Wednesday, February 11, 2009
Eye eye!
When I was 17, I used to sit at the back of our A-Level maths group with my friend Emily. Neither of us could read the white board if the teacher wrote in red, so I took a little trip to the opticians. Sure enough, I needed glasses, so for a good few months, Emily and I used to share my glasses between us.
Since then, my eyes have got worse and worse, for which I blame my mother. I tried her glasses on in November: we had the same prescription, she's kindly donated her astigmatism. I hate wearing glasses, but the eyesight in my right eye was so dodgy that there was only one manufacturer of contact lenses that made lenses in my prescription and guess what? They rubbed, so i couldn't wear them.
There was only one thing for it, it was time for the L.A.Z.O.R.
I phoned the Dubai branch of Moorfield's Eye Hospital, and was surprised to find the waiting list was just 3 weeks. So surprised, that when they asked if I wanted an appointment I heard myself involuntarily saying, "Ooo, yes please, that would be lovely."
Those three weeks went scarily fast and before I knew it I was in a hospital gown staring up at a cornea-cutting machine.
After laser-ing my right eye, the surgeon said, "See, it's not that bad is it?"
There was a long pause before I managed, "...shall we just do the other eye?"
He finished the other eye and tried again, "See?! It was ok."
At this point I was really quite blind, and 'ok' isn't really how I was. It was like I was seeing underwater, unfortunately without goggles. It didn't hurt though...for about an hour. Then it did. A LOT. So I went to sleep.
I slept on-and-off for about 5 hours and when I woke up, it had stopped hurting. I didn't even need the painkilling drops any more...plus I could see!
It's now been a week, and other than an abundacy of eye-drops and a little bit of blood in my eye, you'd never know I'd had it done. I can't quite get used to not wearing glasses, and keep finding myself looking for them. As my friend said, "They might have fixed your eyes, but it'll take more than a laser to fix the Gaulter brain."
Thanks Caroline.
Since then, my eyes have got worse and worse, for which I blame my mother. I tried her glasses on in November: we had the same prescription, she's kindly donated her astigmatism. I hate wearing glasses, but the eyesight in my right eye was so dodgy that there was only one manufacturer of contact lenses that made lenses in my prescription and guess what? They rubbed, so i couldn't wear them.
There was only one thing for it, it was time for the L.A.Z.O.R.
I phoned the Dubai branch of Moorfield's Eye Hospital, and was surprised to find the waiting list was just 3 weeks. So surprised, that when they asked if I wanted an appointment I heard myself involuntarily saying, "Ooo, yes please, that would be lovely."
Those three weeks went scarily fast and before I knew it I was in a hospital gown staring up at a cornea-cutting machine.
After laser-ing my right eye, the surgeon said, "See, it's not that bad is it?"
There was a long pause before I managed, "...shall we just do the other eye?"
He finished the other eye and tried again, "See?! It was ok."
At this point I was really quite blind, and 'ok' isn't really how I was. It was like I was seeing underwater, unfortunately without goggles. It didn't hurt though...for about an hour. Then it did. A LOT. So I went to sleep.
I slept on-and-off for about 5 hours and when I woke up, it had stopped hurting. I didn't even need the painkilling drops any more...plus I could see!
It's now been a week, and other than an abundacy of eye-drops and a little bit of blood in my eye, you'd never know I'd had it done. I can't quite get used to not wearing glasses, and keep finding myself looking for them. As my friend said, "They might have fixed your eyes, but it'll take more than a laser to fix the Gaulter brain."
Thanks Caroline.
