Mine Eyes Can See, Glory!

DAY ONE: March 24, 8:30 a.m.
I’ve had my eyes for as long as I can remember. The first time I realized something was wrong with them I was in middle school; my mom took me to the optometrist and I learned (to my horror) that I was nearsighted and needed glasses. In the days that followed, my schoolmates deemed me “four eyes,” the cruelest name a boy in my self-conscious condition could be called. Life as I knew it was over. Yet somehow I survived.
When contacts became all the rage, I waited years to get up the nerve to try them out for size. They certainly took some getting used to but I’ve been wearing them daily since college. Pop ‘em in in the morning, pop ‘em out at night, put glasses back on face, sleep. Lather, rinse, repeat. Of all the things that could malfunction with a body, it wasn’t so bad. From this day forward though, I’m setting my sights on something new. This afternoon, I will be undergoing photorefractive keratectomy (PRK) surgery under the skilled hands of Dr. Michael Caruso. The goal is to have 20/20 vision and never again have to rely on glasses or contacts for distance.
My wife got LASIK surgery in 2008 and she’s always told me how wonderful it is to see, unencumbered by glasses or contacts, how LASIK changed her life. Patients like myself (I recently learned), who have thin corneas are not good candidates for LASIK but we can opt to undergo PRK. The surgeries are similar except there is a longer recovery time with PRK as it takes a few days for new epithelial cells to regenerate and cover the surface of the eye. With LASIK, an artificial flap is created to cover your eye and therefore, the patient has improved vision almost immediately and with very little (if any) pain. With PRK, no flap is created and the patient must wait for the cornea to regrow. My vision may be blurred for a while and my eyes may be sore, but I am hoping for the best. I’m a little nervous but it’ll be fine. Wish me luck from the future!
DAY TWO: March 25, 8 a.m.
I shouldn’t be on the computer. I have the glare turned all the way down. The surgery went well yesterday but I was a bit jumpy in the chair. It was scarier than I thought it would be but then again, I tend to be a nervous guy. Dr. Caruso walked me through the procedure as it happened. He applied lots of different eye drops and clamped my eyes open Clockwork Orange-style before zapping me with that laser. Each eye took less than a minute but it was still terribly creepy and unpleasant. As the machine announced it was doing its work with a tick tick ticking sound, a disturbing smell akin to burnt hair confirmed the fact that my corneas were being singed off and my sight was being repaired. Unreal.
The remainder of yesterday afternoon was painful – that’s a gross understatement. I was miserable and sore despite the bandaged contacts Dr. Caruso put in my eyes to shield them from the elements. Every patient is different but from what I had read from numerous blogs and tweets, I was expecting to feel the worst of it on Day Three. I can’t imagine tomorrow can be any worse than yesterday. I laid (squirmed, moaned, cowered) in bed with a pillow over my face as my wife closed the curtains and made it as dark as possible. I took the eye drops and Tylenol 3 but nothing seemed to help. Thankfully, eventually, I fell asleep. It wasn’t easy.
This morning though, my eyes feel better. My vision is still quite blurry but the pain I felt last night is now just a bad memory. Hopefully it can only be downhill from here.
DAY THREE: March 26, 7:15 a.m.
It’s hard to say whether my vision is getting better. I’m sure it is, but I have no patience for this gradual improvement. At least the pain has devolved to practically no more than the occasional scratchy feeling and general unpleasant crustiness behind my eyelids. I have a follow-up appointment this afternoon with Dr. Caruso when he will be taking the bandaged contacts out of my eyes. I’m afraid the pain will be back tenfold because of this. Those contacts are the only layer I have protecting my eyes from dust specks, shampoo, kitten fur and God knows what else. Well, we’ll see.
DAY FOUR: March 27, 8:15 a.m.
I was wrong and the bandaged contacts didn’t come out yesterday but they will tomorrow. That’s all right. My eye test at Dr. Caruso’s yesterday afternoon showed that I now have 20/60 vision. I figure that’s pretty good since I used to have 20/400+ vision! And it’s only supposed to get better! The light sensitivity has gone down immensely and though images are still occasionally out of focus, I have long moments of clarity where I cannot only spot small objects in the distance, but also recognize what they are. I can read the guide on the TV and I can define whether the automobile passing on Route 9 behind our condo is a car, truck or bus through the trees (before my PRK, it might have been a Brontosaurus and I wouldn’t have known without my glasses).
Dr. Caruso cleared me for golf Friday if this snow melts. It would be nice to do something besides lying around the house during my vacation!
DAY FIVE: March 28, 9:15 a.m.
I had a second follow-up appointment with Dr. Caruso this morning and my vision is now 20/20 in my right eye and 20/40 in my left. I can see clearly now the bandaged contacts are gone. Well, no, it’s not totally clear but it is a major improvement. In the next few weeks/months, my vision will get better and better. I am so very happy!
There are still fair amounts of stubborn snow mounds on the ground but I don’t care. I’m hitting the green (and white) fairways and I’m going to take it all in. It’s like I’m born again and mine eyes can see! Glory!
Dr. Michael Caruso practices out of Court House at the Atlantic Eye Center. He performs surgeries in Linwood.
Bryon Cahill has a Twitter account @shakabry where he sees everything between the lines.