet away. He said for me it would be more like holding up a hand, a foot away from my face, and asking how many fingers are up. In other words, I'm pretty dang blind.
I've wanted to do LASIK for years now, but I've heard that it's wise to wait until I'm done with pregnancies because the hormones can possibly change my prescription. So, as soon as Bree was born, and we knew our family was complete, I started thinking about LASIK. In November of 2011 I met with an optometrist to see if I was a good candidate. When he saw how bad my prescription was he suggested that LASIK may not be the best fit for me. He said that LASIK is generally for prescriptions up to -6.0ish. He told me about ICL and I was instantly very interested. For those of you who don't know about it, it stands for Implantable Collamer Lens, or Intraoccular Contact Lens (I've heard both). Basically, the surgeon inserts a type of contact lens into the inside of your eye, behind your iris (so it's invisible to anyone looking at you), and in front of your eye's natural lens. The advantages to it are that they don't remove any corneal tissue (like they do with LASIK or PRK), and it's completely reversible should any problems arise. I really liked that. I know that lots of LASIK patients (especially with higher prescriptions) suffer from chronic dry-eye, glares, or halos. Plus, with my prescription being on the upper level of LASIK correction, the probability would be that I may still need glasses or contacts.
So, my optometrist suggested I go and see Dr. Cionni at the Eye Institute of Utah. He said that he's world-renowned and has an excellent reputation for successful ICL surgeries. At the Eye Institute they even said that Visian ICL (the company who makes the actual ICL lenses) sends their camera crews to Salt Lake to film Dr. Cionni doing the surgery, then they use the film to help train other surgeons. That made me feel like I'd be in good hands. Also, they said that this surgery is similar to cataract surgery and Dr. Cionni has performed something like 35,000 cataract surgeries himself...so apparently he's pretty good! They also said that of all their vision correction patients (including LASIK, PRK, and ICL) the ICL patients report the greatest levels of satisfaction with the results.
After all this great news, I was in. I was so very excited about the thought that I might not need glasses or contacts ever again! I have been super excited, but also very anxious and nervous--this is my eyesight that we're talking about! And, of course, as with all medical procedures, they have to disclose all possible outcomes--no matter how slim the possibility is--including complete loss of vision. So when they tell you that, hey, who knows? You might be blind after this!, it's a little scary. But I'm still in. My surgery is scheduled for Feb. 23rd and I'm counting down the days excitedly.
First of all, about my eye history. I first got glasses in fourth grade and I've been wearing contacts since 7th grade. I've worn both gas permeable and soft contacts. (I HATED the gas permeable; I wore them for less than a year.) I'm lucky that I don't have any astigmatism and I've always had full 20/20 correction with my contacts. Right now my prescription is -6.0 in my right eye and -8.0 in my left eye. I asked my ophthamologist today about what my vision is in terms of 20/20...am I 20/500? 20/900? I had no idea, except I knew it was bad. He said that 20/200 is legally blind, and that they don't really label it beyond that. He said that I was well beyond that, and for me it would be more accurate to say that I'm 10/something...meaning that I can't really see anything from 20 feet away. He said for me it would be more like holding up a hand, a foot away from my face, and asking how many fingers are up. In other words, I'm pretty dang blind.
I've wanted to do LASIK for years now, but I've heard that it's wise to wait until I'm done with pregnancies because the hormones can possibly change my prescription. So, as soon as Bree was born, and we knew our family was complete, I started thinking about LASIK. In November of 2011 I met with an optometrist to see if I was a good candidate. When he saw how bad my prescription was he suggested that LASIK may not be the best fit for me. He said that LASIK is generally for prescriptions up to -6.0ish. He told me about ICL and I was instantly very interested. For those of you who don't know about it, it stands for Implantable Collamer Lens, or Intraoccular Contact Lens (I've heard both). Basically, the surgeon inserts a type of contact lens into the inside of your eye, behind your iris (so it's invisible to anyone looking at you), and in front of your eye's natural lens. The advantages to it are that they don't remove any corneal tissue (like they do with LASIK or PRK), and it's completely reversible should any problems arise. I really liked that. I know that lots of LASIK patients (especially with higher prescriptions) suffer from chronic dry-eye, glares, or halos. Plus, with my prescription being on the upper level of LASIK correction, the probability would be that I may still need glasses or contacts.
So, my optometrist suggested I go and see Dr. Cionni at the Eye Institute of Utah. He said that he's world-renowned and has an excellent reputation for successful ICL surgeries. At the Eye Institute they even said that Visian ICL (the company who makes the actual ICL lenses) sends their camera crews to Salt Lake to film Dr. Cionni doing the surgery, then they use the film to help train other surgeons. That made me feel like I'd be in good hands. Also, they said that this surgery is similar to cataract surgery and Dr. Cionni has performed something like 35,000 cataract surgeries himself...so apparently he's pretty good! They also said that of all their vision correction patients (including LASIK, PRK, and ICL) the ICL patients report the greatest levels of satisfaction with the results.
After all this great news, I was in. I was so very excited about the thought that I might not need glasses or contacts ever again! I have been super excited, but also very anxious and nervous--this is my eyesight that we're talking about! And, of course, as with all medical procedures, they have to disclose all possible outcomes--no matter how slim the possibility is--including complete loss of vision. So when they tell you that, hey, who knows? You might be blind after this!, it's a little scary. But I'm still in. My surgery is scheduled for Feb. 23rd and I'm counting down the days excitedly.
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