[GreenKeys] off-topic -- eye surgery

[gil smith]

Hi folks:

Some of you were asking about my eye surgery, so here's an update, and 
something to think about if any of you are considering improving your 
eyesight with lasik.

My wife and I both had lasik (last Tuesday and Friday, resp).  We went to a 
place called Schwartz, supposedly the best place in town;  the guy that 
does the Phoenix Suns, Coyotes, etc (whatever sports teams those happen to 
be -- I'm not a sports guy).  We opted for the best they had to 
offer:  using a laser to cut the flap instead of a knife, and adding the 
optional 3-dimensional waveguide/wavefront/something-or-other which 
fine-tunes the zapping around all sectors of the eye.  If you're messing 
with your eyes, you really shouldn't skimp, so we paid about $2000 per 
eyeball (not pair).

My wife originally had something like 20/400 vision, and needed one pair of 
glasses to read, and another pair for distance.  She was always in 
glasses.  Just after surgery, she went home to sleep;  she had quite a bit 
of pain in her eyes for about three hours (and couldn't sleep).  But the 
next morning, she got up and not only had great distance vision, but she 
could read the paper without glasses!  She was elated.  It is now a week 
later, and her close-up vision is just slightly worse (swelling is going 
down, I suppose), but she is still very happy with the results.  Even if 
she needs to eventually wear glasses for reading, she says it was the best 
investment she has made.  I was excited to experience the same thing.

I originally had good close-up vision, but needed glasses for 
distance.  When I was younger, I started with glasses and then went to 
contacts.  When it got difficult to see up close with contacts, I went back 
to glasses, since I could at least take them off for close work.  Glasses 
for distance were a pain, since I needed them for driving, the gym, 
watching kids' activities, and most everyday activities.  But when I was at 
the office, at least I didn't need to wear glasses for working at the desk, 
computer, etc.  I started getting frustrated when it was difficult to drive 
wearing my glasses, and not really being able to see the dashboard.  Yeah, 
I could see the speedometer and important stuff, but the odometer was a 
blur, and more importantly, the artist/title information on the XM radio 
was not readable.  And why can't I just push a button on the XM radio to 
download that song to my iPod later, and get automatically billed through 
my iTunes account?  But I digress.   So I ended up constantly lifting my 
glasses to see inside the car.  What a pain.

So I got lasik last Friday.  I had the same post-surgery eye-pain that my 
wife had, but at least I was able to sleep.  The next day, I had 
pretty-good (not exceptional, but much-improved) distance vision.  However, 
my close-up vision was very fuzzy.  I originally had told the doctors that 
I wanted to be able to see from arm-length to infinity, and that I would be 
fine with glasses for reading.  They said that was quite likely, but not 
guaranteed.  The thing that freaked me out that first day was that I could 
not really focus closer than about 15 feet.  Today, four days later, I can 
focus down to about five feet (though distance is getting slightly less 
acute) -- a function of reduced swelling, I presume.  I am hopeful that I 
will be able to focus down to arm-length when all is settled, but that is 
yet to be seen.

The problem I have with my current situation is that, even though I really 
don't mind wearing reading glasses for reading, or even when using the 
computer, I cannot, without glasses, see my cellphone, remote control, 
supermarket price labels, etc.  I thought I would be able to just leave 
reading glasses at the desk , and by the chair where I read the morning 
paper.  Today, I have have 1.25 reading glasses for reading and at my 
office computer (where I have a big screen and do mostly email and document 
work), 2.25 glasses for my laptop computer, where I sit a bit closer and 
generally do CAD work), and 2.75 glasses at the electronics bench (where I 
need to see much closer).  I went from having to constantly carry distance 
glasses, to now having to constantly carry close-up glasses -- not an 
improvement in quality of life, as far as I am concerned.  And I'd rather 
have that $4000 back.

Maybe it will turn around in a week or so.  It is, after all, a dynamic 
healing period.  But my initial reaction is "what have I done?"  I opted to 
do both eyes together, since doing them separately would mean two recovery 
periods, twice the driving for ONE eye for distance (and left the other eye 
alone for close-up work);   then I would have had a spare $2000, for 
something more important, like getting a bigger dirt bike for my son.

I'll let you know if things improve.

gil





Vaux Electronics, Inc.
480-354-5556
(fax: 480-354-5558)
www.vauxelectronics.com