Only 4 more hours to daybreak, and I'm staying up to watch the sunrise like never before. As a farsighted presbiotic, I showed up for surgery hoping for the mono-vision discussed with Dr. Perry's staff during my exam, as it offered hope for a future without wearing glasses. But when I finally met Dr. Perry he spent a few minutes explaining why he was opposed to it, and why I would be better off with both eyes adjusted to correct my farsightedness. He mentioned I might find reading glasses to be unnecessary, but the amount of adjustment to make mono-vision work would be so much that I would probably not adjust to liking it, and end up dissatisfied with seeing distance and close. After hearing him out, I agreed. Before surgery, I thanked his staff for taking time to test my eye prescription for the third time. The technician responded, "Well, you only get one chance to get it right, so we want to get as close to perfect as possible, and that is why we test your eyes on more than one… day, with and without dilation." I never thought to compare exams when researching where to go, but hearing that calmed me down more than the valium they offered at the start of the appointment. Surgery itself only lasted 10 min. max just like the brochure said. Once invited into the large surgery room, the doctor handed me the anesthesia dropper, which I put in myself. He looks at your eyes, and makes a couple marks with a small pen. The drops work fast because I could feel pressure but no pain. Then I lay down on the chair at the first large machine. One eye is covered, and a ring shaped tool is held against my eye and some suction is applied that makes it squeeze my eye gently. At that point the doctor has control of you eye, and you are told to relax. I focus on the green light in the middle and try to ignore the red light on either side as they start to expand until the reg overlaps the green. There is definate pressure pushing in on my eye. it hurts a little but is tolerable and constant. He counts down 20 seconds as the red lights flicket and dance around making it hard to focus on the green light, but I held still and kept my focus on the green. As soon as the 20 seconds are over, the pressure is released and the pain is instantly gone. He said we have a good flap, and the procedure is repeated for the other eye. Then the assistant guides me to lie down at the next station. Again something squeezes my eye, and i probably couldn't move it if I tried. This time a ring of several bluish white lights descends and expands into my peripheral area until out of view and everything is black. I hear him say you're doing great, just a few more seconds, and I get a whiff of something reminds of the smell when the dentist is doing some heavy drilling for a filling, although I imagine this time it is something more like smoke as microscopic portions of my eyeball are incinerated. I smell it, but I feel nothing, other than a slight steady pressure, less than the first station. The second eye is done before I know it. There was no time to think about what music would go with the lights best.. it was that quick. As I make my way onto my feet again, I see what he is telling me about how everything is behind a white haze, like looking through wax paper, except something is different. As I pick up my goodie bag of things to take with me, I notice I can actually read the brochure sticking out of the bag. I hit the speed dial on my cell to tell my wife I'm ready and notice I can read her name on the display. I wasn't really expecting that. It's hard to tell how distance vision is because it's too bright to look up once outside. Within a few minutes my eyes are stinging a bit, and feels like debris or something rough is under the eye lids. it's not as bad as when a speck of dirt is actually under the lid, but it still is a little painful and annoying. I put in the 3 types of drops, take a short nap, and wake to notice the pain is gone to just barely feel it when blinking, and the white film is gone..colors are back to normal. After that my couldn't tell if I was laughing or crying, and was probably a little of both. I thought things don't really happen that are too good to be true, especially when paying for them.. at least not until now. This is the first, and as I type this is in small ridiculously small font, I am not wearing glasses. When I read the clock, I see it's 3:09AM without glasses. And I'll see the dawn over the Sonoran desert landscape of Daisy Mountain .. without glasses. Only 3 more hours to go. I think I'll watch a movie. Oh..forgot to mention got a call this evening from the doctor himself, just checking how I'm doing. So more gold stars for Dr. Perry, and LasikPlus. I hope all his patients have this experience that I've had so far. It's the best day of my life, just don't tell my wife I said that..
Read More