Been a while since my last eye update. My vision has stabilized since my last post, and my bandage contacts were taken out a few days after my last post. This time, I made sure to keep them really moist the first few days after taking them off to avoid any more bits of epithelium from detaching. There was probably little chance of it happening again after giving my eyes a few more days under the bandages, but I just wanted to be sure.So the big question you probably have is, how is my vision? Well, at my last visit, my eyes measured 20/20, so by most accounts, that’s “perfect” vision! However, in my opinion, I think my vision is a little less than perfect still. While I could see the 20/20 line, the letters were kind of blurry, so I’m probably more around 20/25 or 20/30 (I have no idea what those actually look like, just guessing here). I feel like I was able to read those last lines just through extra focusing power, but unless I look hard, things aren’t completely sharp without me having to try to focus on something. My vision still varies a bit, though, sometimes when I get some tears going everything gets a bit sharper, and other times I don’t focus quite as well. I think this is what they mean by “quantity comes first, then quality”. For the most part, my prescription is right now, but it takes a bit longer for everything to “smooth out”.

So how about those stars and halos in the night you always hear about? Not to bad at all. Not really much worse than before. I’m thankful they turned off the light and flashed a light at my eyes to show me how much I had before, because comparing it now, I see that the level of starring and haloing is about the same, just a slight bit more now. But again, this varies, too. However, I was able to drive home just fine from Pittsburgh with the last few hours of the trip at night.

The freedom is amazing. For a non contact wearer, it doesn’t seem like a few seconds putting contacts in and out matter much, but it does. It adds up every time you do it, having to clean your hands, put them in, experience that constant feeling of something in your eye, the end of the day gunkiness, carrying around gear when you travel. Contacts are just an overall hindrance. The best thing is the “get-up-and-go” ability I have. I can just sit up in the morning and do stuff, and I can jump into bed when I want to pass out late at night after writing a long blog post. Plus, with pretty severe myopia like I had, there’s a nice psychological component of not being totally reliant on contacts and glasses. When I went to Pittsburgh, I felt “lighter” as I packed and lived out of the bag. Just one less thing to worry about in a busy life.

I doubt I will go for a correction if it does turn out I’m not quite at 20/20. I’m pretty much fully functional now (except I can’t cut onions without crying profusely, still a little sensitive I guess) with the level of sharpness I have, though it’s a little less than what I had with my contacts (which apparently got me to 20/15, so I was a bit spoiled). Maybe I’ll try some of those natural vision improvement exercises. I have a book on them and I do believe they work for small corrections. They were out of the question for me when I was -7.0 diopters, but I hear they work wonders for people with a less than a couple diopters off.

All in all, the freedom is worth it. That’s all there is to it. The cost is totally worth it as it comes out to about the same over the long run. The safety is great these days with a good surgeon. It’s arguably better for your eyes than wearing contacts on top of your eyes for years. The pain of Epi-LASIK is a bit tough for the first few days, but is nothing really unbearable, and if you are not into contact sports, you can go for the more common, less painful, LASIK operation. So what it boils down to for me is the lifetime of freedom and “lightness” you get for those few days of discomfort. I feel it’s a good choice, and I am pleased with the results.

Kudos to Dr. Rubinfeld (surgeon) and Dr. Davis (post op care) at Washington Eye Physicians & Surgeons. They have my full recommendation. I will probably post some more intermittent updates from here on my vision, but I just wanted to leave you with a quote from Dr. Rubinfeld at my last visit regarding my new vision: “Now make sure you use your new powers for good, not evil!”