I’ve now had the YAG laser procedure done in both eyes.
OMG, I can see again! This morning, I was able to decrease the zoom on my Word document and could still make out the text. Almost all the glare is gone out of the second eye—it took a few days for the first eye, so I figure by the end of the week, the glare will be completely gone. (ETA: All glare is now gone!)
Plus, with the original eye, I have a couple of floaters that are annoying at times. According to the doctor, there’s a good chance they’ll go away and be reabsorbed by my body sometime in the next six months.
So good news on all fronts.
The process was very different for the two eyes. Which is just weird. But then again, hello, have you met me?
The nurse had difficulty dilating the first eye. Ended up with four sets of drops before it was finally open enough for the procedure.
The second eye required one set of drops, then dilated fully.
I have no idea what caused which reaction. It just happened. Bodies are weird.
The membrane was moderate on the first eye. Plus, for the first eye, I had floaters that had shown up since the cataract surgery. So the doctor spent extra time shooting down all the floaters.
The membrane on the second eye was thicker. No floaters. However, when I told the doctor that it took four days for my eye to reabsorb most of the membrane, he spent more time shooting the second membrane into smaller pieces.
I think that was what caused the difference in how I saw the first night.
For the first eye, I would never say my vision was blurry. Instead, I’d say that it was occasionally obscured. Bits of cloud or fog would drift in front of my eye, making what I was looking at almost whitish. Then that bit would drift away again. That occurred for the first twenty-four hours with the first eye.
My second eye, however, was blurry. Nothing was in focus. I couldn’t see very well at all for the first twenty-four hours.
Once the blurriness was over, I was finally able to see my watch again. To look at my phone without requiring my glasses. To see close up in ways I haven’t been able to. I was (and am!) really excited about all of that.
The first eye felt dry, sore, and gritty. That feeling didn’t go away for about two weeks. For at least the first week I was putting drops in my eyes every two hours to help relieve some of those sensations.
The second eye feels all of those things, only less so. I’ve been putting drops in my eyes every couple of hours, and that helps. But the second eye feels much less abused than the first.
Glare gradually diminished until it vanished with the first eye after four days. I’m not to day four yet, but I’m assuming the second eye will be the same. Almost all the glare is gone now.
Will I continue to wear my glasses? Yes, occasionally. Like when I’m taking a long drive, like down to Portland. Or when I take a trip and need to catch all the details. I won’t need them as much for everyday use.
However, I’m also now going to be able to wear my cute sunglasses. I’m not just going to have to rely on my prescription lenses.
This has been a really long journey. Started back in October 2022, when I started noticing just how bad my floaters had gotten. Part of the reason this journey has been so long is because the office where I’ve been going for my eyes has lost staff. There used to be four doctors there. Now, they only have two. So I went from being able to get an appointment in six weeks to needing to wait six months.
Hopefully, I won’t need any more work done on my eyes, that this is where they are from here on out.
Fingers crossed…
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