Just Fix His Dang Eyes!

I try to keep my posts as positive and uplifting as possible, which I realize doesn't always happen. Life is hard sometimes! This week was one of those hard ones. We decided to look into getting Lasik for Adam a while ago since he has terrible eyesight and his glasses are a huge pain. We got the surgery scheduled for this last Friday the 18th, and he just had to request leave from work for a couple days since the place is in Atlanta. He thought it was taken care of until Wednesday when he was told that his leave paperwork had gone through incorrectly and that he didn't have the military's permission to have any surgery performed. They actually told him that once he signed up for the military, they owned his body and therefore had to get permission to do anything to it. Whatever. He then had 24 hours to get the medical people to sign it and also had to get the head Navy officer on base to sign it. About 20 hours before the time the surgery was scheduled for, he had all the signatures and paperwork he needed. It was about that time that he got a message on his phone from the Lasik center saying that they didn't have him in the computer as having an appointment on Friday (you know- the day that he had gone to you-know-where and back to get leave for?). This is where I really panic. He called them back but they were closed for the day and didn't open until the next day- an hour before we were supposed to leave for Atlanta. 9am came and Adam decided he should call them instead of me, which was probably a good idea since I was hyperventilating by now. He calmly told them everything and they were kind enough to get us in anyway. This is where I start to calm down and be slightly more pleasant to be around. We drop the kids off at our GREAT friends house so they could watch them overnight (Livseys- you really are the best!) and we were off.

We drove the 2 1/2 hours to Atlanta and arrived at the center 30 minutes early. More annoying things happened that aren't really blog-worthy (maybe none of this is but I need to vent) and then they informed Adam that he couldn't get Lasik because his corneas are too messed up. He would need a procedure called PRK in order to permanently correct his vision. Thanks for telling us 3 weeks ago or yesterday when we had our other appointments! It is a quick procedure, just like Lasik would have been, but causes more discomfort for a longer period of time. The difference is that with Lasik, they cut a flap in your cornea, laser it and replace it. With PRK, they take a rotating electric toothbrush-looking thing, rub off the top couple layers of cornea, laser it and then put temporary contacts in so the cornea can heal itself. 3 1/2 hours after arriving to the office, we left. It took about 4 of those minutes to do the surgery. Since it is harder on the eyes, Adam was pretty miserable the rest of the day (and kind of still is a 36 hours later). That squashed our plans of going to the Cheesecake Factory and to the temple. We went to a close restaurant near our hotel and then Adam crashed at the hotel while I went to IKEA.

Now Adam has to wear sunglasses outside at all times for a few months and has to wear funny goggles (pictured to the left) to sleep and in the shower for a week or two. Also, his eyes are still red and puffy.

At least he never has to wear glasses again!