Just had eye surgery

I'm not a frequent poster here, but wanted to update everyone about what's been going on in my life recently, and how it led to surgery. (Well, ok, not everyone, but everyone who reads the Lounge )

Note that I'm not saying you're right for the procedure [See your doctor first!], I just never heard of it until about 3 months ago, and now I've had it done.

I had a contact lens implanted into my right eye on August 6. Generally this surgery is done for cataract suffers, but it also works on people with healthy lenses like myself. The actual name of the surgery is "Phakic Intra-Ocular Lens" Implantation (Phakic IOL). In fact, my dad had the same surgery by the same doctor (but had cataracts removed at the same time), and his vision is close to 20/25 some 4ish years later.

The lens implanted was by Veriseye. According to the handouts I was given, it's for people with prescriptions ranging from -5 to -20. It's clipped onto the iris (the colored portion of your eye). My natural lens remains in my eye, so it can help process images.

My uncorrected vision was between -10.50 and -12 (severely nearsighted [myopia] - basically 6 inches from my face and closer was all I could see). If anything happened to my glasses, I wouldn't be able to drive or do my job repairing computers - basically, I need to see to have my life remain as it currently is. My doctor believed I was not a good candidate for LASIK, but thought I would be good for this IOL procedure. After a long battle against an allergic reaction and inflammation, my eyes had sufficiently healed for this procedure to take place. Technically, I could still wear contacts, but I didn't want to risk having the reaction and inflammation return. The inflammation could have actually caused my contacts to damage my eye so badly that I could need a cornea transplant or be forced to wear glasses. :mad Of course, my level of nearsightedness, the inflammation, or the surgery could all lead to blindness (from what I've researched), so something apparently had it in for my vision for a while now

Just the next day after the implant, I was able to read half of the 20/20 line in the doctor's office. :cool It's now a little over a week into it, and everything is going very well. Of course, next Friday we begin preparing to have the second lens implanted, and by the time I'm fully healed from the first surgery, we will implant the second one, so my new "eye" gets to handle all the work and then slowly gets to balance the load with the other as it heals.

If anyone has questions about the procedure, or wants to know my thought process behind it, feel free to either post here or PM me.

 

Hi Noahawk :wave

I have just read your story about eye surgery and I would like to wish you
every success
Takes a lot of nerve to go through any operation. Hope all goes well in the 2nd phase

All the best

Grumbles

 

Hi Grumbles

Thanks. The surgery was the easy part, the needle for the IV ... :eek Well, ok, the IV and the like 2 hour wait for the doctor to finish up the previous patients, I swear I was the last one of the day for him... I like the doc to be warmed up, but not that warm

Thanks again

 

Glad you are doing well. I am pretty much blind myself, and can't seem to wear the contact lens any more, so I have been wearing glasses for a year or so. Will look into it.

Wear some of these :cool if you are in the sun.. Lol.

E

 

WTG man!! I am waiting another couple yrs for the LASIK myself. My Eye Doc said that I am a great candidate for it as soon as it catches up with my astigmatism. Should be any year now

Enjoy the new sight and good luck with the second eye.


~C

 

Glad to hear everything went well, Noahawk. The only problem with that type of eye surgery is a tendency to see everything twice.
Glad to hear everything went well, Noahawk. The only problem with that type of eye surgery is a tendency to see everything twice.

 

LOL.. you kill me.... thanks tho, I needed that laugh this morning

~C

 

great stuff NOAHAWK i hope the recovery goes as well as you would like it to.

and MR P this is for you

http://img521.imageshack.us/img521/7100/isdi63fzduom61s47xjxs6akc2.png
Shot at 2007-08-15

 

Good for you, no surgery is pleasant but the outcome seems to be well worth it. Congratulations on your recovery.

 

Thanks to all~

Fred: I already need the sunglasses, with my glasses, everything has a slight brownish tinge, but with the contact, I can see that everything is brighter. I don't know if that's something in my glasses or not. Heck, I wore my sunglasses in a Wal-Mart that has skylights because it was too bright!

My surgeon does both the LASIK and cataract surgeries, so I was lucky in that regard, but if you consider the contact lens, you'll want to look for a cataract surgeon, which would sound counterintuitive.

Call: LASIK is definately the fastest recovery route. The only things that tell me I had surgery are the eye drops I'm on for a month and the feeling of my wound rubbing my eyelid if I move them too fast, but it's getting less and less every day.

Mr. Pewty: I was not aware of double vision being a side effect of this surgery.
Mr. Pewty: I was not aware of double vision being a side effect of this surgery.

In fact my doctor said today that I'd be a better, more legal driver going with 1 eye than most of the people on the road today in the USA .
My fiancee had surgery to correct double vision last August, and that one was a 2 parter that required you to be awake so the dr. could tie the muscles off behind your eye... Don't need that to be done to me, as it was a $20,000 surgery, luckily insurance covered that one...

darlene: I've never liked needles, and I doubt that will change. I definitely like the results, though

 

After she recovered, did she wonder where one of you went?

 

Must have thought she was dating identical twins

~C
































(sorry, couldn't resist)

 

This post really shows what a strange sense of humor we all have

 

Thanks for the feeback on your eye surgery. I feel a lot more comfortable now to have lasik eye surgery. I need to set up an appointment within the next month so I don't have to worry about wearing my glasses or contacts.

 

I asked the fiancee if she did in fact miss seeing 2 of me. I believe it was the quickest answer I ever got out of her: "No!". So I don't know if that's good or not

kellz123: Not a problem, I'm trying to get the word out about the surgery, as I had never really considered or heard of it. I did go through a LASIK eval, but it was 3 months ago, so I might be rusty on it now. My LASIK eval lasted about 3 hours, and the eval for the contacts took about 4, so if after almost a full day of looking at my eyes and their test results, he had better have been very familiar with my eyes. I went through the local large hospital and had a doctor that other eye doctors said they would have do those surgeries on them, so if the eye drs trust him, so could I.

 

can you say that with a Liverpool accent PHAKIC INTER THINGY?

 

Halo: Thanks, not sure I'd want to see it through the microscope, seeing the shadows and knowing what's going on is bad enough! At least I slept through all but the very end, so I didn't have much choice.

Kestrel: Thanks. I hope that computer class went (or is still going) well for you. Of course, this website is an ongoing class for all of us...

I can wait for classes to start, but they keep getting closer.. now it's just a week away. Maybe I'll have a new job soon, but I'm not holding my breath about it. Blast those office politics...

 

Time for the next update. Tomorrow at 7:30am I'm supposed to be at the outpatient surgery area for my last implant. Hopefully everything goes well, and I actually get out of there before noon this time. I'll be away again for a few days so I can let the new eye heal up.

 

How miraculous, feel better soon.

 

Our thoughts and good wishes are with you Noah get well soon!!!

http://img294.imageshack.us/img294/3079/show9icon713242249bc3bq5.png

 

Good Luck

 

Good luck to you and take care.

 

Glad it all went well for you and that you're happy with the end results.

 

Today was my first chance to plant myself in front of the PC close to all day to finally catch up on everything going on here

Thanks to everyone for the wellwishes.

This last implant was more painful and has yet to have the great results the first one had. We believe this procedure took an extra 30 min, which could have led to more irritation during the procedure - which led to more pain once the numbing agents wore off. But from what I can gather, my surgery was taped for review/learning purposes. I hope they go quicker for the next person, it hurt like heck until they removed the bandages the next day.

My vision in the left eye was 20/60 on last inspection, and Wednesday brings another check up. But so far the eye has healed so much that I forget I'm still restricted half the time.

Mike

 

Good to hear.

How is that for timing? I reply with an update and Em is here typing away at me. See the above post for how it's going

 

Glad to hear it is all working out

Hope you have a full and speedy recovery and the doctors never have to touch your eyeballs again. :wave

 

Glad to hear you are doing better. Your recovery seems to be going well except for a little more pain.
Take care

 

Good to hear you back at your PC sorry for you discomfort though, feel better soon.

 

Glad the eye surgery went well, albeit more painful than anticipated. I hope that your vision continues to improve. Take care.

 

Thanks everyone.

Unfortunately, I have checkups this week and October 19. Don't get me started about the 3 eye drops 4 times a day... Then once a year to make sure nothing has changed too drastically, so I'll probably have fingers in my eyes every year

If not for the black and blue from the numbing agent injection, the people at school/work today wouldn't have believed I had surgery

 

Just another update. The pain has mostly subsided because part or all of the painful stitch has decided to dissolve and come out of my eye... :celebrate Here's hoping that's the piece that was causing most of the irritation.

 

I can not imagine what that must feel like. When I was young I was in a car accident. My forehead from hairline to nose was cut missing my eye. Although the bandage covered my eye and it felt like glass in it. Just that cotton and gause caused so much discomfort, the thought of what you went through sends chills through me.
Feel better.

 

HEY NOAH
glad the surgery went well and i hope the pain is easing,your eyes are something to treasure it's not until you your vision is restricted that you realize how precious sight is.

keep up the good fight and get well soon.


PS pain is just a way of saying you are still alive.

http://bestsmileys.com/eyes/8.gif

 

Remember it's

drops, drops, drops.

They really do help. Keep it up.

PS my wife has corneal distrophy and will probably have to put them in half a dozen times a day for the rest of her life, including waking up in the middle of the night to do it.

 

I don't mind the drops, just the amount of time it takes to put them in, let them do their thing, and all that, I lost something like an hour a day with the 3 drops I had. Hopefully I don't end up with some cornea issue later in life,

Yes, it can be painful, I likened it to brushing your hand against a nail, pain-wise.

I actually liked the pain, as it reminded me that I'm still not allowed to bend at the waist, I was almost ready to go for a run since my eye wasn't hurting. So yeah, it was, in a very weird way, a good thing for the pain to be there.

Mike

 

Well, we had the almost last checkup about a week ago, and the final report is that even though each eye is different in the acuity, when they work together, my vision is 20/20 about 99% of the time. The remaining time, my eyes don't work together and so I have two different prescriptions trying to help me see, so I just need to re-evaluate the lighting, tiredness, and positioning of what I'm trying to read.

I need to go back one more time in a few months as my intra-ocular pressure was borderline high, but that's about it.

Thanks everyone for your thoughts and prayers, they have helped me through all of these portions of the surgery during the last 3 months. :cool

Mike

 

sounds like it was all fairly successful

good to see - sorry couldn't help myself there, but it is true

 

Sounds like it's all happening. Glad for you.

 

Glad all went well, Mike. Sounds lke you have better eyesight than I do, 99% of the time. Good Deal! :cool

 

Yep, thanks.

Now if people would remember I had eye, not ear surgery, and speak more clearly... Oh well, I guess I can only ask for so much.

 

just read the thread....wasn't there from the beginning, but its good to hear you're doing better...i had eye surgery to remove a stye that wouldn't go away when i was younger, so i do sympathize. good luck in the rest of the process.

 

kfarmbry: Thanks for the wishes.

HALO: I HEAR YOU FINE, BUDDY. If I do have any issues in the future, I've got a great doctor to find and fix them

I'm so happy I've had this procedure, it's been my first break from glasses and eye drops since this time last year.... I'd forgotten how great it is to not have all that to worry about. Night vision is a bit worse now, but I try not to be out in the dark much anyway, and my soon to be wife likes the night, so we'll cover for each other's weakness.

 

hey NOAH that would seem to be the case for anyone with a disability people tend to think because you have a physical problem that you are also mentally deficient they speak to my wife sometimes as if i was not present (oh how is he today) but it's so good to hear you are improving and i hope things continue to get better.

http://bestsmileys.com/silly/21.gif

 

Congratulations on you impending doom

I wish you both many years of wedded bliss

 

Thanks. In about 6 weeks I'll be done will college, so I'll be meeting all new people, so they won't have much knowledge about my surgery, unless I let them in on the secret.

I don't see the wedding as impending doom, I see it as getting married to my best friend...

 

It's great to know you are seeing through your ears better than ever. Next comes the eye cleaning to allow you to hear better.roflmao

Seariously now ,you need to remember to keep an eye out on where you are going now that the vision is improved. I had mine done in 1999-2000 and first thing I did was almost walk out into the street without looking. It was so amazing to be able to see again I didn't want to waste anytime looking at something I didn't want to.I've had my IOLs for 7 years and had no problems. I went from blind and coke bottle bottom glasses to 20/20.I still use reading glasses only for close up reading and typing.
Good luck and be happy on you up comming events.

later:wave