During the first week after the surgery I used a Minidisc recorder to 'write down' what I was feeling and what I was doing with myself - it would be near impossible to use a computer. After one week I managed to record around one hour of speech. In the translation from audio to text (i.e. me typing it in) some things may be lost but, hopefully, it'll be interesting.
Friday the 4th of June 1999.
Afternoon entry(sounding pretty bad)
Apparently it's 3.15pm (I can't focus on my watch), and I'm looking forward to the next 15mins because that's when I can have my next pain killer. For some reason I seem to have cold-like symptoms which I assume is the drugs.
Last night we (me and my brother) went into London to stay at friends house, since the operation was to be at 10am and we didn't fancy the idea of getting up very early in order to drive to London. This morning we drove into the area of the hospital and dropped a friend off, getting in much earlier then expected (at 8.20) so we went for a walk and got some money. Then we made our way into St Thomas' Hospital to find the 'Ridley Eye clinic'. At 10am no-one else had turned up, to my dismay. Once Mr O'Brart turned up he asked me to take a seat, but the room was locked - not a good start!
Anyway, once we got into the room Mr O'Brart came to see me and 15mins later I had another eye exam - everything was still stable. We decided between us that I would have my left eye treated first since a) it's more short-sighted then the right at -2.25 dioptres b) my right eye is dominant and c) the smaller the difference between the eyes the better. Once my eye clears enough to see out of it and once my brain adjusts to the two different focus/image sizes I should be able to walk around without glasses.
So I had to wait a bit longer since an engineer was working on the laser system (Summit Technology Apex Plus laser) to install a new gas cylinder. We went into another room full of equipment, one of which was going to measure the topography of my eye. I sat at the machine and stared into a cone-shaped device which had illuminated rings up the length of the cone (I stared in the 'base' of the cone looking towards the narrow end). I suspect the rings are reflected in the cornea which the computer analyses with reference to a perfect sphere. The differences show up as height differences which are then colour coded on the final 'map'. I think this information is used in the laser to determine which parts of the cornea need more or less energy then others in order to obtain the perfect surface.
After several applications of anesthetic and 'pupil shrinking' drugs were poured into my eye I found myself waiting outside the room and, while reading the contrast charts on the wall, I could hear the laser being tested. It sounded like a machine gun with 5 loud clicks per second! This did very little to improve my nervous state! After a few minutes I could tell that the sight was failing in my left eye due to the pupil shrinking, it was then I was let into the room.
I sat on the chair, which was rather like a posh dentist chair, and sat back to stare into the laser.......
What I saw was a large illuminated red circle with a small green LED (light emitting diode) in the centre. To the side were 2 red lasers which, I suspect, are used by the surgeon to determine the position of the eye. He carried on applying eye drops before doing a test run. I just sat there and stared into the green light for 15 seconds without blinking or moving my eye - that's all you have to do! Then he fired off a few tests shots directly onto the Epithelium (skin surrounding the Cornea). Incredible white light and the noise made me blink every time, also the smell of burnt hair accompanied the experience . Of course, once you see the light (so to speak) it's too late to blink. I realised afterwards that my vision had changed since the Epithelium had been marked - No turning back now!
Then, after Mr O'Brart moved me around under the laser, he applied some more eye drops and put some devices into my eye to stop me from blinking (I think there were 3). I'm not sure if I could still move my eye (I didn't try). The clamps did their job well since they prevented me blinking but also managed to give me the sensation that I had actually blinked. I tried this test at home and found that I couldn't really keep my eye focused on one subject for any long then about 10 seconds and I think this is due to a) changing focus and moving the eye is too easy and we're not used to keeping it still and b) the sensation of dirt landing in the eye causing you to blink. Of course, in the surgery, my eye had plenty of pain-killing anesthetic in so I couldn't feel a thing.
Removing the Epithelium
He proceeded to remove (actually scrape) the Epithelium from the surface of my eye. This was one fear of mine but it was completely painless. All I could see was Mr O'Brart wiping the surface of my eye and the mild sensation of my eye moving back slightly. Absolutely nothing to be worried about! He mentioned that my skin was very easy to remove which is a little odd, but would only result in some small pain in the mornings as the skin moves about in the night. He applied some more drops and I stared into the beam.
I reckon about 5 shots per second for 15 seconds was the total 'treatment time' with Mr O'Brart holding my head all of the time. The same noise and the same bright white flashes but no smell (I think, I was thinking about other things at that point). With every shot the green light became more and more blurred until it was 3 times the size it used to be. After the treatment came more chemicals (saline solution and some intriguing brown gunk) which cleared my vision for a fraction of a second, my eye was then taped shut and a pad was taped over the eye. The pad over my eye was to stay over for 24 hours and I was only to remove if the pad was pressing on the eye.
We finished about 11.15am, he gave me some strong anesthetic drops to use in case of extreme pain and we made our way to the pharmacy to pick up some Steroid drops, Antiseptic drops, pain killers and sleeping tablets. That lot set me back 25 pounds! Just as we were leaving he mentioned that, because I was a young man, that the pain could be quite extreme so I should be prepared for a lot of swearing and punching of walls. None of which happened.....too much. :-) The pain was expected to arrive anywhere between 45 minutes and 4 hours from the operation.
We left at 11.30am, I swallowed 2 pain killers and we made our way back to Bristol, with me map reading and my brother driving. With us through London I settled in my seat, put my shades on (99p from McDonalds) and put my leather jacket over my eyes. My untreated eye was a little sensitive to bright light and, waddya know, it was a bright sunny day.
It is a theory of mine that whenever I see Mr O'Brart the weather is always bright and sunny when you don't need it. At the consultation he dilated my eyes which remained dilated for around 5 hours. I had to drive home from London to Bristol in bright sunshine which gave a headache from Hell. Today, while walking around inside the hospital, I noticed that it was raining quite hard. But when I came to leave the sun came out.
At 11.45 I noticed the sensation of something in my eye, only a slight feeling at first but by the time we got to Reading services (around 1.5hours later) it was quite extreme - clenched fists time. I found the pain being caused by 2 things:--
1) If I didn't move my eye for long periods then, when I did move it, it hurt a lot
2) If I moved my eyes too much in one direction, I'd get a sharp stabbing pain.
So, in order to reduce the amount of pain I was getting I had to move my eyes small distances a few times in a minute.
At Reading I had to eat. I tried to remove the jacket from my head but the glare from outside was too much, even with my sunglasses on. I had to wait in the car like some caged-up-leather-jacket-headed-dog while my brother got the burgers in. He passed a burger under my jacket and in a few seconds I devoured it and passed the wrapper back to him. Must have looked funny from the outside.
I also found that if I tried to look at anything at all I would get some pain. What people don't realise is that humans move their eyes a lot because we can. As soon as we open our eyes in the morning we look all over the place. Trying to be like an Owl (fixed eyes, has to move it's head in order to see the landscape) is almost impossible to a human. The best course of action was to keep my eyes shut and not to look at anything.
Other thing I'm worried about is sleeping, or to be more precise, REM (random eye movement). With the amount of pain I'm getting at the moment (which is enough to stop you in your tracks and cause you to clench your fists) I think that these sleeping pills will have to be good. I've got double-strength to help me through but we'll see what happens. I'm also worried about how my eye will feel in the morning - will it be dry or sore? OK it's 3.40pm now, I can take some more pain killers. Hooray!
Evening entry (sounding better)
I'm in my bedroom now, the curtains are closed and I've put a large blanket over the whole curtain thing to cut down the light. I'm spending most of the remainder of the day just lying in bed with my eyes closed listening to the radio but I have been walking about but not keeping my eyes open for any longer then is necessary. I've nearly walked into a few doors (haha). "Ow ow owow ow " {pain kicks in again - clenched fist time}. I'm still wearing my sunglasses and it's too bright (in the darkened house) to take them off. Blinking causes me some pain so keeping my eyes shut and staring ahead most of the time helps. The pain is levelling out - I think I'll live through this! {smile} For the evening meal (dinner) I had some soup and a sandwich, stuff you can eat without opening your eyes too much. It's now 10.30pm and I'm going to bed. I've taken 2 pain killers and the sleeping tablet. We'll see what I'm like when I wake up.
Saturday the 5th of June
Day 1 - 11am
Last night was interesting. Despite me taking the pain killers and sleeping tablet I still work up several times during the night. Once at 2am (only 3 hours after falling sleep - not a lot of pain but I took a single pain killer. Then I woke up at 5am, then 6am (took another pain killer) and finally at 8am. From that point I just stayed there, finally getting out at 10am and taking another pain killer.
My thinking is this: I'd rather experience some pain then have no pain only to hit by quite a lot a few days down the road. This sounds strange as the pain only lasts a couple of days whilst the epithelium grows back and I've enough tablets for several days. The skin is still healing at this point, I think slower is better for reducing scar tissue. Also I've had a relatively large beam diameter (6 mm) which means the skin will take a little longer to grow back anyway.
The pad that was placed over my eye was really starting to annoy me. My eye has been watering for quite some time now and the pad is adsorbing it - not nice. I took the pad off and removed the tape holding my eye shut (Mr O'Brart didn't think it would hold but it did).I then put my sunglasses back on (in the darkened bedroom) and opened my eye.{drum roll}......Brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr.
{Tish!}
Surprisingly there wasn't much glare (but there wasn't much light in the room either), and the image was really, really blurry. I think all of the drugs are still in there. The only reason for me opening my eyes now is to exercise my eyelid - which seems to have become lazy due to being taped shut for a day. I find that if I keep my eyes open for more then a second or two that I get a lot of pain, shutting my eyes also hurts. Every now and then I have to wipe my eye since there is a lot of 'water' flooding out.
Then we put the drops in - no problem although I did require my brother to actually dispense the drops as I couldn't see a thing! A small amount of pain relief but only for a few seconds. If the pain increases then I may try one of the Anesthetic 'emergency' drops around lunch time.
I am walking around and looking at things but there is no chance of leaving the still-darkened house, not that I feel like it. Because the pain is still there I am closing my eyes every few seconds to re-lubricate things. Regarding the pain. I have found that the sensation is exactly when you have your eye scratched or when you have something large in it. I was fighting my brother in my early years when he accidentally scratched my eye. I had to wear a patch for a couple of days and pour some evil-looking brown 'cream' into it every few hours. In this case the wound is much larger so I expect the healing time to be longer - we'll see. Last night, just before going to bed, the pain got quite bad as the pain killer wore off and the other took effect.
I've just seen what my eye looks like (with the aid of Mum). It's quite red and still has a lot of stuff in it along with the pupil still being contracted.
Day 1 - 1pm.
I'm finding, as the day goes on, that I can hold my treated eye open for longer periods. I'm walking around with my untreated open all of the time. I can move it around and the pain is subsiding. I'm also on less painkillers (1 every 4 hours as opposed to 2 every 4 hours). I think that I'm a little 'immune' to pain killing drugs judging by the way the sleeping tablets didn't exactly knock me out. I can keep my treated eye open for more then a few seconds and look around but there's little point since the vision is not clear anyway - everything just seems to be out of focus and hazy. When I have my eyes open I am finding that I can resolve 3D images which is surprising since the vision is so poor. I'm just happy that the pain is starting to subside. I was actually running up the stairs a minute ago!
It's still watering (as opposed to many people finding that they have dry eyes) and needs to be dabbed every minute or so. I'm happy with this as it will help lubrication.
I certainly don't feel drowsy at all, despite the warnings on the pain killers and sleeping tablets. I'm finding it hard to concentrate on anything for long periods but I feel OK.
Day 1 - 3 .10pm
I've just finished watching Monty Python (and the Holy Grail). At about 2.30pm I was due for another pain killer but I realised that I had *no* pain at all. All movement of my eyes was as normal. However, since taking the tablet, the pain has got worse. This may be because I'm overdue for an eye drop and everybody has left me in the house. I'm not confident that I could put them in on my own.
Day 1 - 4.15pm
I've just tried to put some drops in myself (I was due at 2pm) and wasted 4 of them on my cheek before finally getting one on target. It's still hurting and the pain killer hasn't done much. Once it's starts to hurt I put my sunglasses on which does little to stop the pain but does protect my eye from sunlight and flying objects.
Day 1 - 9pm
I'm wearing my shades full time now, but I think that's because my muscles are starting to fail a little. I did get a bit more pain a while ago which required me to lie on my bed and not do anything for 15 minutes or so but it's better now.
silly slippers
Sunday the 6th of June
Day 2 - Morning
It's 10.40am and I've just been up for 40mins, after sleeping rather well. I took 2 pain killers,eye drops and the sleeping tablet at 10.30pm and I reckon I was asleep by 11pm. I'm not sure if I did wake up during the night but if I did I fall back into the land of Nod very quickly. I woke up (for sure) at 8am and dozed until 10. So much better then last night.
I noticed that when I open my eyes for the first time today that I had no pain at all. I could roll my eye around and not feel a thing. However, as the minutes rolled by, I could feel something. By the time I'd eaten, taken the eye drops etc the pain has risen to a point where it isn't uncomfortable but looking around with one eye open gives me a little pain. Later on today I plan to (somehow) go out and get some sunglasses from the local Ski shop. I want some that have good peripheral protection, not just straight forward which a lot of the more stylish glasses have.
Side note: I'm actually using the computer right now (recording to the hard drive since my brother has walked away with his Mini-Disc recorder - cheeky) and it's fine. I am using it with one eye and walking around the house without my cheap sunglasses on. It's still very bright and sunny outside though...
Day 2 - Lunch time.
1.30pm. With every hour that passes my vision gets better. It's still very bright outside but I can walk around the house quite happily without my sunglasses and even stare out of the windows. To test my vision I tried to juggle - I found that I just couldn't do it with just my good eye but when I also used my treated eye (which is still very fuzzy) I found that the depth perception improved greatly and I could juggle no problem. It goes to show that even though the absolute vision is rubbish, the 3D image you get from both eyes is sufficient for good hand-eye coordination.
I'm finding that it takes around an hour for the painkillers to work their magic. I'm also finding that I get a sensation in my eye 30 minutes before I'm due for my next pill which means that I get 1.5 hours of sensation/pain after every 2.5hours of pain-free vision. I'm not groggy or anything which the pills state quite clearly on the packing may happen.
Day 2 - Afternoon.
It's 4.38, Sunday afternoon. Just been out shopping to replace the cheap 99p McDonalds sunglasses that I've been using since the operation and I wanted to buy myself a little pressie to celebrate that a) I went through with the operation and didn't wuss out and b) that I still have use of that eye :-) I've never had a really good set of sunglasses in my life so this morning we went out (Mum drove) and found the local shop to be shut. This afternoon we went to Bristol Town and I got some 'Oakley 10's" which cost a wallet-stunning 77pounds! Rather nice they are too - they just about cover my peripheral vision and they have nice safe low-distortion lenses to protect against nasty UV light and filter out glare.
My eye itself is getting better in terms of clarity and it seems to change every hour. I'm looking at the computer now and I can make out the larger 'blobs' - there's no detail at all. It's almost like looking through fogged glass. Depth perception is good. I can walk around the house fine and almost walk around outside in the bright sunlight without any sunglasses on. Although, I did manage to highlight my condition when walking up to the sunglasses stand - I didn't see the step and went crashing into the display. I laughed anyway . It wasn't a problem with my eyes, just I didn't look down.
I've got no pain at all, just a slight sensation of something - I'm happy. Tonight I'm going to the monthly MINI club meeting but I don't think I'll stay too long in the pub in case the smoke or whatever interferes with the healing process. I've spent the rest of the afternoon play on my Playstation which is something that I don't normally get much time to do. I thought that, since I'm getting quite a few days off work I should be able to increase my skills in 'Gran Turismo'. I found that I was completely awful. I could play the games but my vision was so weird at times that I lost track of what I was doing and promptly cocked-it-up.
Took pills and drops, blah blah blah.
Day 2 - Evening.
Watched 'Kingpin' on TV. Quite a good film. I needed a laugh. Vision watching TV is OK, I'm just waiting now to see how long it's going to be before I can drive...
Monday the 7th of June
Day 3 - Morning.
I woke up with quite a nice surprise today, it appears that the treated eye is now better for long distance then my untreated eye. By that I mean that the hazyness and blurred vision has gone. I'm obviously long sighted (which is how it should be due to the over-correction done to compensate for natural regression) and there is no pain although a slight sensation can be felt. My eye is slightly sticky but other then that it's fine. I'm looking at a computer screen right now and where as yesterday the image was blurred, today I can make out more detail and even read a few things. My untreated eye is obviously better for this type of distance. However if I look down the garden I can almost see individual leaves on trees - with my right (untreated) eye I can only see the tree. All seems to be going to plan.
I'm still having to put the eye drops in unassisted since everybody else has to go to work but my aim getting slightly better. Last night I finished off the last of the sleeping tablets and took one pain killer, I slept all the way through the night, which is possibly the first good nights sleep since the operation. I'm still taking the eye drops 4 times a day.
So, today is the first day I can see clearly with my left (treated) eye for long distance. There is still a little bit of haze when looking at bright objects that are on a dark background - everything seems to have a corona or a glow around it but it's not a problem.
Day 3 - Evening.
It's 1140pm. Today has been great with no pain at all. The odd 'twinge' but since there is only 3 a day it's really nothing to be worried about. My long-sight in my treated eye has been improving a little during the day (although I have no gauge of this) and I've been, pretty much, living a normal life. Even though it's been very sunny outside I've no problem or pain or glare problems. I suspect the difference between by eye strengths is about 3 dioptres (guessing) but it's not bothering me, I do find my depth perception goes a bit crazy at times on close objects. But I've been reading and playing on my Playstation so I guess I'm doing alright :-)
Tomorrow I'm going to venture out of the house and see what happens.
Day 4 - Tuesday the 8th of June.
Sounding quite jolly actually....
Nothing really special to report today. I compared my treated eye against my untreated eye with glasses and found that vision isn't as good with my treated eye but this is due to the haze and scar tissue formed when the Epithelium heals back. If I do try and wear my glasses (with one lens knocked out) I get dizzy which is due to image size difference, so now I'm not wearing my glasses - not that I have since the operation anyway.
I also went out for a short drive. The difference is amazing from one eye to another, I can certainly read things better with my treated eye and generally the vision is a lot better then how it used to be without glasses. I drove to the train station to pick my brother up today and had no problems although I did have to wear my sunglasses since it was so bright outside.
Last night was the first night I went to bed without taking a sleeping tablet, what a difference they make! I found that it took ages to fall asleep (around 45mins) but I seem to remember that I've always been like that. I got up at 10am to compensate for it. Hahahahah!
Day 5 - Wednesday the 9th of June.
It did some more driving today but still had to wear my sunglasses because it's still really bright weather. It's amazing isn't it? We live in England which typically isn't a bright country, I get one of my eyes lasered and it's sunny for a whole week afterwards. Oh well..
I think in the mornings my vision is better then at night. I don't know if to do with muscle fatigue or my eye dilating but I seem to notice that as night draws in my vision starts to degrade slightly. It's only a minor observation anyway.
I walked into the local village (Staple Hill) to see my old Optician today. I haven't seen him for many years, possibly 10, and I had a chat with him. Unfortunately I seemed to know more about the treatment then him which was quite embarrassing, he referred to LASIK treatment as 'Flap and Zap' which sounds very simplistic. Then again he may still think I am 15 years old and it dumbing it down a bit. I gave him the information, which wasn't really necessary but it's good for him to know as I will need eye tests in the future. I've been using the '1 hour' type places since the age of 17 but it's not worth trekking into town when I can walk to the local in 10 minutes.
I dropped off some films at the developing lab, got some money out, played on my Playstation blah blah blah. Pretty much a normal day really..boring :-)
Day 6 - Thursday the 10th of June.
It's 11.40pm. Haven't done anything to justify my useless existence today other then play games, fix the house phone system (all the lines went dead which I found to be a partially shorted cable between the house and the garage). BT were quoting 2 weeks to fix that problem so I did it myself.
This evening has been pretty interesting though. I waited for it to get pitch black and at 11pm I went for a drive with my brother. I'm finding that in bright areas there is still a bit of haze (big discs of diffused light around the object) which is no problem because you get that (and worse) with glasses anyway. I then tackled some of the unlit country roads, purposely driving without my main beam on (to fully dilate my eyes. I found that when I chanced on a road sign it would appear with 2 50% transparent images of the sign at 45 degrees (top left and bottom right of the real sign) which is double vision. NO HALOS though. Also I found that with my untreated eye the vision is appalling. I've never driven at night without my glasses since passing my test (8 years ago) so I never realised how bad I was. With my treated eye the in-car instruments are much clearer then with my right eye but it's still a bit blurred due to the long-sight. During the day my untreated eye is better for seeing the in-car stuff because there is so much more light.
I've finished the course of painkillers, still taking the drops and I've got an appointment with Mr O'Brart tomorrow so we'll see how that goes.
Day 7 - Friday the 11th of June. One week after surgery.
I drove to London to see Mr O'Brart for my one-week checkup. I had to wear my sunglasses but it only took about 2 hours or so to do the 130 miles into London. I didn't have any problems with driving. I met up with a friend for lunch and then made my way to the consulting rooms for the checkup.
A test of the eye proved that I am currently +1 in the treated eye (so 3 dioptres between eyes) and that it's quite possible that I'm getting double vision because the healing point of the Epithelium is just off-centre and horizontal across my field of view. As my pupil dilates at night the scar effectively gets closer to the centre of the eye and reflections from the scar cause the wacky vision. It should clear up in a couple of weeks, if not I have to contact him and he'll alter the dose of the steroid drops. Apparently the amount of Steroids affect the final correcting power of the eye so I have to stop taking the antiseptic drops by Sunday night and my dose of Steroids has been dropped to twice a day for another month. Everything looks dandy and I should have near-perfect vision in 2 weeks or so. I've got another check up in a month and another one month after that which is done in the morning should I want the other eye treated there and then. I've got a lot going on around that time so I'll have to work out what time is best for the other eye to be treated given that I'm affected for around one week in terms of driving and close work etc.
I can now rub my eye but it'll be sore due to the severed nerve endings from the surgery, I might get pain in the morning due to my loose Epithelium moving about during the night, I'm not allowed to go swimming (risk of infection from the water) and I can't go sun bathing (Damn! I was due to top-up my bronzed body :-)
Apparently I was always legal to drive with my eye uncorrected since I resolve to 6/6 where the legal requirement is 6/10. I couldn't believe that bearing in mind what I found on Thursday night. I've driven from Bristol to Scotland in the day without glasses but I didn't need to read the motorway signs as I knew where I was going. With -2 in both eyes I found that I couldn't read the motorway signs until they were only a few metres in front of the car which is normally not enough time.
2 weeks after surgery.
Stuff of interest:-
Tuesday:- Dropped my brother off at work and drove back. Once home I noticed a dull ache and more pronounced double vision. After speaking to Mr O'Brart it appears that is due to the Epithelium moving. No problems since.
Wednesday. Back at work. I walked in wearing my sunglasses and my boss commented that I look like the Terminator (well, a 5 foot 7 one anyway). Make a mental note to buy a trench coat :-)
3 weeks after surgery.
Stuff of interest:-
Generally lack of double vision. Weekend showed eye with near-perfect long vision. Close range stuff improving but it'll start to slow down over the next few weeks
Monday the 19th of June. Drove to Scotland (350 miles) in 4.5 hours in good weather conditions. No problems.
Thursday the 22nd June, drove back for 1/2 hour at night on motorway. Head hurts due to 'bad' eye not seeing well at night. Feels like there is some internal pressure.
Friday the 23rd of June. Drove back to Bristol but I didn't start the journey until 5pm. I got back at 11.30pm so plenty on night-time driving there. Didn't find the 'internal pressure' feeling of yesterday. There's definitely a different sensation of feeling when driving at night but I have no problem with it.
4 weeks after surgery.
No real improvement over the last week but it's likely to be so gradual that I won't really notice it anyway. I was working on a machine on Oxsted this week and finished on Tuesday. Then on the way home I got a message to drive to France, immediately if possible. I got the night ferry over to St Malo and drove to Rennes for Wednesday morning. Back to normal work life...
I still find that, occasionally, my close-range vision is a little weird but it's definitely improving - I'm taking less swipes at something to eventually hit it :-)
On the Friday of the 4th week, I went to Alton Towers with a old few University chums. There were no problems with any of the rides other then the ones involving water. As soon as we left the park I put some eye drops in to clear out any rubbish that was in there. No problems.
5 weeks after surgery.
I had an appointment with Mr O'Brart today which lasted all of 5 minutes. A quick eye test showed that my focus was 'near perfect' and that all was clearing up nicely. I was told to reduce my FML eye drops to once per day for the next 3 weeks, then to stop using them. I should avoid exposure to UV light (like Skiing and Sunbeds) but I should be OK in normal sunlight.
So I chose to wear my sunglasses at the weekend event 'Big Day Out', which was an all-day (12 hours) rock/metal event. featuring Metallica among many others. Great show!
6 weeks after surgery.
Recently I've been pulling a few long days in the office working on a machine that isn't behaving itself. I've been doing 14-15 hours days on this machine and, as a result, have been leaving the office at 11-12pm when it's very dark. This has shown up some night vision problems on the un-lit motorways.
1) White Headlights from on coming vehicles produce flares which all spectacle wearers will be familiar with. Generally 4 lines from the centre of the light outwards.
2) Red Tailights/Side lights from vehicles on the same side of the road as me generally produce many flares (star bursts?). These are only a problem when the car is quite far away as both of the lights mix into one red blob. I can still make out the centre of the lights but I can't make out the car that is in between them!
3) I still have a little double vision but it's nowhere as bad as before - quite easy to live with. It's only a small area around the road signs. When entering into brighter conditions the problems just vanish.
6 weeks after surgery.
The week was spent in the office. This weekend I attended a beach party in London, then went 'Wake Boarding' the day after. 'Wake Boarding' is simply water skiing but with a board. A good laugh but I got a lot water in my eye (something I tried to avoid with goggles). The lake water itself was quite clean but I put another eye drop in as soon as I finished.
7 weeks after surgery.
The week was spent in the office. This weekend I went into London again to attend a friends Stag do. I didn't get to London in time to participate in the 'Pub Golf' but the next day involved going Sports-Quad biking and Archery. Great laugh. I was a little worried about the dust being kicked up from the quad bikes but, once agin, I just stuck another eye drop in as soon as I could. No pain or irritation.
3 months after surgery.
I've been quite a busy boy recently, with social events and weddings to go to. I went to the South of England to see the Total Eclipse (which was ruined by cloud) but afterwards we went dirt buggy racing. My eye got a bit of dirt in it but seems to be OK. Recently I went go-kart racing at Castle Combe racetrack but there was little risk of eye damage.
I discovered that looking out of the front of the car to test night vision is probably not a good idea due to the heated front screen. I tried looking out of the back window and found that I didn't get anywhere near as many effects. During the Eclipse weekend I stayed in a cottage which had no streetlamps. This was the perfect condition to test my night vision. I found that I now have quite a bit of doubt whether I'm seeing any problems at all!
However this week I found that my eye was quite red near the Iris so, as I was near a machine with a microscope and CCD camera, I took a few piccies.
Left picture is my untreated eye, the right shows the blood vessels giving me the problems.
I should stress at this point that the right image makes the eye look a lot worse then it actually is, with the naked eye I can only see the largest vessels. I can feel something in this part of my eye so I do occasionally rub it, but always being careful not to touch the Iris area. I spoke with the kind souls at AskLasikDocs and they suggested that it's probably a small infection. I'll be booking a check-up with Mr O'Brart soon...
Nearly 4 months after surgery. 5th of October '99
I did go for a check-up with Mr O'Brart and he found a small thread in my eye - which he quickly removed. It's not known where it came from but it's suprising considering I spend most of my time in 'clean room' semiconductor environments. So I left London with a prescription for some eye drops which would remove any infection. One week later the eye was much better.
I have finally managed to nail down a date for treatment of the second eye - this Friday (8th). I have been a little concerned with the 'macro' vision of my treated eye. It's kinda difficult to explain but I'll try.:-
Short sighted people such as I (-2 dioptres) have very good macro sight (that is for distances closer then, say, 20inches) I've noticed that for distances further then this my treated eye is superior but for closer distances my untreated eye takes over. Using a highly accurate system (a rular) I have found that my untreated eye can obtain sharp focus down to 3 inches (amazing) but my treated eye can only focus down to 4.5inches BUT the image is also smaller which means I see less detail. Now I have been told that the normal distance to get sharp focus is around 10 inches and I did have a 'reading test' with Mr O'Brart which showed I was perfect but I feel I'm loosing something by having surgery. Moan Moan moan..... :-)
Also the amount of effort required to focus my treated eye close is quite extreme and I get a headache quite quickly. I guess that my eye muscles haven't had to work as hard as this before - relying on corrective vision and all.
Also, a few weeks ago a few friends and I went to 'Last night of the Proms' in Kenwood park, London. Quite nice it was with a huge field of people watching the orchestra over a lake - a world apart from the 'Big Day Out' Heavy Metal concert a few months ago. The only bad point was that some posh-low-life stole my Oakley's when I was away from my bag for a few seconds. Bah! I've got some 'Killer Loop Heist' glasses now. They are similar to the Oakleys but are half the price. We'll see how long these last.
For more information on the general progress of both eyes, please go to my 2nd eye treatment page.