LASIK eye surgery

  Sorry I've been gone for SO long! I haven't really had much to talk about till the last couple of weeks. Last Thursday I had LASIK eye surgery! Let me tell you, best money I've EVER spent! It still hasn't sunk in yet. I can SEE without contacts or glasses! I've had glasses since 4th grade. It's kind of bittersweet.



Last picture with my glasses!

   So last week Kansas got hit by a GINORMOUS snow storm aka Blizzard of Oz! I think we ended up getting somewhere around 10 to 11 inches. It was just plain NUTS! Nick and I anticipated this hitting Thursday morning, the day of my surgery, which was in KC. So, we booked a hotel room 2 blocks from Cavanaugh Eye Center, and drove up Wednesday and stayed the night. The next morning was like something out of a movie. The snow was blowing sideways, you couldn't see jack. Thank goodness we weren't far from the eye center.


This is what we woke up to! Just plain CRAZY!

  We arrived in one piece and the nerves set in! I IMMEDIATELY asked for Valium. I was going to need something to get through this. I was escorted to an exam room where I went over what was about to happen with one of the 'nurses.' Not sure what their actual job title is, so we will just call them that! She told me she need to redo one of the tests, I have no idea what it was for, but I went along with it. It equated to me looking into a machine at a red dot, while she did whatever she does. We then went back to the exam room. She was making me super nervous because I could tell something wasn't right. She then walked out into the hall and started asking Dr. Cavanaugh some questions. I could hear him say, "Don't worry about it. It's not a big deal." But, at this point I'm FREAKING out! These are my EYES people! I took a couple, ok maybe a handful of deep breaths and just rolled with it.

Nick after pushing all the snow off our car. I just love him!

 

Poor guy had already been through one snow storm Wednesday!

 

Almost go time!

  This was especially hard for me because this is what I do 3 days a week! I get people ready for surgery, not the other way around! I got moved into the lazer room and got positioned on the table.

                Sorry. This picture is not very good, but Nick took it and 'says' they looked at him funny!

  Nick got to watch the whole thing. They apparently videotape it or something because it was on a monitor he could watch. He said it was weird and gross! So, at this point I'm crapping my pants {Ewwhatsthatsmell}, ok not really but it was SCARY!! They taped down my upper and lower eyelashes to keep them out of the way. Let me tell you that felt awesome! Now, I'm about to have a full blown meltdown. No Valium in the world could help ya at this point. So they put some sort of retractor on your eye, from what I could tell it kind of looked like a spring of some sort. Next he put what felt like a suction cup on my eye. And by meaning put, I mean PUSHED pretty hard! something right onto my eye. Oh, by the way, I received numbing drops prior to going into the lazer room and periodically while this is going on, so it didn't hurt, there was just a lot of pressure. He then used some kind of wand that looked similar to a q-tip but softer and dried my eye off. Next, they moved the machine over my face and tell you to stare at the red dot. Ok, easy enough, right?! Yah, until she says, now tell me when your vision goes black! UM, WHAT!? Deep breathe Tiffany, deep breathe! So, it goes black, I tell her, and it comes back pretty quickly. Meanwhile there is another girl in the background running the actual lazer machine. She starts rambling off some nonsense and the lazer starts going. I think the first round was like 13 seconds. It stops and then goes again for maybe another 10. I can't remember. All I'm thinking at this point is that I have to do this AGAIN for the other eye. Ahhh!! And then that was it! The right eye was done. It took probably a little over a minute. Now, the left eye. YIKES! So, I think that now I'm more aware of what's about to happen and it made it more difficult. The 2nd eye hurt a lot worse. She kept adding more drops which helped but I just wanted it to be over at this point. I NEVER would have made it through this without that girl standing next to me talking me through the whole thing. She was my hero. And then I'm done! I sit up and sit down at an eye exam thingy, the doc looked at the flaps to make sure they were in place and out we go. I get a few more rounds of drops in my eyes and we were outta there. :) Easy right?!

  Now, to battle the blizzard, which is much worse now, especially when you cant see! My vision was like looking through a steamy shower door. So, not the best. There are cars stuck all over, in just the short 2 block drive, one of which is blocking the entrance drive to get to the hotel. We have to enter through the exit, praying no one was coming. Again, more cars stuck along this road. Nick gets me up to our room and settled in.

                                     Aren't these hot?! Ew! excuse my pepperoni face.
  
  Nick goes back out and helps push several people out of the snow. He comes back at some point to check on me. All I want to do is rest my eyes, they say to go home and just sleep, that's kind of hard to do when your husband is out in the weather, and your not in your own bed! I doze off for a little while and Nick returns soaked head to toe. We decide it would probably be best if we stay another night since it's still nuts out. This was fine, except we had NO food, and obviously no one is going to be delivering in this crud. So what does Nick do?! He walks to the grocery store that's across the street and comes back with some goodies! He's the best right?!
 
  Now to try and get some REAL rest since he's finally in bed with me. I slept for a good couple hours and felt MUCH better. I was feeling pretty miserable there for a while. My eyes were just scratchy and just plain uncomfortable. I about had a meltdown, but Nick kept me calm.

                                           I get to wear these bad boys for a week. :(

  After our little siesta we discovered the snow has subsided for now. We debated on venturing out to get back home, which we both wanted so badly, or to just stay put. Well, we decided to make a run for it! Probably not very smart, but we wanted to be home in our bed with our pup!

                                            Thank you Marriott, we will try!!

  Let me just tell you, US69 and I35 were AWFUL! And I mean awful! I don't know how we made it to I70. There were cars blocking on ramps, semi's clogging up 3 lanes of highway, snow so deep tow trucks and plowers were stuck and stranded. We're dumb right!?

                           Yup! Blocking the entire highway!
 
  Well we made it home safely, in one piece, and actually only had one close call as far as getting stuck. The Denali was a beast! We picked up our pup from the Dude Ranch and headed home.

                                                           He lovey the snow!

  Here I am almost a week later and I'm seeing GREAT! It hasn't hit me yet that I don't just have contacts in. It's been pretty awesome. I have a little dry eye, which is to be expected, but doing well. Yah for LASIK!!!