Sunday, April 24, 2016

Goodbye Glasses!

Happy Sunday evening, friends! As of Friday, Colt and I are finally independent from our glasses and contacts. We are seeing a whole new world through clearer eyes! To say we are thrilled with our LASIK results is an understatement. 


Moments before we were called back to begin our LASIK procedure
Last Thursday, we went for our consultation with Dr. Tylock in Irving. Colt and I have horrible vision and we have both been in glasses since around the 2nd grade. Colt and I were talking about how we remembered sitting in class and one day we could no longer see the board. I remember getting my first pair of contacts right before I started high school.  I felt so free from my glasses and the feeling was indescribable. As we were sitting in the waiting room, waiting for the nurses to call us back, we couldn't believe that we were about to embark on a new journey together and for the first time in 20+ years, be able to see without being dependent on our glasses/contacts. We were thrilled to say the least. 

The nurses and technicians called us back and they began to run eye tests and check our vision and prescriptions. It boggles my mind how far technology and science has come since we were kids! I was so impressed. 


The machines used to check our vision
Four different machines were used to check our sight. Afterwards we were taken back to separate rooms. Two different doctors visited us and checked our vision just like they do in a normal eye doctors office. We went through different tests where we had to read different sized letters on the wall.This is when we received the good news that we were both good candidates for surgery!

Cleared for LASIK! 
The doctors dilated our eyes which caused our eyes to be overly sensitive to light and we saw a little blurry. We were given these super cute glasses to wear as left the drs office. We were so excited to be having our LASIK procedure the next day! 



We were up early Friday morning and we called an Uber to pick us up from our house and drive us to Irving. We had the sweetest Uber driver named, Ed. We told him all about what we were going to have done to our eyes and Ed was just as excited for us as we were! An hour in traffic and we finally arrived to Tylock's office. We filled out some paperwork before surgery and then we were called back to take one last vision test. 


 Before our LASIK, we had to wear our glasses and no contacts for TWO WEEKS. Having to wear my glasses to work daily was a huge bummer not to mention, inconvenient. I rarely wear my glasses, except right before bed, so I am not used to wearing them all day every day. I was definitely ready to get rid of my glasses! 

Saying adios to these babies!
Numbing drops were applied to our eyes and we were called back to wait before going in to the surgery room. 

Relaxing before surgery
Ready to see a whole new world! 
The surgery room is a darkened, dimly lit room. We were told that the laser machines get very hot, and therefor, they have to keep the room very cold. Colt and I laid down on a few cots while the nurses applied lots of different eye drops to our eyes. They also placed blankets over us while we were in the surgery room. I must say, I thoroughly enjoyed Tylock's choice of music he had playing in the room during surgery! 


Colt was the first patient to undergo LASIK that morning and I was the second. The total procedure lasted less than 15 minutes from start to finish for each person. It's incredible how quick and precise the lasers are. Valium is offered to calm your nerves, but I declined. I felt positive in the fact that I could keep my self calm with my breathing techniques. 





 Dr. Tylock not only performed LASIK on our eyes, but we received Topography Guided LASIK.  He also used his new state of the art technology called the "Wavelight Refractive Suite". This basically means that this new technology would not only correct our nearsightedness and our astigmatisms, but unlike other IntraLASIK procedures most people receive, our procedure was customized and personalized to our eyes. Dr. Tylock is one of the first eye doctors in Texas to use this advanced technology. Incredible. If you're interested in learning more about this technology you can check out his website here

If you would like to see some of the actual LASIK procedure, you can check out Colt's procedure {Part 1} and {Part 2}

After surgery, we saw blurry but we were reassured that was normal. Dr. Tylock checked our eyes and vision before releasing us. The nurses walked us back to another dimly lit waiting room. We were given goggles to wear due to light sensitivity and also the fact that we just had a flap laser cut into our eye. My sister was so sweet and offered to leave work and pick us up from the Tylock's office and drive us home. We got settled in at home and we were given strict instructions to sleep. Sleep has amazing healing powers! We slept pretty much the entire day. For the first 24 hours they recommend that you do not use cell phones, ipads, computers or laptops nor do any reading of any kind. My mother was gracious enough to come over and cook us dinner that evening. Then it was back to bed for us. 

front of card
back of card
We have to use 2 antibiotic drops for the next 6 days or so as well as use lubricating eye drops every hour for the next 2 weeks. We are not allowed to rub our eyes due to the risk of tearing the flap or wrinkling the flap in our eye as it heals. We also have to wear our goggles any time we sleep for the next 3 days. I am not allowed to wear eye makeup of any kind for the next week! Eek! That will be interesting... 


We are seeing clearer than we have in years. We were told that as the days and weeks go by our vision will only continue to progress. We will go back for a check up in 2 weeks and then again in a few months. Overall, we are incredibly happy and very satisfied with our experience and in our choice to have this amazing procedure done. We have started to resume normal activities and we are still in disbelief that we no longer have to rely on contacts or glasses to see! 

Thank you for the positive words, kind thoughts and prayers you sent our way. 

Shoutout to our friends, Eric & Michelle Elrod, who drove to our house the night before flying out to Cabo to meet up with us last summer, just to pick up my contacts I forgot at my house. Colt and I were already in Mexico and I was so nervous I would lose a contact while swimming on vacation. Looks like we won't have that problem ever again! ;) Thanks, friends! 

We love you all! 



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