17 December 01 I get the call. I had an appointment for a haircut so when the call came I thought it was my haircut reminder call instead it was the call. I was informed not to eat after midnight on Tuesday and to begin on Tuesday morning to take the Tobradex drops that I had a prescription for from the 11/26 exam. I make several calls to my boss and a coworker who will end up handling some of my work and end up late for my haircut 

18 December 01 begin taking the drops finishing up what I can at work. I am beginning to get nervous. this is a pretty big step and I am uneasy about the speed it is happening. I end up going for a walk late at night rousting a friend out of their cozy house to walk in the cold with me. I go to bed the earliest in several years at 11pm.

19 December 01 I am up at 4am, my coworker who will be taking over my projects decides to return the favor and calls me at 4am to help me wake up. I get ready and by 5am I am out the door. at 5:30am the doors open and I go inside to fill out forms. when I am done with that I leave my coat and shirt in a locker then get gowned and plugged into machines that measure heart, respiration, blood pressure, and blood oxygen %. I get an IV installed and get to meet the anesthetist. she later gives me a dose of something through my IV which makes me feel no pain. after that I get a shot just below my eye which I think I might have fought for a second before the got a good hold on me. The surgery itself was over pretty quickly during the operation I slowly began to realize the funky rainbow like movements I thought I was imagining were the actually cutting and stitching taking place. then it was over and I got to drink grape juice and eat a maple donut. 1/2 hr or so later I was on my way home. I slept from shortly after I got home til 7pm then back to sleep at 11pm til the next day at 8 am

a picture of me the first day. 

20 December 01 got up around 8 am. Left at 9:30 for the doctor's office. waiting an eternity for my name to be called (15 minutes.) got the eye patch off and had my eye looked at. during the examination I was somewhat nauseous from all the bright lights being used to view my eye and became really hot (think dripping sweat) I ended the appointment in the dark with cold washcloths on my forehead and neck for a few minutes so I did not end up passing out. I slept most of this day also.

here is a picture of my eye from 12/20/01. click to enlarge the picture. if you look closely you can see where the new cornea begins

21 December 01 getting grouchy. my eye is beginning to be sore and since I am not taking the pain pills I am feeling it. my sore eye causes me to end up calling the Doctor's office. my doctor is not there but the nurse on duty patiently explains that everything I am describing is normal for the timeframe of my surgery.  I feel a bit foolish for whining and go back to bed.

another picture of my eye from 12/21/01 in the linked larger view you can see the stitches that the doctor put in which I think is pretty cool. 

that is all for now. hopefully you get the idea. I will update this page as time goes on probably less than daily in the future.

thanks for taking the time to look

If you want to contact me I can be reached by email and chat