Seeing with New Eyes

About four years ago I got really excited about having LASIK surgery.  Trent was totally on board with it.  He was always in favor of anything he thought would make me happy.  We planned to use our tax refund but of course after he was diagnosed that refund was always used to meet our incredibly high insurance deductible for his treatments.  Unfortunately, this year there was no deductible to meet.  I started toying with the idea of LASIK about five months ago.  Nothing was happening and I was not getting any closer to having the surgery until one day it dawned on me that I had to make it happen.  I guess part of me was waiting for Trent to say to do it.  Not like a heavenly message or anything...just that we always talked about every big decision and I didn't really have anybody to discuss this with and make that big decision.  So about five weeks ago I made a quick decision and picked up the phone and before I hung up I had a surgery date for three weeks later!  I was thrilled...except that meant that I had to wear my glasses for the next three weeks.  Ugh.  I hate them!  I never wore glasses at all except at night.  It was so hard for me to wear those darn things!  I hated every minute of it and swore that I would stomp on my frames the second I had the surgery done.  The only good part about it was that I think that wearing glasses made my 1.5 eyebrow situation less noticeable. :)

Zach and his "four eyed Mom"

Stealing a kiss from Jonny.  He loved that I had glasses like him.

Morning of surgery...last picture with glasses! Yay!

I was so excited to have the surgery done.  It was so easy!  I was in an out in less than an hour.  I was only in the surgery room for fifteen minutes and each eye took less than a minute to do.  The first day was pretty miserable because I felt like the doctor had thrown a fistful of sand in each eye.  I tried to sleep most of the day but had to wake up each hour to put drops in my eyes.

Gotta love the post surgery goggles!

I had to sleep with these beauties on for five days.  I always went to sleep with them on but never woke up
still wearing them. Oh well.  The only visible change in my eyes was the blood blister rings around each iris from where they had to stabilize the eye during surgery.  Luckily most of that was covered by my eyelids so I wasn't walking around grossing everyone out with my bloody eyes.  At my post op appointment the day after surgery I was seeing 20/15 from each eye and just one week later I am seeing almost 20/10 from each eye.  The best vision ever recorded is 20/8.  Yes, I am feeling pretty darn good about my decision!

Last week my mom brought home a bunch of new flannel nightgowns.  Weird, I know, but we loved them anyway!  We all chose our favorite and put them on to model.  We were in such a weird mood!  The evening may have included dancing, piggyback rides, and a dog-pile...but I am not talking!  We laughed about being the girls from "Little House on the Prairie".   I called dibs on being Laura Ingalls.  Trent had a crush on her when he was young.  I even considered putting my hair in braids for our photoshoot. ;)

Mom, Me, Mallory, and Megan sporting our fancy nightgowns.

It was nice to be crazy and fun and laugh with my girls.  It feels like a part of me is waking up again.  I love it! I have missed being fully happy.  I am trying to find the joy in each day and focus on the good things in my life.  It is difficult to always keep an eternal perspective on life but I can see that when I do, things fall into place a little better than when I try to force the pieces together.  I am so grateful for my "new eyes", literally and spiritually, because with them I am beginning to see that I can be happy again.