first overnight guests in new apartment

More than a few years ago, Tim's family was host to a German foreign exchange girl. Since that time, that whole family has made an annual trip to America to see us and also visit several other places around the country. This is the first time that they came and Tim and I weren't in Oklahoma anymore. Saturday afternoon, Tim's parents and the girl and her brother arrived. They stayed the night and stayed Sunday night also, then the German parents joined us today briefly for a quick visit to a park (where the ducks and geese are so tame that they will eat out of your hands) then we went out to eat.

While we were waiting for our table, I noticed that my left eye seemed to be doing better. I covered my right eye and could see things way across the way. Today was the first time that eye had been clear since before my last appointment on July 20th. It still comes and goes but mostly comes now. Hopefully it will stay fairly clear from here on out. I was a little worried that I would need an enhancement. Not because of the surgery in general, but because I live so far away now that I would probably have to take a week off work to have followup appointments, and then still go back a month later for followup, etc. When I had it done the first time, I had a LOT of followup appointments, pretty much every other day. I don't have enough time off to do that again.

We got word on Tim's car and they fixed it, but all 8 of the valves were bent so all 8 had to be replaced. So it was about $150 more than the estimate. No worries though. We will be taken care of. Tim's parents gave us some garage sale money for the things of ours that they either kept or are going to sell sometime down the road. So that will definitely help us out. But all through the weekend we were still a one-car family. I was able to use his parents' van for a few things I needed to do this weekend since Tim had to work and needed the car for that. Plus when we were all together too, they "let" me chauffer them around since they didn't know their way around the city. It was neat to drive their van. I was used to a much smaller car but did pretty well with the big truck-ish vehicle.

Charting is going well. So far I have remembered to take my temperature. This week I am more nervous than last week though. This week I am REALLY off the pill. It's kindof exciting. I can't wait until we can TTC.

last week of pills

Well, this week is my last week of pills. I ordered a thermometer online last week and it came on Monday. I had to go online because all the ones I found in stores weren't sensitive enough. Taking Charge of Your Fertility recommends that it be sensitive to 1/10th of a degree. I found many that would measure to 1/10th, but when I read the fine print in the instructions manual it was only sensitive to 2/10ths. But I have the thermometer now and have "practiced" taking my temperature for a couple of days, to get into the habit of doing so.

I'm so nervous about going off the pill, but Tim understands that we shouldn't get pregnant before January. If we do it won't be the end of the world, but we just wouldn't have our debt paid off as soon as we'd like. If we don't get pregnant right away in January or February then I can pay the car off in November. (The rest of the credit cards would be paid off in October). That would be awesome because then there would be 3 more months that we could put it into savings. So exciting.

My eyes are still having troubles. My right eye is the one that can see clearly, but it is also the one that itches more than the other one. Both of them also turn red, but only red in certain areas. I'm being liberal with the eye drops and have been since my last appointment, but I just don't know what's going on. My next appointment isn't until the end of next month so I have a long wait. Hopefully my eyes will heal up (with the redness and itching at least) in another few weeks or so.

a very long day of travel

So my last followup LASIK appointment was on Wednesday. Since I live out of state now, we had to make a day of it and come down for the appointment then go back the same day. We also closed out our previous checking/savings accounts, and had lunch with his parents while we were there, which made the day very long. But at least we didn't have to stop and pay tolls since we had the Pikepass. I should have gotten one of those a long time ago.

So anyway we close out our accounts first which only takes moments. Then we are going to meet his parents at a little cafe on campus that is next to the bookstore that Tim used to work at. He rings the back doorbell making like he is going to deliver something and the door raises. He recognizes his old coworkers and says hi to everyone. One of the ladies in the office said "No babies yet??". Then when his parents caught up with us, his mom gave us a Baby Einstein video, and a book on 1,000 ways to entertain a child, or something. I asked her if she was hinting at something. :P It was just kindof funny to get all those baby comments. Especially since we decided to go ahead and go off the pill after this pack.

What? You heard me. We are still not planning a pregnancy until at the end of the year but I loaned out my first edition Taking Charge of Your Fertility to a coworker, and while she has it I checked the revised edition out of the library. It reiterated my thoughts that "this is something I can do." I talked about it with Tim on the way home and he is OK with it, too. We will have to be VERY careful though, because I really don't want to get pg before late December so that our "due date month" will hopefully correspond with our credit card payoff month and I can stay at home. :)

Oh before I forget, my eye appointment. My left eye has been giving me troubles for a couple of weeks, and they did a "map" of it when I couldn't read the appropriate line, and sure enough there is some astigmatism there again. (I'm so glad now that I got the years' worth of followup exams and the enhancement, if needed). The optometrist checked my eyes and said that the flap is still looking fine. He said that if I didn't live so far away he'd want to see me in 2 months and I said that two months is very doable. So I go back at the end of September. I'll have another update then.

double vision caused by user error

I found out what was happening to my "disappearing" entries. I was seeing an old version of my page. I cleared my cache and now all my posts are showing up again. Woohoo. :)

As for my double vision, I had my appointment this morning and they said that my flap still looks fine and everything (no epithelial ingrowth like it was a month ago). My double vision is being caused by dry eye. I have been using those salty drops which suck out a lot of the water from my eyes, but they never felt uncomfortable to me during the rest of the day so I kindof slacked off on the lubricating drops, using those about 4 times a day. The doctor today said that my eyes looked like someone took a toothpick and poked at it to make a bunch of dimples. Yikes! So he urged me to use the lubricating drops once every hour. And I need to use the salty drops for one more week and then discontinue those. Next appointment is in a month. :)

a bit of double vision

My left eye is still doing marvelously. But my right eye this week has a bit of double vision. I can see my world around me, but then I see little "echoes" of the images just underneath the "real" image. I'm hoping this will clear up on its own and I won't have to have another debridement. I'll be sure to bring it up at my next appointment.

I can't believe that it's been over a week since I last wrote... it doesn't feel like that long.... hope this blog thing isn't eating my entries. ;)

salty drops for my eyes now

I had another appointment on Thursday afternoon. They checked my eyes and they still looked OK, no ingrowth happening under the flaps like before. They went ahead and took out the bandaid contacts and had me keep using my antibiotic and steroid drop through Sunday (but my antibiotic won't last that long... I have maybe half a dose or one dose left), and they also told me to go get another type of drop from the pharmacy. It is an OTC drop and is salty... 5%. They want me to put this in my eyes four times a day until they see me again in 2 weeks. They said it would draw the moisture out from under the flaps and help them stick very closely to my eyes and help prevent those cells from growing under again. It feels like I am putting ocean water in my eyes when I use them. But it only burns for half a minute or so and then it is OK. Right now it feels like I have an eyelash in my left eye but my right eye feels completely normal. I won't give any more LASIK updates until after my next appointment. I am still seeing fine to work, read, drive, etc.

another lasik update (debridement and 20/20)

Well here I am, close to 3 weeks after my LASIK surgery. I had a procedure on Friday, a debridement (sounds like de-BREED-ment), to clean out some ingrown cells under my flap. Since it was a surgical procedure, I had to go through everything in the surgical suite again, from the bonnet and booties to the numbing drops to lying down under the laser. I won't bore you with the prepping details. They had me watch the blinking light again but no laser was used this time. The doctor lifted up my flap and cleaned it off, then irrigated it. I think my eyes might have wandered a little more on Friday than they did at my initial surgery, because I kept hearing over and over again "Keep watching the blinking light.... the light doesn't move; it's your eyes....." etc. But despite all that the procedure went OK. After replacing the flap, the doctor put in bandaid contacts immediately. Those are still in today and will be in for another few days. After the debridement, I noticed an immediate difference in the comfort of my eyes. Before they were just slightly irritated, like I'd had contacts in a bit too long or something, or a little bit of dust, etc. But after the debridement they felt so smooth when I blinked. It was weird. Before the procedure I was waiting for a spot to get 'prepped' and I was chatting with the people who gave out the post-op instructions. It was neat to do that since I'm sure it's not very common for someone to go back to the surgical suite so soon after their surgery.

I had another appointment today and they said everything looks fine. They are leaving the bandaid contacts in longer because of how I healed last time. The contacts will help prevent my eyes from having ingrown cells like they did last time. A piece of good news today... I am seeing a little better than 20/20!! I hope I am still seeing this well when they take out the contacts. Even though they are not perscription, they help me see slightly better because they hold a little more moisture on the eyes. But I am excited. :) I remember back to my first post-op appointment when I couldn't tell that there were even letters at all on the lower few lines of the eye chart. Now I am reading the letters. It is so amazing. I can hardly wait for Tim to get this done in a few years. :)

The cats are doing fine. Rainy has learned how to fetch. She has a few jingle bell balls that she can pick up with her mouth. If I throw one of those across the room, she goes tearing after it, messes with it for a second to get it into a good "picking up" position, then brings it back and drops it somewhat close to my feet. Then we repeat. And if I move into another room, she usually will find me and bring the toy with her. Tuxedo doesn't play fetch but he likes to watch TV. We were watching a movie the other night and he was sitting on the living room floor and sat perfectly still, staring at the TV for a good hour. We would call "kitty kitty" to him, and he would turn around and look at us, but only for a second and then his eyes and ears were right back on the TV. He didn't want to miss any of the movie I guess. :)

lasik update two weeks after surgery

Just a very quick update today. I had an appointment Monday. This was after having the bandaid contacts in all weekend. I noticed all weekend that I had trouble keeping my eyes open in bright light (like driving in the sun), even with my sunglasses on. So at my appointment on Monday they took my contacts out and asked how my eyes felt then. They felt a little worse without the contacts so they put them back in. They told me that some of my epithelial cells were trying to grow under my flap and they wanted to check me again on Wednesday and possibly have the surgeon look at them too, and possibly make an appointment to get those cells "cleaned out".

Tuesday and today my eyes felt a LOT better and weren't sensitive to light anymore. Whether it was because I re-started the steroid drops or had a new pair of contacts or what I don't know. But at my appointment today the optometrist said that the cells on the top of the flap near the bottom were healing up nicely, but the cells underneath were still there trying to grow. He caught the opthamologist in between surgeries and had him come take a look, and he concurred. He said to have me come in ASAP to get those cells cleared out, this week even if possible. They are going to lift my flap up slightly and "clean out" the cells. What that all will entail I don't know yet. So I made an appointment for Friday morning to get that done, and another followup on Saturday morning.

first night driving since lasik surgery

Tim and I went to another Bible study about the home and marriage last night, and it started at 7:30. We left the apartment at about 7:00 and I decided to try night driving for the first time since my eye surgery 10 days ago. It wasn't too scary, but even so I let Tim drive on the way home so I could close my eyes and rest. Part of that was because we stayed very late singing hymns and I was a little sleepy. :)

Anywho back to the driving experience. You know how if you're driving at night and you squint your eyes, you can make the streetlights and headlights and things have lines coming out of them from the top and the bottom? Well my eyes sometimes would show me two lines coming out of lights... but they were both to the top, like antennas. And sometimes if I concentrated and focused, they would go away. For the most part they were there, though. Not really anything very distracting, it was kindof like seeing reflections in a wet road after a big rain.

I got some groceries today and when I bought some chips, I noticed that Pringles has come out with a variety of their chip that has trivia questions printed right onto the chip. They looked so neat so I had to get a can of them. The chips inside the can looked just like the example on the outside of the can - a very clearly printed question and upside down answer on each chip. What will the food industry think of next?

lasik update 8 days post surgery

I had my one-week followup appointment today. I noticed that from Saturday to yesterday my vision didn't feel like it improved very much, but then today there was a bigger jump in improvement. My right eye still is very blurry though. I went to my appointment and they checked my vision, and with both eyes together I'm seeing 20/25 so that is not too shabby, but it is all being carried by my left eye. The optometrist looked into my eyes and said that my right eye isn't healing as efficiently as it should, so he went ahead and gave me bandaid contacts. He put them in for me and I asked if I should take them out at night or leave them in, and he said to leave them in and that he didn't want me poking around in my eyes, that he would do the poking. They are going to see me again on Monday but he told me that even with the bandaids it would take a week or so for my right eye to get on its way healing.

But I'm just glad that I don't have to use the magnifyer on Windows at my work computer anymore. :)

brief lasik story, and update 5 days post surgery

A tiny bit of background first. My dad had RK surgery back 10 or so years ago, well before laser anything was an option. I remember him telling me about it, and I remember saying something to him like "You mean you were AWAKE while they CUT on your EYES???!?! I could NEVER do that." Funny how time and circumstances will change one's perspective on things. Not only was I not avoiding eye surgery, I was looking forward to it. :)

So anyway Wednesday I slept in a little, then Tim and I ate some breakfast before my 11:00 appointment. We got to the center and they took one more picture of my left eye that the surgeon wanted. When we go into the surgical lobby, a tech has us put those hospital booties on our feet, and has me wash my eyelids and put on a showercap thing to cover my hair. Then she gives me a Valium-type pill and has me wait for an hour or so.

Just before I went into the first laser room, the tech puts the numbing drops in my eye. They sting a little but are not unbearable. I go into the room with the Intralase laser that will cut my flap. Each eye took 60 seconds of laser time. Tim got to watch it all on a monitor. This laser "docked" onto a suction ring that was on my eye and was slightly uncomfortable, but not painful. The worst part was the "eyelid speculum" that held my eyelids open and that was just a small poking sensation like there was something in my eye that I couldn't quite blink away.

After my flaps were made they had me rest with my eyes taped shut for 10 minutes or so while the bubbles dissipated (the laser that made the flap does so by lots of tiny bubbles just under the surface of the cornea). Then I went to the main laser. I had the eyelid speculum again, but no suction ring this time. Tim got to watch this one on a video too. He told me that when they worked my flap open it looked like they used a little hook. My right eye took 36 seconds on this laser and my left took 51. After the laser did its thing they smoothed down the flap with what looked and felt like a little spatula. The surgeon looked at my eyes afterwards and said everything looked good.

We got my post-op instructions and drops, etc and then came home. I rested on the couch for the rest of the evening, getting up twice to do my series of medicated drops. The next day Tim gave me a ride to work and I tried to work as best I could... because I was not seeing 20/20. I wasn't even seeing 20/40. I took a few phone calls and made heavy use of the magnifyer on the computer (a neat thing to play with when you don't need it, but a pain in the bootie when you depend on it... Start, Programs, Accessories, Accessibility, Magnifyer). I had my 1-day followup on Thursday afternoon and they told me that my vision w/o glasses before was 20/2200, and now it was 20/100, so even that was a big improvement. They check my eyes and said that there are some rough spots on the top layer of my cornea that would heal up on their own in time. They requested I come in again on Saturday.

Saturday I'm still not seeing clearly. They check my eyes again and my cornea is apparently still rough. They ask me if I'm having any pain and I tell them that I'm not. My eyes are dry and itchy, but not painful. They told me that if they were hurting me then they could give me some "bandaid contacts". I had never heard of such a thing and almost thought that it was too bad that I couldn't try them out. :P

Sunday I was seeing a little better than Saturday (very VERY gradual and slow improvements and healing), but then today it almost feels like I've had a regression again and that I'm back to Saturday's or even Friday's vision. I know I need to be patient and they said that my vision would fluctuate, but I just wish I healed up faster than this. I got the Intralase and the CustonVue (using wavefront measurements instead of just a straight perscription) to get the best results possible. I just wish the wait wasn't so long. I've been using all my drops as instructed, and not rubbing my eyes, or anything. I need to be patient. I've heard of delayed gratification. The tech who put my numbing drops in told me that I wouldn't see very well on Wednesday but that the next day would be "like Christmas." Maybe my Christmas will be in March instead of February. More updates to come in a few days.

2 day countdown for my lasik surgery

Well I had my final pre-op appointment today. They took measurements of my eyes again and put green drops in them, shined a blue light on them, and had me look into a purple whirlpool. Not all at the same time. The first thing they did was check my vision using one of those "standard" machines at every optometrist's office (you know, the one where they keep flipping lenses on you and say "which one is clearer, #1 or #2..... #2 or #3.... etc.), then they did other measurements, and at the very end they checked my right eye's vision again based on some of those middle measurements. I hope everything will turn out OK. I am getting excited. :)

litter, little e-baby, lasik

Well I haven't had any trouble with the cats (except for the occasional miss because of their positioning, not them being obstinant and aiming badly on purpose), but I also haven't been enlarging the hole every Tuesday and Friday like I had planned. I did enlarge it tonight though and am thinking that once a week or so is probably a better rate for them. I did have to sit the sitz bath in a metal mixing bowl in the toilet since our litter technically isn't flushable even though it is paper. Right now there is no water in the mixing bowl. I am waiting until the hole is a little larger (it's about quarter-sized right now) until I add the water so I can still reuse the litter that falls through for now. Once I add water I will be going through litter much faster. Maybe I can start off with just a little water.

My "Nano Baby" is now 23 lbs, and 1 1/4 years old. The instructions said that when the first baby turns 3, you can press two of the buttons and a sibling is born. Then you raise THAT baby to 3 also and the game has its sucessful ending of a happy family.

Over Christmas, Tim called one of the LASIK facilities here in town because they were giving away some discount gift certificates. He wants me to have my eyes done. We'll have to use part of our tax refund to get a jump start on the payments. At least they have a 12-month interest free option. Anyway I had my initial consultation on Tuesday, to make sure my eyes were in the right condition to be eligible for the surgery, and they are. I am nervous now and excited. The surgery is 20 days from now. The countdown is on.