Thanks for your well-wishes everyone, I certainly appreciated them!
Finding out that I needed(?) surgery again was a hard pill for me to swallow. While I don’t regret getting LASIK done the first time, it was (and still is) the hardest thing I have ever done in my life.
I have a terrible phobia of eyes, I get squeamish to the extreme about them (hyperventilating, throwing up, etc. when I think too much about the icky parts) but I went through with it and came out ok for the most part.
My vision was fine for a while, but then I started noticing that I had to squint to see some things when I didn’t have to before. I felt like I needed glasses again, and that made me pretty disappointed. All that stress and discomfort for the original surgery, and here it didn’t even work.
The eye docs at TLC confirmed this and brought up the topic of having an “enhancement” done to bring my vision up closer to 20/20. I thought it seemed like a good idea, especially when I had paid upwards of $4000 to have proper vision and a lifetime guarantee… at least this time around I didn’t have to pay for it.
The biggest beef I have with this whole situation is the lack of compassion and “bedside manner” that the staff at TLC had for me. I was clearly scared and anxious about going through this procedure again, and wasn’t even sure if I really needed it or not. You see, at every appointment I met with a different optometrist who told me something different or contradictory to the person before them… I had no idea how much my sight was degrading, how fast, or whether another surgery was really neccessary.
I was pretty pissed. They tried to make it seem like it was my fault for not reading the contract and list of possible side effects/risks involved, and made me feel like an idiot for not knowing everything about eye health that they knew. I am not stupid, and I did my homework to the best of my abilities, but I am not a trained optometrist, I don’t know everything about the state of my eyes or how they would react to LASIK!
Long story short, I feel that they could have handled my case a lot better, especially knowing that I was particularly anxious about the procedure (this is all written in my file).
I went ahead with the enhancement and had my right eye done again. It was the most severe to begin with, so it needed the extra zap to get it back to where it was after the first surgery. I had the same surgeon again, Dr. Jeffrey Machat and I would definitely recommend him. He was the only one who bothered to listen to my concerns. He explained everything to me with more clarity and made me feel much better about having the surgery again. He was also the one who suggested only getting the one eye done because it was the only one that truly needed the enhancement. This meant an easier time recovering, and less time in the O.R. (Insert big sigh of relief!)
He is a very good surgeon and talked to me through the procedure, keeping me calm and letting me know what to expect. He and the lady who prepped me right before surgery were both kind and understanding and let me take the lead in all situations. There was also another nice lady who held my hand while I was being zapped which was a huge reassurance to me… I just needed someone to ground me while I was in there. I was damn scared!
In the end, everything went really well, Dr. Machat even commented on how well I handled it compared to last time. Apparently I am a legend in the office!
My eye feels… normal and is healing up really well. I am amazed at how well I’m recovering, actually. At this point in the last surgery I was still in great discomfort and only able to open my eyes for a short while. This time I’m blogging 2 days after surgery!
I’m still going to take it easy for a few days… even though I feel as though I never had surgery, I don’t want to take any risks. There is no way I’m going in for eye surgery again if I can help it.
So thanks again to everyone who kept me in your thoughts… I’m sure all the positive thinking from friends, family and bloggers has helped me get through this easily and heal so quickly!
3 responses to “And I’m Back!”
I missed your original post… but I’m so glad it went well!! I’d be terrified to have that surgery, good for you for being brave enough to not only do it once, but twice!
I am also happy it went well
I’m considering LASIK too, but not now… debt is priority..
Glad to hear you are doing good!!!