Go ahead, peel my cornea off!

Today I went for a free consultation for Wavefront Lasik surgery. The appointment was at 4:30 didn't get home till after six. They had to do all sorts of stuff because of the problems I've had with my eyes and whatnot. They put some numbing stuff in there, poked my eyes a bunch of times, checked the dryness levels, peeked all around in there and whatnot. It looks like I am a pretty good candidate for the surgery, so we went ahead and scheduled it today. I go for a pre-op thingie on April 10th, where they basically make maps of my eyes and all kinds of fun junk like that. Then for one last checkup on the 16th, and then the 17th of April I'm off for the surgery. It was the earliest they could get me in and I couldn't turn it down.

So far it looks like I can get the Lasik. (*knock on wood!*) If they find, after a few weeks, that my eyes are really dry, then I'll have to get the PRK. (When he peeked in there he said he saw a lot of really dry places, but when he did the tear test it wasn't so bad. He attributed it to the fact that I'd only just taken my lenses out.) If I get the Lasik, I'll only have to miss 2, maybe 3 days of work. If I have to get the PRK I'll have to take a week, and during that week I wouldn't be able to drive, or read, or watch TV. O_o Or probably write, for that matter, unless I was typing with my eyes closed. So please I can get LASIKS PLS!

Until then, I can no longer wear contacts except for maybe once or twice, and only for a few hours. I think I will wear them to the 30 show on March 23, which will still give me a few weeks without them before the surgery and won't screw anything up. So I'll be in glasses from now till then. And then after April, holy crap, I won't need either anymore! I can't wait to stop wanting to constantly claw my eyes out while wearing stupid lenses! I can't wait to not have to clean smudges off my glasses or put sunglasses over them while I drive, which looks just as stupid as it sounds. A part of me will miss the look of glasses, because I pretty much do like my wire frames and I use them to hide behind them when I don't want anyone looking at my face. But it will be so freeing to not need them, and April just can't come fast enough.

The doctor also said that when I get into my 40's I will probably eventually need reading glasses, but that if I didn't get the corrective surgery then I would have to rely on bifocals, or wear glasses over my contact lenses, or switch between glasses and lenses for looking up and looking down (distance and reading,) or get two different lenses and cover one eye while reading. Uhh, no. Especially if I plan to still be writing then.

Also, the price was surprisingly reasonable, and for those who are good candidates for the Wavefront, this doctor does not charge extra the way some doctors do. He said that if you're eligible for it you should get it, and if not then not, and it shouldn't affect the price. O_o He seemed a really decent sort, and I was comfy with the whole thing. He also said that I could have pre-operative Valium if the idea of it made me nervous, and I declined. Valium might only make me sick, anyway. I don't like stuff that makes me feel foggy and weird.

So I missed Kung Fu tonight but I did all my situps and leg lifts anyway, because I kind of start to feel squishy and slow if I don't do them these days. Then I took a shower and went outside with my telescope to look at Venus, all the while thinking how awesome it would be to not need glasses to look through the telescope. It's going to be fabulous and I just can't wait.

Right now I should be working on tightening that manuscript, but I'm intimidated, sick of the freaking thing, and just don't seem to have the spit for it. Blast! So I'm looking at other stuff I wrote instead, like an old, ooooold compilation of short stories and one novella I wrote right after college. I can see where I've grown, but what is alarming is that I can also see where I haven't grown. My basic narrating voice is pretty much the same, maybe just less intrusive than it used to be and slightly less clumsy. But still entirely self indulgent, and with many of the same rhythms. On the other hand, some of that stuff was actually pretty good, was really funny and snappy, and I had three really terrific characters that I now kind of miss. A shape-shifter named Tommy, a quirky alien named Randy, and a demon named Leander. (Yes, the name Leander has been with me for many years. The name made it into three or four of my old stories, actually.) I almost wanted to rewrite the silly thing using those characters. Then I realized that it represented something I'd long left behind, and I decided to leave it where it was. That's an odd feeling for a writer, I think--even a hack writer like myself.

Laura is taking my mourning dove and my goldfinch tomorrow, which will be awesome, both for the birds and for me. And then in about a month and a half it will be baby bird season again and my kitchen will be overtaken. Uhh, I can't wait.

Go ahead, peel my cornea off!

Today I went for a free consultation for Wavefront Lasik surgery. The appointment was at 4:30 didn't get home till after six. They had to do all sorts of stuff because of the problems I've had with my eyes and whatnot. They put some numbing stuff in there, poked my eyes a bunch of times, checked the dryness levels, peeked all around in there and whatnot. It looks like I am a pretty good candidate for the surgery, so we went ahead and scheduled it today. I go for a pre-op thingie on April 10th, where they basically make maps of my eyes and all kinds of fun junk like that. Then for one last checkup on the 16th, and then the 17th of April I'm off for the surgery. It was the earliest they could get me in and I couldn't turn it down.

So far it looks like I can get the Lasik. (*knock on wood!*) If they find, after a few weeks, that my eyes are really dry, then I'll have to get the PRK. (When he peeked in there he said he saw a lot of really dry places, but when he did the tear test it wasn't so bad. He attributed it to the fact that I'd only just taken my lenses out.) If I get the Lasik, I'll only have to miss 2, maybe 3 days of work. If I have to get the PRK I'll have to take a week, and during that week I wouldn't be able to drive, or read, or watch TV. O_o Or probably write, for that matter, unless I was typing with my eyes closed. So please I can get LASIKS PLS!

Until then, I can no longer wear contacts except for maybe once or twice, and only for a few hours. I think I will wear them to the 30 show on March 23, which will still give me a few weeks without them before the surgery and won't screw anything up. So I'll be in glasses from now till then. And then after April, holy crap, I won't need either anymore! I can't wait to stop wanting to constantly claw my eyes out while wearing stupid lenses! I can't wait to not have to clean smudges off my glasses or put sunglasses over them while I drive, which looks just as stupid as it sounds. A part of me will miss the look of glasses, because I pretty much do like my wire frames and I use them to hide behind them when I don't want anyone looking at my face. But it will be so freeing to not need them, and April just can't come fast enough.

The doctor also said that when I get into my 40's I will probably eventually need reading glasses, but that if I didn't get the corrective surgery then I would have to rely on bifocals, or wear glasses over my contact lenses, or switch between glasses and lenses for looking up and looking down (distance and reading,) or get two different lenses and cover one eye while reading. Uhh, no. Especially if I plan to still be writing then.

Also, the price was surprisingly reasonable, and for those who are good candidates for the Wavefront, this doctor does not charge extra the way some doctors do. He said that if you're eligible for it you should get it, and if not then not, and it shouldn't affect the price. O_o He seemed a really decent sort, and I was comfy with the whole thing. He also said that I could have pre-operative Valium if the idea of it made me nervous, and I declined. Valium might only make me sick, anyway. I don't like stuff that makes me feel foggy and weird.

So I missed Kung Fu tonight but I did all my situps and leg lifts anyway, because I kind of start to feel squishy and slow if I don't do them these days. Then I took a shower and went outside with my telescope to look at Venus, all the while thinking how awesome it would be to not need glasses to look through the telescope. It's going to be fabulous and I just can't wait.

Right now I should be working on tightening that manuscript, but I'm intimidated, sick of the freaking thing, and just don't seem to have the spit for it. Blast! So I'm looking at other stuff I wrote instead, like an old, ooooold compilation of short stories and one novella I wrote right after college. I can see where I've grown, but what is alarming is that I can also see where I haven't grown. My basic narrating voice is pretty much the same, maybe just less intrusive than it used to be and slightly less clumsy. But still entirely self indulgent, and with many of the same rhythms. On the other hand, some of that stuff was actually pretty good, was really funny and snappy, and I had three really terrific characters that I now kind of miss. A shape-shifter named Tommy, a quirky alien named Randy, and a demon named Leander. (Yes, the name Leander has been with me for many years. The name made it into three or four of my old stories, actually.) I almost wanted to rewrite the silly thing using those characters. Then I realized that it represented something I'd long left behind, and I decided to leave it where it was. That's an odd feeling for a writer, I think--even a hack writer like myself.

Laura is taking my mourning dove and my goldfinch tomorrow, which will be awesome, both for the birds and for me. And then in about a month and a half it will be baby bird season again and my kitchen will be overtaken. Uhh, I can't wait.