Eye Saga 6

What a terrific day for Easter! The weather was wonderful with temps in the upper 80s with hardly any breeze or humidity. We, the choir, sang five songs in each of the three morning services for a total of 15 songs. It was awesome.

Regarding the eyes, I endured procedure #4 Monday afternoon. COL Scott Barnes, the chief of the refractory eye clinic and the cornea specialist, conducted the LASEK laser enhancement on my right eye. Everything with the laser enhancement went well. I remember him discussing some obsesses on my eye with some of his staff during the procedure, so sliding the outer layer of the cornea off the rest of the corneal surface was a little more challenging than he anticipated, but he did a fine job. He used the laser for 20-seconds to “reshape” the eye by burning off some of the tissue on the perimeter of the cornea. I could hear the loud clicking of the laser, the sizzling of my eye as it burned (similar to bacon frying in a skillet) and I could smell the burning flesh (similar to hair burning when I’m roasting food over a campfire). Meanwhile, I focused on the red flashing light as COL Barnes instructed.

I am concerned about how slowly the recovery is progressing. During my follow-up appointment at Womack Army Medical Center at Fort Bragg on Tuesday morning with Dr Gary Nestor, he tested my eye at 20:80 which is worse now than it was before the procedure. However, he reassured me that my eye must get worse before it gets better. It is all part of the healing process, Dr Nestor said. He added that he thought it would be better by the weekend.

I’ve had zero pain this week as I recovered. Of course, I used Motrin, Percocet and Valium as prescribed to manage the “pain.” I also used pea packs as cold compresses to minimize the swelling during my daily naps. Thankfully, my mother-in-law served as my driver and nurse all week. She read scripture to me everyday plus passages from one of my military books about the Battle of Fallujah that I’m reading. (She flew into town Sunday evening and departed Saturday morning. She was an answer to prayer, since I could not drive or read for a week.)

On Thursday, I called the automated pharmacy refill number to order refills on some of my meds: Systane (AKA lubricating drops or saline solution) and fluorometholone ophthalmic or FML for short (AKA steroids). I received all my meds on the same day, March 19, after my second pre-op appointment. I received one bottle containing one fluid ounce (30 mL) of Systane and two bottles of FML, each containing 5 mL for a total of 10 mL. I’m using Systane about 12 times a day and FML four times a day. Since I’m starting to run low on these two meds and Ft Bragg is nearly a 2-hour drive one way, I wanted to pick them up on Monday, which is now tomorrow since I have another follow-up appointment on the same day. The order for Systane was denied, because I am not allowed to reorder that product until after April 11. (I’ll be out of Systane before April 11. I have less than 1/4th of the bottle left now and I’ve only been using it for seven days.) Yet, the order for FML was approved. (Wow, gotta love the inefficiency of the government health care system.)

It’s now the weekend and I’m still seeing triple. As I drove home tonight from a friend’s birthday party, I was seeing three stop lights when there is only one…just like I was before the procedure. (No, I wasn’t drinking alcohol. My beverage of choice was sweet tea. Maybe I’m just being impatient, but I thought this procedure was supposed to fix this problem.)

Tomorrow, I have another follow-up appointment with Dr Nestor at Fort Bragg. One of my co-workers from the public relations firm is driving me. Hopefully, I’ll have better news to report on my recovery soon. My convalescent leave will also expire this week, so I’ll also return to work in a few days.