Visian ICL Update

Man, last week was pretty bad in terms of post-Visian surgery. I was experiencing minor headaches on the left side of my head as well as seeing stars in my left eye whenever I'd stand up from a seated position or sit up from a prone position. I found it difficult to look at the computer or read paperwork for long periods of time. My vision would become blurry.

On Friday I called up the doctor's office and asked to move my appointment up from Oct. 2. They scheduled me for Sept. 30. After work, my vision got really bad and it seemed like a gauzy curtain had fallen over my left eye. I could still see but things were obscured by this whiteness. However, when I woke up on Saturday things were fine.

Yesterday after my Hawaii Literacy class, I got home to the same situation. At this point I was pretty freaked out, and of course, started to think about the worst. My headache was back and my eye felt like it was going to pop out. I immediately went to sleep thinking it might be strained somehow and just needed rest. As the night progressed, I decided I'd call the doctor in the morning and see if he could look at it. When I woke up around 5 a.m. though, I saw that my eye was extremely red and the cloudiness was worse!

I panicked and called my dad to see if he could drive me to the hospital since I couldn't really see out of my left eye. I then called the doctor's office, which of course was closed. I called the physician's exchange number, which is an answering service. The rep called me back and told me the doctor said to come in when the office opened at 9 a.m. What the eff man?!?!

So my dad and I waited till about 8:30 a.m. and went into the office. After explaining what happened to the technician, she checked my vision and eye pressure. Next the doctor came in and looked at my eye. He said that because the iris has many layers of cells, he thinks one layer was not cleared out thoroughly and was flapping to and fro blocking the iridotomy (a hole on the outer edge of the iris that allows fluid to flow between the different parts of the eye). When I read, it seems like the flap would close up, causing a build up in pressure. This led to seeing stars and headaches.

After numbing my eye, the doctor tried to clear the pathway with a needle (I assume. I didn't actually see it coming to my eye). I suppose that didn't work well enough for him so we went over to the Surgical Suites and he used a machine to redo the iridotomy. It was basically one of those machines where you stick your chin on the platform and forehead against the bar, then look straight ahead. He aligned the laser, which I could see was a red grid-like thing, and zapped. The zap was really quick but I did feel it. He said afterward that it probably wasn't the laser I was feeling. It was probably the release of all the pressure in my eye.

We went back to his office and he checked out my eye again. He got another needle and made sure the laser got all the extra cells. He upped the number of times I need to do my drops, then retested my eye pressure and vision. I could immediately start to feel my eye getting better. He said the pressure dropped pretty dramatically since it was taken several minutes before. I could also see more of the eye chart after the zap.

Now, about four hours after coming home, my vision is definitely back to normal and clear. My eye aches a little when I move it around but I guess that's from the laser zap. The white part of my eye is still red from the stress I suppose. He said it'd go away eventually. I felt a little nauseated when I got home so I haven't eaten anything. I should be starving as I only had lunch and a Jamba Juice on Sunday and a third of a bagel this morning, but somehow I don't have an appetite. Yes, very odd indeed.

Hopefully this is the last of my adventures with this Visian thing. I didn't go to work today but will probably go in tomorrow. I have a follow-up appointment at 9:45 a.m. It's a wonder that of all the people out there, I'd be the one to experience these issues with Visian. While it's theoretically possible, why does it have to be me?