Unveiling a New World

I slept well until 650am when Mindy woke late for work. She failed to set the alarm on her clock. I felt a smidge guilty since I'm usually her back-up alarm clock. The guilt quickly abated. :) Once Mindy returned from starting coffee she primed the shower. The noise and light no longer tolerable, I rolled out of bed too. I brushed my teeth then eagerly headed downstairs to peel the plastic goggles away from my eyes that had been taped in place for nearly 18 hours. It took some doing, but I got them off. Before starting the prescribed eye drops regimen, I went to the back door to stare outside to check my vision. I could see fairly well without my glasses, although there was obvious haloing surrounding any bright light. Also worthy of mention was the three inches of snow we received overnight. First snow since our return from Oregon. Walking around the kitchen, I could easily read all the labels scattered about, something I couldn't do prior. That was exciting. Next, I went to the guest bathroom to start the eye drops. Both eyes were bloodshot, the left far worse than the right. First, the antibiotic, five minutes later, the prednisone, and finally, twenty minutes later, the artificial tears. While somewhat soothing, the drops, at least temporarily, blurred my vision. I had specific instructions not to get on the computer and/or read from a book for a couple of days. On top of that, I wasn't supposed to exercise to any great degree either. What to do? I simply enjoyed some coffee then paced around the downstairs. Soon after Mindy left for school, I headed up for a shower. I was expecting Dad around 830am. I was showered and downstairs watering house plants when dad rapped on the door. It must've been about 825am. We talked for about 30 minutes over coffee before time to depart for my post-op appointment. We had to use extreme caution walking down the front steps. They were covered in ice and snow and very slippery. I told dad that most of the snow would be gone by day's end given the brilliant sunshine. Dad countered that he didn't think so since the temperature wasn't expected to rise much higher than 40 and then slip back into the 20's overnight. He apparently failed to consider the strength of the warm spring sunshine. We made it to Columbus Laser by 9:35am. I had to wait no more than five minutes before being called back. I think the young lady's name was Lori. She asked how I fared overnight. OK, I responded. Then she asked how my vision seemed. I shared that my close up vision was hugely improved, even better than expected, but that my far vision was still a little blurry. Before I could finish she quickly shared that I must have forgotten what they shared about treating farsightedness. She went on to share that it would be a while before my far vision cleared, and that the immediate improvement in my close-up vision would likely revert a little. Come to think of it, I do recall Dr Beran saying it would take a while for my vision to settle at its peak. But as far as I was concerned, they never said anything about the close-up being better quick and then reverting. A quick check of my vision on the wall chart revealed that I was already 20/20 in my right eye and 20/40 in my left. She went on to share that the left eye, for whatever reason, is often the slower of the two to respond. It was also the more irritated of the two, a tendency I correlated to the lagging results. Lori left me, suggesting that Dr Beran wanted to check me too. While waiting, I grabbed a nearby eye booklet, one I needed my eye glasses to read just the day before. On this day, however, I could easily read everything, even the small copyright stuff on the back in tiny print. I was pleasantly surprised. Soon Dr Beran came in to check me out. He used the microscope and light thingamabob. Said I was doing great and reiterated the need to set up a follow-up appointment with Dr Julie, my ophthalmologist, about two weeks out. I again thanked him for his services and was on my way. I asked Jessica, the receptionist, to give Tanya my best as Dad and I departed. Dad dropped me at home and left immediately after. I headed inside and quickly readied for a run. I couldn’t bear the thought of having my run looming in the balance. And while the temperature remained below freezing and the ground still covered in snow, the brilliant sunshine was more than warm. I wore my regular sunglasses in lieu of the prescription variety. It felt awfully good to run. The cool air felt great against my eyes, too. I hardly broke a sweat, which keeping it out of my eyes was of utmost importance. I ran just three miles to aid in healing my sore calf as well as my eyes. I wasn’t back from my run long before I called my boss to let him know that I wasn’t coming into work – can’t drive. A few minutes later Mindy phoned to see how my follow-up appointment went. I shared the news and numbers. With nothing planned and the inability to play on the PC or read a book I decided to try watching TV. Bored quickly, I tried ordering a movie-on-demand. Still the same thing as before – a banner reading something like: call 481-5050 for Customer Service. This time I called. The kind young lady explained that I needed an HD box to get the M.O.D. in HD. Duh! But that’s what we have. She doubted it until she did some more research. She apologized and added a 'missing code' from our box. She let me watch “Couples Retreat” on them. It was funny. I enjoyed the light hearted humor. Just like that it was mid to late afternoon. I did some napping, which felt terrific and then puttered around the house mindlessly. Mindy and the kids arrived home around 430pm. But this being a Jimaken weekend, the kids weren’t home long. Jimaken arrived ten minutes later to pick ‘em up. By then, 99% of the snow had melted away. It was approaching 5pm when the kids left. Soon after, I asked Mindy if she wanted to go to Lowe’s on Georgesville Rd to look for the light fixture I wanted for over the fireplace. She did. She drove. We opted for the back way (down Wilson to Fisher, to Georgesville) hoping to miss the heavy I-270 rush hour traffic. Nope – heavy the entire drive. Honestly, we probably should’ve waited, but I was anxious to do something/anything given my visual restrictions. The lights and air in Lowe’s wreaked havoc with my freshly lasered eyes. Daggone! And what’s more, they didn’t have the light fixture in stock either. We couldn’t agree on another so we left empty handed. It may take time, but we both know that we'll eventually find a light fixture we both like. And that goes for the dining room fixture, too. Mindy wants it replaced as well. The old brass fixture just doesn’t cut it. After Lowe's, we headed to Target where I bought a large box of the preservative-free lubricating eye drops. From there we headed to Barley's arriving at close to 645pm. I did some drops just before heading in. Any significant light transitions screw with my eyesight. Once inside for 10 or 15 minutes it began to stabilize and adjust. Thank goodness! I enjoyed a Centennial to start while Mindy had a St Joan's, her all-time fave. We chatted it up with our friend Christa (the woman with magic hands). Bob & Mary Ann showed up for the first time in a while, and early too. We talked LASIK for a while, with Bob being a recipient 2+ years ago. Bob's one of those folks that had to wear eye glasses for most of his life. Without question, LASIK has had a profound impact on his active lifestyle. We talked skiing for some time too, although we both have put the skis up for the spring/summer. I made a mistake that would follow me into Saturday. I didn't order dinner along with Mindy. Soon nephew Joe and Jerry came in. We hadn't seen those two since the euchre tournament a couple weeks ago, and hadn't partied with 'em in months. We yucked it up for the next hour or so. Shortly after, Daniel showed up. We hadn't seen her for a really long time either, Xmas I think. She's always fun to talk with. We made two new friends too - Tara and Courtney. They were friends - not a couple. We left for home but not before I had finished four beers, the last being a Maharaja IIPA. Not sure when we made the decision to visit our neighbors, but we did soon after arriving home. I poured the last of my Centennial growler into a pint glass before we walked down. Neighbors Mike & Teri were there as was Uncle Mike (Julie's husband). We hung out for an hour or more. Chrissy was already in bed when we got there. I tried waking her but to no avail. According to Mindy, it was 1am when we headed home. I did some eye drops then taped on my plastic eye protectors before jumping into bed.