I have new eyes.
I was pretty depressed a while back when I was told that I wasn't eligible for laser eye surgery. A high degree of nearsightedness and thin corneas make a bad combo. My brother went for a consultation first and was told the same thing, but somehow I thought the outcome for me would be different. Not so much. After getting over the disappointment, I thought two things: 1) Maybe the technology will exist someday in the not-so-distant future, and 2) Maybe I can get a second opinion. Now.
In my search for another opinion, I stumbled across a completely separate option: intraocular collamer lens implants. Essentially, lenses are implanted into the eyes (behind the iris so you can't see them from the outside) to refocus the light. In other words, permanent contacts. The procedure is very similar to cataract surgery, which, I discovered, is the most common surgery in the world. That alone made me feel a lot better about it, even more so than laser. Not to mention the fact that I decided to go to the clinic that had a very good long-standing reputation, and whose founder probably invented some of the procedures. No discount eyes for me, thank you very much.
I had the consultation which confirmed that I was a candidate for ICL. Over the course of the next few weeks, I had a few other tests, including a retinal check in one of the sketchiest doctor's offices I've ever seen. I mean, the doctor himself was great and did a very thorough exam. The office was so full that people had to sit on the floor in the hallway, and there were some people who had been waiting for 3 hours prior. I don't know the whole story, but I was glad that I was able to get out of there in less than 2 hours.
On the day of the first eye (the policy is to operate on one eye at a time, so as not to create the possibility of ruining both eyes at once), I was a little more nervous than excited. I had to be there for 7:00 am but I was not the only one. The waiting room filled up quickly. I was ushered to a prep room where the nurse kept dousing my eye with drops. When my eye was good and numb, they led me to the operating room, where they gave me a hairnet but let me wear my street clothes, including my hoodie, which was kind of a weird combination. I was fully awake and aware when they started the procedure. I thought of nothing else but to concentrate on the light above me. I could see something being passed over my field of vision, but I ignored it. And then, suddenly, everything was black, except for red and green dots everywhere. For a moment, I just kept telling myself not to panic. Shortly, the light returned, and everything was cool. I spent the remainder of the day squinting through my "good" eye, while keeping my "bad" eye closed. It was a strange sensation, to be sure. I had considered the two options my brother had suggested (pirate patch or monocle), but I decided to opt out of both in the end.
The next day, I returned to the clinic. They checked the good eye, and everything looked all right, so we plowed ahead with the second. This time it didn't go black, but I did notice that the doctor struggled a tiny bit more to get the lens into my eye. Yeah, that's right, I saw him shoving it in a little bit. This resulted in a small bruise on my eye which I ended up explaining for days and days afterwards. When I left the office, I could see (well...more or less. It was still a bit blurry).
The first thing I did when I got home was look in the mirror. For the first time in over 20 years, I saw myself without glasses. That is, I saw myself from a distance, as opposed to having my face pressed up against the mirror. I had forgotten this face. It was really shocking to see how much of a difference a pair of glasses can make, even a small frameless pair like mine. Over the years, my glasses had been getting smaller and smaller to accommodate the thinnest possible lenses that I needed to correct my vision. I ditched the frames to try and make the glasses as close to invisible as I could. But it was still a stranger that stared back at me now.
It's been almost two weeks since I've had the procedure. I went for my 1-week follow-up appointment, and I read the letters from the 20/20 line. The pressure in my eyes is good (no exploding eyeballs please), and although the night vision is still a bit hazy, I was told that my eyes are still healing, so it may improve a little later.
I have inspired at least a dozen people at my workplace to look into ICL or laser eye surgery for themselves or their family members. I still have people telling me that I look very different, but in a good way.
You wanna know the best part of this experience, other than being able to see? I'm starting to recognize me again.
"And I wear my sunglasses at night, so I can, so I can keep track of visions in my eyes"
