Laser-Assisted In-Situ Keratomileusis

Yesterday (on 11/2/07), I had custom intralase LASIK completed on both my eyes. Below is a pictoral story of of my experience:

So, I wasn't very nervous or scared leading up to my LASIK date. I had actually been pretty calm and just excited. Well on Thursday night, I just couldn't sleep at all. It felt like I was a little kid starting my first day of school, and when I woke up, I was scurred.

I don't know what I was expecting to happen during the surgery, but I was pretty "panicky." They had to slice my corneas and then use a laser to correct and reshape them, and as they did so there was a orange flashing light I was supposed to focus on. All I could tell myself is, "Annette if you don't focus on the light, you'll go blind. DO NOT MOVE AND FOCUS ON THE LIGHT." lol, I can't say that yelling that to myself made me less panicky, but it did help me focus on the light.

Afterwards, I walked to a private room and kept my eyes closed while waiting for the doctor to look at my eyes to make sure everything went okay. Unfortunately, I had a hyper sensitive reaction that caused mucus to build up in my eyes. That caused them to tear up like crazy and I was unable to open my eyes for the doctor to examine. So in the mean time, this other person was explaining to me my eye drop regimine and I told the man, "Sir, since I have to do the drops when I get home, can you just do it for me now b/c I can barely open my eyes. I don't think I will be able to do it later. They're not opening."

So, he put in the "milky drops" in and then said, just try to open your eyes. Well he had to lift my eye lid b/c tears just kept streaming out and they said my corena looked beautiful and sent me home.

My dad and Liem were there to esort me to the car and boy am I thankful I was one of the first to do the LASIK. I basically came out sniffing a lot (b/c the tears caused so much snot) and tears continued to stream down my shades... if I were the next patient, I would be scared out of my mind seeing someone come out looking all blind.

So I slept with my safety goggles:

(I should mention my goofy father was painting the roof my my window and woke me up.) After I woke up at about 1pm to have lunch and took a picture of my safety goggles and the cool guy shades the doc gave me to wear. I should also add that I couldn't open my eyes very wide, but Liem did good to put my eyedrop regimine in with not much to work with.
So this morning was my follow up and guess what? I HAVE 20 20 VISION!!! (Apparently, this will fluctuate w/in the first few weeks, but I'm looking good. I do have a bloody eye, but that is supposedly normal too!


You remember when Jesus healed the blind man? I can only imagine a fraction of his joy and excitement when he could see. Truly truly it is amazing that God would create me and know me while I was in my mother's womb. Amazing that He has given man the skill to physically fix His creation. All praise and glory goes to Him. Amen and amen.