In a post a few weeks ago; I wrote about how I was able to get a consultation for a potential eye surgery. It happened yesterday. I was pretty jazzed at the thought of the surgery. I had a few friends of the family who had it done. On Wednesday I was chatting with a coworker and she had something similar done and had great results. I was feeling optimistic going in.
A childhood friend, Trisha works at my eye doctor so it was nice that she was the nurse who called me back. It was reassuring. The scans they did on my eyes wasn’t as invasive as I imagined. Then they dilated my eyes, which is never fun. After about 10 minutes the doctor came in, whom I had never seen before. We talked about my eye history — I was first seen at 9 months there! I knew I was young, just wasn’t sure exactly how young. Glasses before I was a year old!
The scans showed that my eyeballs are small, my astigmatism is abnormal [normally it’s like a barbell, with something on either side, and mine is lopsided, the best way to describe it] and my cornea is abnormal and showing signs of disease [I’m fairly certain I knew of this]. There is no treatment for it, it will just get worse as I get older for now it’s fine as it is.
The doctor said he could do the surgery, one eye is very close to the limit on the lens it would for the most part be corrected, but the other eye would not, it’s over the limit. My risk of losing vision is increased significantly because of such things, but he could still do it; that did not leave me feeling too keen on doing it from that. I would be at higher risk of bleeding and a slew of other issues. He did say that I would get the best sight out of my glasses, and even contacts when I wanted to be without the 10 ounce glasses on my face. They had originally said it would be $6000 and insurance doesn’t cover it because it’s elective, however they might cover the surgery, just not the lens. But ultimately I would need as special lens and it would be a $9100 surgery…
So I walked out 95% sure I wasn’t going to do it. I took a nap when I got home cuz my eyes were still dilated and the sun was crazy bright yesterday… so after I got up I had decided that I was 100% not going to do it.
I’m glad I went to the consultation and got all the updated scans and such but it’s not for me. Maybe in 15-20 years when I will need cataract surgery [he said it would be a strong possibility this will happen] that things will have progressed and I will feel more comfortable with moving forward.
Next I need to find some new glasses — I’ve been in the same frames for at least 12 years. I just have had multiple pairs of the same ones. Brown and black and then put updated lenses in them. It’s time for a change. I will just need to make sure I have my contacts in someday, and go pick some out and get them ordered. And no, I cannot order from places like Zenni, or anywhere online, due to the prisms in my glasses and special prescription I prefer to have it done in an optical store!
everyday jess 