WINDOWS OF THE SOUL

I've been out of commission for the past week, recovering from laser eye surgery. I've been close to blind since I was a little girl, wearing bottle-thick eyeglasses since I was eight years old. They were not pretty. I battled contact lenses some twenty-odd years ago when they were annoying nuisances that had to be taken out and cleaned daily. This was before the era of disposal lenses that you could actually sleep in. I slept in mine a few times too but neither my doctor nor my eyes were happy about it. So I gave them up and thanked the folks who made light weight plastic lenses and more fashionable frames. And I accepted my lot in life. I would always need assistance of some sort to see.

Years ago when laser eye surgery became the medical procedure de jour, I was ready. Everyone and his mother convinced me to wait to see if there were any long term residual effects they didn't yet know about and for the price of the procedure to go down to a more reasonable level. I didn't want to but to keep peace, I did. Then my late son underwent PRK some eight years ago with amazing results and each time I brought the subject of my eyes up he was the first to say that I should do it. But something or someone always seemed to get in the way.

Then last month, I just decided to take the plunge and go for it. So after researching the area practicioners and success rates, I did. Unfortunately, I didn't qualify for LASIK which supposedly has a quicker recovery period and so I had to do PRK. The eye doctor was concerned that if we went with LASIK, such might reduce the structural integrity of my eye and cause my cornea to push even more out of shape than it already was later on down the line. I was assured that there wasn't a very big chance of this happening but, hey, why take the chance when I didn't have to. So she recommended going with PRK. Knowing the success the son had, I couldn't find any reason to not go for it and so I did.

They say that the eyes are the windows of our souls, and that they help us to perceive the beauties of our physical world. I once had a friend tell me that I didn't need to always say what was on my mind because my eyes were speaking loud and clear for me. I'm sure they're screaming all kinds of good stuff right about now because I can SEE! Every day I get more excited as my vision becomes clearer and clearer. It hasn't been instantaneous but I was forewarned that the recovery would take some time as my eyes adjusted to their new shape. And I don't need glasses any more! That in and of itself has had me doing the happy dance like I've lost my mind. I can't spend hours at the computer just yet because my eyes get heavy real quick and then things start to get fuzzy but I had to post to let you know I'm still here, still doing my thing, and having a good old time doing what I do.