The Eyes Have It

Yesterday (being March 18, 2019, for those reading on a date later than this post), I had a procedure performed on both of my eyes.  They call it a "surgery" but to me "surgery" implies cutting and there was no cutting involved.

The procedure is called "corneal cross-linking" and involved having your corneas gentled 'brushed' to remove the epithelial (outer most) layer, followed by 30 minutes of riboflavin (vitamin B2) being dropped into your eye at 2-minute intervals, and then another 30-minutes of riboflavin-dropping (every 2-minutes) while looking at a mild UV light.  Repeat for the other eye, if you're having both eyes done in the same day*,  Which I did.

The hardest part for me was lying on the very flat table for 2-hours.  Not the lying there, per se, but because I had no lumbar support, so my lower back started aching after a bit.  Oh, they tried to help alleviate the issue by elevating my legs and even a towel under my back, which did help some, but not completely.  But I got through it.

So now I'm in recovery.  Today's follow-up went well, so next week the 'bandage' soft contacts come out.  In the meantime, I get to put (3) different drops in my eyes 3 or 4 times a day, as well as some artificial tears.  Plus taking some ibuprofen some really good pain medication, as needed.  So far, I don't really need the pain med, but I'm supposed to take it for at least two days, so who am I to argue?  (Hehehe)

Fortunately, I did take the entire week off from work, so there is that.  But my vision is currently blurrier than normal (which is typical after this type of procedure), so no driving "until I feel comfortable" doing so.  Video gaming will be a bit more difficult, but it is doable, so I will be doing some of that.

The procedure's primary purpose is not to improve eyesight, but rather to halt a relatively rare condition** that does worsen eyesight.  However, there have been cases of improved eyesight, as well.  While I have no illusions of this procedure restoring me to 20-20 vision, I am hoping it will allow me to wear soft contact lenses, instead of the hard ones I've had to endure.

But only time will tell.



----
* Apparently if it is covered by insurance (some do, some don't), you would probably have to have one eye done one day and the other eye done the next as most insurances won't cover both eyes done in the same day (which is stupid).

** The condition is called Keratoconus, if you feel like looking it up.  The procedure is also used for other, similar type of conditions, but I didn't have those other ones, so I wasn't really paying attention to them.