So, a follow up:
I went in on 8/22 for my procedure. I was informed shortly after showing up that the laser did not pass it's diagnostic test that day and they would not be able to perform the procedure. I was frustrated and felt uneasy about the fact that the machine that was going to shoot lasers into my eyes "went down". Being pragmatic, I realized that all machines (yes, even Glocks) suffer failures from time to time, especially multi-million dollar precision machines with lasers and Carl Zeiss optics. The staff was very personable and friendly and hated to deliver the news, almost like having to tell me a pet died... and reassured me that an engineer has to come out and check the machine to put it back in service, not a Xerox repairman... and they took $500 off my bill for the trouble... so, overall besides being an inconvenience in the schedule, it really wasn't that big of a deal.
I went a week later on 8/29, where, in order to make it happen on my timeline, one of the doctors stayed over and came out and greeted me and was genuinely happy to help me that day. He informed me his grandfather was an old school policeman from Ohio (I think), so we hit it off well and he regaled me with stories from his grandpa's career and funny cop jokes. As far as the procedure went, they took me in to an exam room to look my eyes over one more time, asked if I had any questions from the previous consultation, collected payment and sent me over to lounge-type room. A bunch of eye drops and a Valium later, they took me into the surgery suite. They put in some more drops and taped my left eye closed while they taped my lids open on my right eye and inserted a plastic ring to hold my eye open and serve as a receptacle for the "cutting" laser. The laser aperture came down and mated with the ring, zip-zap and a flap was made. The table/bed I was laying on rotated about 60 degrees to the "prescription" laser, where the doc lined it up, and about 8-9 seconds later, the laser had cut the new prescription into my eyeball. The doc used the same pick-like object (which I jokingly referred to as a "a sharp metal object", to which he replied it was "a dull metal object") that he had used to open the flap to lay it back over in place and another brush of some sort to smooth everything out. We did the tape/ring procedure for the left eye and taped the right eye shut, and repeated the process.
I was in the surgery suite for maybe 10-12 minutes, then was moved to an exam room for them to check everything out. They looked over the old Mark I Mod 2 eyeballs, gave me my post-op care instructions and I was out the door. The staff came out from their offices and such to see me out and were super-friendly (not to mention my primary assistant was easy on the eyes - optometry pun intended). I had a follow up with my eye doc on Tuesday (24 hour check) and one today (3-4 day check) and will have another one at 3 weeks, then I believe at 3 and 6 months.
So, how's my vision now? By they're examination, I'm at 20/30, but that's expected to greatly improve as my eyes heal, which can take the whole 6 months. I still have about 10% haziness in my right eye and about 30% (self-guesstimation) in my left eye, and am back at work. It was a little interesting looking at my laptop at night and the fuzzy halo's around all the lights, but that will subside. I can already tell that my vision is better than it was with my contacts and at least where I was with my glasses, and I think maybe even better at longer distances. I'll check back in with updates for the recovery effects and timeline.
Thanks again for your input and conversation!
Jamie
