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<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>OT: A new vision update</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Okay here's the latest. Good news and bad
news.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2><U>The good news:</U> the procedure itself is
no big deal. The apprehension is far greater then warranted. The
first thing they did is take me into a room where they put various drops into my
eyes to numb them from any sensation. The second step was they gave me a
Valium pill to make me mellow. Twenty minutes later I was in the operating
room feeling fairly relaxed. They had me lay down in this contraption
resembling a cross between a massage table and a dentist chair looking up.
A big bowl shaped thingy was about 8" above my head with various colored
lights. More drops of I don't know what, and lots of calming dialog
telling me how great I was doing and to relax. They gave me this ugly
stuffed worm thing to hold who's name they told me was "Skittles". The
purpose of that was to give me something to hold to keep me from reaching
up. Then some sort of suction thingy was placed around my eye for a minute
and then the laser. By this time my vision was so blurry I couldn't tell
what was going on anyway. I was expecting something spectacular... a
noise, a flash of light, something. Instead nothing, I didn't even know it
was happening. It was a little irritating with all the blurryness, (kind
of like your eyes open under water), but nothing terrible. Just a little
pressure from the suction.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Now the bad news. After he made the
cut the doctor paused his work for a moment and concurred with his two
medical assistance. Then came back to have a brief chat with me.
Apparently the incision did not go all the way around to make a suitable
flap. As a precaution for liability reasons they could not resume.
He apologized and told me that I would have to let the present incision heal
completely and then start over. I would have to come back in a month to
resume. I was given some more drops, they did a couple other minor things,
and I walked out as if nothing happened except for being blurry in one
eye. He never got to the other eye. They want to do both eyes at
once or you end up walking around with one lens missing from your glasses
because one eye is corrected and the other isn't.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Okay so here is the summary. It is
unfortunate that they were not able to finish and I'll have to come back in a
month. The blurryness disappeared over night, I feel nothing, and I'm
wearing my regular glasses now as if nothing happened. The actual process
was not as near a big deal as you might think. It's more like a little kid
freaking out about getting an injection and then 12 seconds later it's over and
they barely noticed it. He was already about 3/4 of the way
finished. Another five minutes and I would have probably been walking out
of the room completely done. This particular doctor has performed about
14,000 of these operations, several a day. Out of all of those he has only
had a couple dozen where he had to stop and resume later.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>So... for those of you considering it:</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>1. Freaking out about it is
unnecessary. Lasik is NOT a big deal.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>2. The chances of having to come back
is very rare, (a couple dozen out of 14,000 ain't bad).</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>I'll have more updates later when things
resume.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Rob Goodale, RPT</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Las Vegas, NV</FONT></DIV></BODY></HTML>