Wednesday, October 05, 2011

The healing process

Day 1
After the operation, I went home and slept for 8 hours straight. When I woke up, the irritation was gone when my eyes closed, but once I tried to open them, tears kept dripping. I felt like there were sands in my eyes, especially the right one.



I avoided open my eyes so I was eating dinner with my eyes closed.
Food was scattering everywhere so hubby jokingly told Aelig: "regarde, maman elle fait des bêtises" (Look, mummy is doing bad things). Aelig caught the word bêtise so she happily repeated it: "bêtise, bêtise, bêtise...".

I slept well throughout the night, with the eye shields on (have to wear it for 8 days).


Day 2

My left eye was getting better, but the right one still felt like having a big sand in it. I could not open my eyes for too long. While waiting for the call from the secretary, I looked the medicines I needed to take:

Bacicoline Collyre - 6 drops per day per eye, for 10 days
Ciloxan Collyre - 4 drops per day per eye, for 10 days (I had this pre-operation, but the nurse asked me to throw the old one and buy a new one for post-operation).
Celluvisc Unidoses - use if irritation persists, 4 to 6 times per day (I used it once but I didn't feel that it had any effect on the discomfort)
Efferalgan - pain killer, maximum 3 per day (this is a huge pill, I tried to take one but had to tear it into smaller pieces and couldn't finish them)

The secretary called after noon and reassured me that all the symptoms I was having were normal. Eye drops were to be taken between 15 minutes interval. We then booked a time for my post-operation checkup.

Day 3 - going out
We went to visit a land. It was a sunny day so we decided to have a walk. I had the sunglasses on the whole time I was out. I was sensitive to bright light during the first two days, but from third day on it was ok. I could also keep my eyes open and tears were not dropping anymore. There were still dry eyes symptoms, the feeling as if I had contact lens on. We went to eat in a restaurant, went touring downtown and only got home after 4pm. I didn't have the medicines with me so I only put those drops when I got home. I could read signboards clearly but hubby still have better eye sight than me. During the night, I was tired of putting the eye shields which needed to have layer of tapes on so I slept with the sunglasses instead.


Day 4 - Driving ok

It was Sunday and we went to a Taiwanese gathering. I drove to do some grocery shopping in the morning, and drove home from the gathering. I didn't encounter problem, the only issue was when the sunlight exposed directly on my face so I had to put on the sunglasses. The white part of my corneas were still red but they were gradually going away. During the night I slept without the sunglasses nor the eye shields.

Day 5 - Back to work
I went back to work and everything went well. I still have the feeling that I have the contact lens on though. Putting the drops were difficult as I don't know how to aim it precisely so some drops landed on my face instead of on the eyes.

Day 6
I had to work in R town so I drove before the sun raised and discovered that I was having the common complication: starburst, one type of visual aberrations. I'm not sure if this could cause problem for driving, as I was doing carpooling so I only drove for a short distance. Hopefully this will improve overtime.


Source

I also did a stupid thing during the night. I slept without the eye shields and woke up twice realizing that I was rubbing my left eye. I think my brain sent a warning signal and woke me up.

Day 7
Due to the rubbing during the night I woke up feeling my left eye a bit irritated. Ok I'm going to be a good girl from now on and put on eye shields while sleeping.

Conclusion: Overall I'm happy with the healing process. 48 hours after the operation the irritations were mostly gone. I hope the feeling of having contact lens will disappear gradually. Most importantly, the starburst will have to go away as the sun raises later now so I have to drive a lot in the dark conditions. I'm eager to see Dr M in 3 weeks, hopefully my eye sight will improve to 20/20 and all complements will be gone by then. Fingers crossed.

4 comments:

  1. I had a halo in the beginning too, but it gradually went a way. So did the dry eyes. The only side-effect now is that I feel like maybe I see a little less well when driving at night, but otherwise the surgery has been a life-changing experience for me!!

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  2. My husband, who used to wear 650-700-grade lenses underwent a laser eye surgery a few years back. He's still enjoying perfect vision until now. It is indeed life-changing. Good luck.

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  3. Hi Samantha,

    Thanks, this reassured me.

    Hi supermac,

    Ok, hope I can enjoy perfect vision as your husband does. Thanks.

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