Week 6

Well, I think I may have discovered something this week. Not sure why it took 6 weeks to figure out and I'm not sure it's a good thing or bad yet.

So, the last few weeks I've been whining about how my left eye has had some good days and bad days. I had a thought that part of the reason might be how I sleep. I usually sleep on my side. Sometimes I'll sleep on my left, sometimes right, but in either case, my face (and correlating eye) is always against my pillow. This week, I decided to try using the eye shield again...only on my left eye, since my right has been pretty stable.

The clear shield basically keeps my eye from even touching the pillow. I wore it one night and the next morning, lo and behold, was a good day. I was able to read my eye chart pretty well, and I'd say it passed my bookshelf test. It wasn't perfect (never has been), but it was about a normal good day.

I tried it again, the next day with the same results. So, I decided to use the shield all week...and all week I've had good days.

So, all is good in the land of Brian's vision??? Not quite...things I still notice:

1. My left eye still has the ghosting effect...good day or bad. I notice is mostly when I'm trying to read a bright or lit-up text on a black background. (Think of a lit up Sony logo)

2. My left eye's vision still gets worse when it's dark. If both eyes were like this, I would say that I wouldn't be fit to drive....luckily, good ol' brain is still using my right eye as the dominant eye.

3. One new thing I'm noticing is after periods of physical activity...like volleyball or running, I notice my left gets worse. Not sure why...perhaps because it's tired...or maybe sweat that gets in it. Not sure...but I do know the last few weeks of volleyball, it's what I'd compare to a bad day. Go figure...

So, again, I'm not sure if this latest discovery is necessarily a good thing, but at least it makes me feel like it still has room to heal. Unfortunately, the consistent ghosting, while not as bad, still worries me. It kinda makes me sad thinking how awesome it would be if just that were fixed. Hopefully it'll still heal up, but the fact that the ghosting is consistent after 6 weeks still worries me.

At this point, I "think" I'd do it again...the convenience is nice, but right now, not a day goes by where I totally just forget about my left eye. It's kinda like having a splinter...just nags at you.

Day 27 ...and we're back

Ok, so after the freaky day yesterday, it looks like today was a bit better. I do think I still have a very slight ghosting in the left, but it definitely wasn't as pronounced as it was yesterday. Actually today I felt like I saw better than I had been in the last week.

All these up and down fluctuations have been pretty stressful. The things I keep in mind though is that it's still early in the healing process. A lot of the research that I've done suggests that vision doesn't even start settling until week 4. The other thing is that my vision is pretty darn good with both eyes open, and since my right eye is still more than perfect, it's a good compromise. Also, I do have good days. I have to keep reminding myself of this, but that's a positive as well.

One weird thing I discovered this week is that when I put tearing drops in my eye, my vision clears up for maybe 30 seconds. Like crystal clear...20/20. I did research on why this happens. I guess after lasik, your eye has a lot of micro-tears that will eventually heal. When you put drops in the eye, it actually fills in all these tears, and smooths out the lens (thus clearing the vision). Of course, when the drops dry up, the clear vision goes away. :( So, yet, another possible positive if this is the case. The other reason is that the drops thicken the lens which can clear the vision as well...of course, if this is the case, then healing may not help. Hopefully the former is the case.

Anyways, wanted to post this after last night's debacle. Same story...they weren't kidding about possible fluctuations!

Day 26 - a step backwards

Well Day 26 was another tale of a bad regression day. I actually had a string of "not-so-great" days in the row, culminating to this. It felt like a normally blurry-ish day for my left eye. While I was at work, I was reading a document that had really some really teeny text. So, it was normally blurry with my left eye. The one thing that I noticed, though, was that it wasn't so much that the vision was blurry, but I saw a slight "ghosting" of the letters. It was like I was seeing double out of my left eye, but the 2nd image was slightly off-center. One sec...I'm gonna try to Photoshop the effect..............

ok...done:




It was only out of my left eye. I think I had barely noticed this weeks ago. Since the "shadow" is just slightly off, it just looks like a blur when looking at most things. But because the text was so small, I was actually able to make out the blur to be a mirror image. This plus Wednesday was a particularly blurry day.

It was a little freaky...but the good thing was that when I opened both eyes, the shadow image went away. The beauty is that when you have two fairly different prescriptions in each eye, I guess the brain just throws out the bad information and keeps the good.

I did plenty of internet research, and it does look like a lot of the cases do resolve over the first 6 months. Of course, there are some cases that say it never goes away...which freaks me out.
I guess time will tell...

Day 19 - Face meet volleyball

So in my last checkup, the doc told me that I can resume contact sports after the first week, so I played my first match last week with no problems. Basically my goal was to not get beamed in the face with a volleyball. Everything went great...that was last week.

Tonight I went up for a block against one of the opponent's stronger hitters. Well, I got a solid touch on the ball...unfortunately, it was with my face. It slammed against the left side of my face, right where the eye was. Luckily, I closed the eye in time...and double luckily, I think nose and cheek bone took the brunt of the blast. I did see some stars just afterward, but everything seemed normal. I had all these scary thoughts of the flap coming loose or ripping (yikes!), and I'm happy to report that all is good. These eyeball things are apparently pretty robust creatures. :)

I spent the next 5 games winking at random things, checking to see if any problems came up. So far, so good.

Btw, the eye is kind of a middle fluctuation day today. (Slightly blurry 20/20 line, but readable without guessing)

Days 15 and 16 - two very different days

Well, after my very positive two week update, I woke up to find that once again my left eye had regressed the other direction. This time it was to the point where I could barely read the 20/25 line on the chart. In my bookshelf test, I couldn't make out most of the letters...and I could tell that the two eyes were just way off. It actually started in the morning, and went all the way until I went to sleep.

I have this theory that I slept with my eye directly on the pillow and for some reason it threw it off. I'm not sure if that's even plausible, but it did feel very "contacty" from morning all throughout the day.

Today, Day 16, was exactly opposite. I made sure to sleep on my back or where my eye was not in the pillow. I woke up, immediately did my bookshelf test and was the eye was instantly back to the good side. I did my usual eye chart test and was able to read the 20/15 line. Very weird...but I guess that's just how it goes when you're healing. Sorry for the repetitiveness of my entries. The reason why I'm posting the fluctuations, is that if anyone out there is reading this, you'll know that someone else has gone through this exact scenario. The good thing is that there are good days...and I'm hoping that whenever the healing process is complete, it'll end on a good day.

I'd probably be more concerned if after more than two weeks, I still hadn't reached a 20/20 day. Luckily this is not the case for me. Anyways, more updates to come.

Two Week Anniversary

Well, it's been two weeks today that my eyes got pew-pewed. I haven't commented too much on other things than the progress and the differences with my left and eyes. This would probably be a good time to go over some other observations after 2 weeks.

Dry eyes - None...I didn't really have dry eyes before, but this is one of the side-effects of the surgery. My eyes feel normal...I don't feel the need to blink more or anything. All things on the dry eyes front is good!

Night vision / low light - I do notice my vision is a tad bit blurrier in the evenings and in dim light. It's not terrible or anything, but it's noticeable. I notice this when I'm trying to read smaller side-street signs. Unfortunately, I can't remember if I was able to read them before with glasses, but overall I'd say I maybe go into the 20/25 category in both eyes....probably better than that, but I'm pessimistic.

Halos/Starbursts - Ok, so while vision may get a fraction worse during night, I do have to say that I'm barely seeing halos or starbursts around lights. This is supposed to be common at night when oncoming headlights drive past you. I do see them, but again, it's not as bad as when I had my glasses on. It's not distracting. In this specific case, my new eyeballs probably see better than before.

Feel - So one thing I still notice on occasion is that my eyes sometimes feel like I've got contacts in them. It's not painful or anything, it just feels like they're there. I notice this most while taking a shower when I get some water in my eyes. You might be asking, well then aren't you just feeling the water? Nope...it's a different feel. It also happens for the first 10 minutes after waking up in the morning.

I also notice this "contact feeling" when I slightly wipe my eyes. I'm not supposed to wipe them but if I'm drying my face or something, I'll get the "contact feeling" for a few minutes.

Vision - Finally I have to talk about vision. I know I've been harping on it over the last 2 weeks of posts, but want to give the latest update. As I've said, the fluctuations having been on and off. The first few days after surgery, vision was mostly blurry at the 20/20 range. Slowly the good fluctuations started to increase frequency. They were probably even after the 1 week mark. Then after the 10 day mark, while bad fluctuations still occur, they are fewer and far between.
Now at the 2 week mark, I'm noticing that my left vision is definitely better around 85% of the time.

I know I talk about the lag of the left eye a lot...the thing I haven't written much about is my right. At this point, the right eye is great. Every time I say that my left eye is a little clearer, my right eye feels like it's gotten that much better as well. Part of all the lag that I talk about is probably because the right eye is getting better every day.

Sooooo...I put it to the test (I know...surprising) I convinced Becky to return my Snellen eye chart that I used back in Day Two. I taped it to the same wall and tested my eyes from the same 20 foot distance. This time, with my left I was able to read the 20/20 line without guessing. to my surprise, I was also able to read the 20/15 line (deducing correctly on some).
My right eye could read the 20/15 line with no problems. I kinda wished there was a 20/10 line to see if I could read that.

This proves that both eyes have gotten significantly better over the last 2 weeks. The lag that I see in my left doesn't seem to be due to an undercorrection. Instead, I would guess that my left eye's vision is about 20/20 (most of the time...can't forget about low-light/night vision). My right? At least 20/15...probably better.

Might be just a good day. :)

Day 12

Still fluctuating and left is still behind...BUT I'm starting to notice a couple of things in my bookshelf test:

1. During the good fluctuations, I'm seeing letters that I know were too blurry to make out before
2. Good fluctuations are becoming more common than bad

This again is giving me more hope...will keep posting on progress!