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Larry's LogI woke up pretty early the next day, around 6, but just stayed in bed. Finally, I got up as Diane poked me awake and said to get ready. Giulio picked us up at 7:30 and drove us to the clinic. He came inside to make sure everything was OK and then went on his way to a meeting he had in Caracas. We waited (the place was very busy) and finally I was called to get my preliminary exam to see if I was a candidate. A technician who spoke excellent English told me what tests were being done. The equipment was all very modern and hooked up to computers that displayed, in color enhanced maps, the outlines of my cornea, retina and the entire eye. She didn't say if I was a candidate after they were finished but I was to see the doctor next, so I would find out soon enough. Diane decided to get a simple exam for some new glasses so she managed to get an appointment with another doctor that morning. We waited again and finally I was called to the doctor's office. I had specifically asked for the head of the Lasik clinic, Dr. Suarez, and I was brought to a very nicely appointed exam room that was attached to an even nicer office. The doctor was there to greet me and also spoke English well, although he joked that my Spanish was better than his English. He examined me with other instruments and asked about my medical history, as had the technician before. He said I was hyperopic, farsighted (which I knew) at about a +3 diopter in left eye and +4 in the right, which I also knew to be correct. He said I was a good candidate for the surgery and he explained about how it worked and that there was a 95 percent chance that I would have perfect vision afterward; although he also said I would probably need reading glasses at some point. He naturally also explained that some things couldn't be anticipated; such as whether my night vision would be affected or if I would see halos around light sources, but he said that these side effects would eventually disappear, if they did occur. He was soft spoken and seemed a very grandfatherly figure and I trusted him. He also explained that he had just come back from a large conference in Cancun where they discussed the new laser that they had. Evidently, the clinic had just gotten the latest technology 3 months ago and they were getting excellent results. The doctors at the conference from the States were anxious to get it also but the FDA hadn't approved it yet. Evidently, there were only 3 in the world. After spending 15 minutes talking, he sent me to the surgical coordinator (one of them) and she explained, again in very good English, what I had to do and when to come back tomorrow. I would need to stay out of the water for one month, not indulge in any strenuous sports or exercise, and make sure I shielded my eyes from the sun. So far, so good; we would be back tomorrow. I went back to the waiting room and we waited again for Diane to finish her eye exam. She had seen the same technician I had and was just waiting for her doctor. After 10 minutes, she was called. Once she was done, we went to the clinic's other building so Diane could make an appointment for a full physical exam. She made it on the day I was supposed to come back for the checkup after the surgery, Wednesday. As we were walking out, she convinced me to have a physical also so we walked back and made an appointment for me as well. The clerk wasn't sure if I should have the stress test though so we went back to the Ophthalmology Clinic and asked the attendant to check with Dr. Suarez, who said I shouldn't do it since it might get sweat in my eyes. Back at the other building, we told the clerk who said OK, I could get everything but the stress test, and we went off to have lunch at a Pizza Hut nearby. We took the bus back to the apartment but stopped at a pharmacy nearby to fill the prescription for the mild sedative the clinic had given me; one for tonight and one for tomorrow before the procedure. We then went to the market, walked back to the apartment and relaxed. Giulio stopped by for a little while around 6 to change some money for us and to tell us what the instructions said for the physicals on Wednesday. We thanked him and we went back to MacDonald's for dinner and then just relaxed for the rest of the evening. Tuesday, July 08, the big day. We didn't do much in the morning and went to the clinic at about 12. Taking the bus, we were very early since we thought we might have to wait, but we got there and waited since I wasn't due until 1. I was the first person to show up for that session so was number 1 on the list. Eventually, there were 12 people to have the procedure that day with Dr. Suarez. There had been another session earlier with another doctor. Evidently there are 4 sessions per week, 2 with Dr. Suarez and 2 with someone else. The facility must do about 500 Lasik procedures a month. I was very impressed with the facility. We were asked to change into disposable scrubs and then we waited in a nice room with reclining chairs. We listened to soft music while we watched the procedure being done to other patients on a monitor. An assistant that spoke perfect English explained exactly what was being done and how it would feel. She answered some questions and then a nurse put some anesthetic drops in my eyes and we waited some more. After about 20 minutes, she put in some more drops and asked me to come in the room (really she just picked up my arm since I didn't have my glasses on and led me there). As I walked in, Dr. Suarez said hello and joked that he checked to make sure he had the right 'Larry" (there was another one scheduled to see him right after me the day I had my first appointment.) I joked as I sat on the table that I hoped I wasn't going to be nearsighted now. He quipped back, 'No, this is an appendectomy." After that, he got down to it. My head was under a large machine that slowly moved into place, obviously computer controlled. He said some things to his assistants and began to prep my right eye. First came something to hold back the eyelashes, then a speculum to hold the eyelids open and finally a plate with a hole in the middle that fit over the cornea. He told me exactly what was happening at each stage. The plate had rails that the "knife" slid on. That made the slice on the cover of the cornea. From seeing the procedure on the monitor, I knew exactly what was happening. Once the flap was made and flipped over, Dr. Suarez said, 'OK, here is the laser." I could see lights at this point, but not clearly. I heard the laser start and there was some discomfort but no real pain. The laser lasted about 10 seconds. Once it stopped, the doctor put the flap back over the now repaired cornea and 'fastened' it with a puff of air. He also lightly brushed it down to make sure there were no air bubbles under it. He removed the plate, put in a drop of saline and a drop of antibiotic solution and said he would now do the other eye. The procedure was the same except that the laser only lasted 5 seconds since there was less correction in my left eye. The entire procedure lasted about 10 minutes. Afterward, I thanked him as I walked out and the nurse led me to another room where the assistant that explained the procedure gave me some Tylenol and a bottle of antibiotic eye drops, and taped some large protective plastic lenses over each eye. She then led me to where I could put my street clothes back on. She also told me to come back tomorrow morning to have another doctor check everything. As I looked out the tiny holes in the plastic, I could tell that some thing was different. They then put me in a wheelchair (hospital policy), brought me outside and got Diane. It was 2:30. We got back to the apartment and I just relaxed with my eyes closed for the rest of the day. Diane went to the market to get something for dinner. Although I had my eyes closed most of the evening, I could tell that at least my close-up vision was good. They felt like there was sand in them and kept watering most of the night but there was no pain. We went to sleep early since we needed to get back to the clinic at 7:30 the next morning. The next day we got up early and my eyes felt fine. Of course, I couldn't see much through the heavy plastic lenses. We took the bus back to the clinic and got there about 7:15. We waited about 30 minutes for the doctor to see me but Diane had to go to the other building since we had an appointment for the physicals that morning. She had left only 5 minutes before the doctor called me. Once in his office, he took off the plastic and examined my eyes. He said they looked fine and gave me a basic eye test. Although my close-up vision was good, my distance vision was not too good. Things were blurry if they were more than about 5 feet away. He said this was normal and that the tissues were just inflamed and it would get better. He gave me a prescription for some other things - artificial tears and special eye cleaners - and said to be careful of the sun and to stay out of the water for a month. They were concerned about the possibility if infection, not that the water itself was bad. I thanked him and said we would be back in 3-4 months for the final check-up and walked to the other building to meet Diane and begin my physical. As I walked in the building and found the right location, Diane was just about to go in for her first test. They registered me and I started as well, as so began a very long day. I went from test to test, with relatively little waiting between. Again, the clinic facilities were first class. Occasionally I would see Diane as she was either waiting or going to another test. There were probably about 15 people doing physicals that morning, all of us in the blue gowns they asked us to wear instead of a shirt. Most of the tests were no problem, but of course some were more 'invasive' than others (people who are 50 and over can imagine what these might be). Anyway, I finished up much before Diane, around 11, since I couldn't take the stress test because of the recent Lasik procedure and also because the first doctor who examined me said I had high blood pressure. He had given me a prescription to control it but I think I'll wait and see how it is in a week or so once I'm over the stress of the eye surgery. He also said I was about 10 kilograms overweight, this I knew to be right! I also didn't take the visual test, for obvious reasons. Once I was done, I waited for Diane. She had a few more tests to take so I went to get a snack at the cafeteria downstairs (although they did give us a snack before since nobody had breakfast that morning). Since she wound up having another test that wasn't scheduled originally, we had to wait a bit so we both had some lunch around 2. She finally got all the tests done but we didn't leave the place until 5, after she had made arrangements to send the results to our marina in Puerto La Cruz. We would call the doctor to discuss the results over the phone and would come back to Caracas if it were necessary. After some discussion, we went to the Houlihan's restaurant in El Hatillo. The meal was, unfortunately, just fair (my burger was OK) but Diane couldn't eat the ribs she ordered. We walked back to the apartment and as we walked in, around 7, the phone was ringing - it was Giulio. He was coming over to see us briefly since he had to go to Maracaibo the next day. He came over in 10 minutes and stayed only 15 minutes since his dinner was ready. Just as he left, Chicho and Tati rang the bell. I went down and Giulio left as they came in. After they put their stuff away, Chicho and Tati ate some dinner and we talked about Los Rocques. They had been there many, many times since Chicho had a boat that they chartered from Puerto La Cruz to Los Rocques. They told us about the nice spots and where to be careful of reefs and shallow water. Thursday was a rather slow day - all we did was go to the pharmacy to get some more eye drops and cold pills for Diane (she got sick again) and also the supermarket so we could make sandwiches for the bus back to PLC tomorrow. Chicho and Tati had left around 12:30 to see some friends and we just hung out in the apartment for most of the day. I did some work on the computer. My eyes were still blurry looking at things in the distance but excellent close up. It did seem though that the right eye was a little better for distance, but there was no change in the left yet. I went to MacDonald's again and brought back something for myself while Diane had gotten a chicken for herself earlier. (I don't care for it that much). Chicho and Tati came back around 7 and we just talked a bit and went to bed since we were going to the bus early tomorrow for PLC. We got up early and got to the bus station around 8:15. The bus didn't leave until 10 but Chicho felt that there would be bad traffic and since it was Friday, there might be some problems getting seats on the bus. There was traffic but it still only took 40 minutes and we were early. There were also some seats left but still, I guess it was better to be there. Naturally, the bus was 30 minutes late leaving, for what reason we don't know, but although we initially got seats in the last row, the attendant on the bus got us seats up front, next to where Chicho and Tati were sitting. The trip itself was fine although it rained most of the way and delayed the bus another 30 minutes due to flooding in various areas. The second video was pretty good though. We finally got to PLC at 5 and after saying ciao to our new friends, we got a cab (a particularly old and broken down one - it initially wouldn't get into gear) and arrived at the marina. It was still raining slightly but we got aboard OK and as we opened the companionway, we saw the newly varnished cabin sole. Although my eyes weren't 100% yet, it looked really good. We took off our sneakers and I went below and put our bags on the seats. Diane came below and commented that it looked really great. Of course, the cabin was still a wreck from moving everything and taking the small pieces off to have Elias varnish them, but after a bit of rearranging, we got some of the cushions back in place and Diane made a light dinner. I put the throw rugs on the floor and we ate and discussed what we should have Elias do next. |