SummaryOperation
Post-Op
March 19 - Went for an eye appointment to see how my eyesight was doing and to see if the local optometrist thought I was a candidate for laser surgery. After examining my eyes he thought it would be worthwhile for me to visit the Gimbel Eye Clinic.
March 20 - faxed off the application.
March 23 - got a call from the clinic setting up my first appointment. Also reserved a surgery date under the assumption everything would be fine.
April 15 - Fred and I left for Edmonton at 5:30am so I could make it to my eye appointment at 8:30 pm. I had to be back to work my afternoon shift at 3:00 so this was the start of an action packed day. The clinic is very timely with all appointments going when scheduled. After paying $120 for the assessment, I was whisked away by a technologist to have a bunch of eye examinations. The dreaded dilating drops were put in about half way thought the exam and the freezing drops put in near the end. At the end of the appointment I got the bad news. My left eye was border line for the LASIK procedure as the cornea was quite thin. The doctor had contacted Dr. Gimbel who had said that I could get the surgery if I would be happy with eyesight not corrected to 20/20. A better option would either be an implanted contact lens or a cataract surgery where my lens would be replace. I said I would prefer to have the less than perfect vision (who wants a hunk of plastic stuck in their eye), they said they would call by the end of the week to let me know.
Got home in lots of time to go to work. Since I couldn't really handle the sunlight (dilating drops) I took a taxi to work. Work was very interesting for the first 4 hours. I couldn't see close up with my glasses on so I was sticking my face in everything. Luckily the balance has fairly large green numbers that are both easy to see and soothing to look at;). Luckily the evening was not a panic.
April 15 - no phone call so everything must be a go. Whew!
May 4 - Surgery is supposed to be on the 15th and it occurs to me that I have no idea what time to be there. I called up Edmonton to get a time and find out what hotel they suggest. Bookings are done and both of us have the time off.
May 5 - Uh oh. I get to work in the afternoon and my supervisor asked if I had spoken with anyone at the clinic. Called and was transfered to a counsellor who said that the doctor wanted to see me before the surgery date. Since the surgery was the following week I would have to make the appointment for THIS week. Ug...2.5 hour drive into Edmonton then one back to make my 3:00 shift. This sounds familiar. Since I am threatened with no surgery if I don't do it I make the appointment then phone Fred. After venting my frustration - after all they were supposed to call over 2 weeks ago - I called back and asked if I could talk to the doctor on the phone instead of coming in. Luckily he was available! The upshot - LASIK is out and anything else would have to be done in Calgary. They will call tomorrow, book the appointment and call me back....you try to work with all that on your mind.
May 6 - no call from Edmonton so I called Calgary myself. The files were transfered that day and there was a message waiting for me that evening with a tentative booking date. May 6 & 7 - long talks with Angela, a counsellor in Calgary. I really have the choice between an implanted contact lens and a lens replacement for the left eye. I pick the ICL after reading some information she sent me and doing some web searching. Now the surgery won't be until the end of June.
May 8 - Surprise! Dr. Gimbel is scheduling a day of ICL to demonstrate the procedure to some other doctors. Surgery will be on June 4 with the LASIK on the right eye on June 5. How soon can I come to Calgary to be tested. I say Monday so Monday it is.
May 11 - We put the dogs in the kennel and made a quick trip down. My first appointment was at 7:30 am and the last check up scheduled for 3:30 pm. A full day of getting drops in my eyes. First there were the drops to dilate the eyes then there were the drops to freeze them.
Speed bump - now it appears that there is not enough space between my cornea and lens to place an ICL! A quick remeasurement of my eye was different than the first so we did it a few more times to confirm the distance. Everything ended up being okay, it was just something that had to happen to raise my blood pressure.
Short break then more freezing drops to measure the depth of my eye. After lunch we had the constricting drops so I could have an iridotomy. Couple of whaps on the eyeball with a laser( yes it hurt) and I had two new holes in my iris. Then more drops to reduce my eye pressure. After an hour the eye pressure was checked again an I was free to go. We left Calgary at 5:00 and got home after 10:00.
How many sets of drops was that anyway?!?! The only ones that really bothered me were the constricting drops. I had a headache the next day from them. It was a lot of hurry up and wait although, once again, they didn't keep me waiting except for the constricting drops and that was unavoidable. All in all I was pretty impressed with all the people I interacted with.
Week of May 25-29 I was starting to worry as I hadn't heard about my surgery times. Monday I decided to call on Thurdays if there was still no word. No need to worry as Nicole in Calgary is on top of things. Tuesday she phoned me with a timetable and I got information in the mail as the week progressed. What a schedule!
This is not a procedure for people who live in smaller centers and don't like to travel - as if they exist. Actually I have to get my followups at Gimbel only because of the ICL procedure otherwise I could have had it done by my local optometrist, Dr. B. McDonald.
Fred is really starting to tease me about getting my last look at everything. I am dying to get rid of the glasses. I am now noticing every scratch in the lens! I'm also starting to wonder what the heck I'll be doing in Calgary for those days that Fred's not there and I can't really go anywhere. I would imagine there will be lots of dog walks involved and I'm going to make sure that I have some audio books. This must be why I have all those Sony products:) The Walkman and Discman will be coming in very handy!
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