Part one refers; but left you hanging as to when it would happen. The answer turned out to be not until a day ago, for a combination of: them needing to find the lenses; me needing a gap in my busy schedule; and them only doing a couple of days a month in Cambridge.So I walked in, bright and early for 8:30, had my pre-checks, some eye drops, and the first of a billion confirmations-of-identity; oh, and a confirmation of which-is-dominant eye, and writing the numbers 1 and 2 above the eyes to indicate sequence. Then it turned out that the surgeon was stuck on a train; bref, the actual surgery didn't start till about 11:30. But then it took way less than the advertised three hours, so it was mostly a wash.
Taken upstairs we did identity again, I was given about five different eye drops, had a cap put on to voer my hair, and tissues put under my ears to absorb the cleaning fluids that would flow later, laid down on a gurney, and wheeled around into surgery. This featured the surgeon, who kindly offered me my choice of music, which was Mussorgsky's "Pictures at an Exhibition", which was almost exactly the right length; sadly the orchestral rather than in piano version but you can't have everything. He also did his fairly successful best to make light conversation to distract me from what was going on. There were two or more others present as well, though for obvious reasons I didn't see all that much.
Then I'm covered with a surgical masking, I guess, which completely covered my head, apart from a hole made for the first eye, my left, the non-dom one. Then some more eye drops, including I think anaesthetic, oh and also at some point a thorough cleaning around that eye and eyebrows. Then something to prevent my blinking, I'm not sure quite what: it felt like the left eye was plastic pulling it open, whereas the right felt like a clamp, but more likely they were the same. Then a warning that I was going to see something like the northern lights, and indeed - more eye drops? - it all went purply-yellow or whatever, and the action had started. Vague, hard-to-see things that must have been cutting a hole. Then a little noise - which I was warned about - which I think was the vacuum cleaner sucking out my macerated old lens. And then, taking little time at the end, inserting the new lens. That was the first eye done. Oh, and he checked - holding up two then one fingers - that I had basic vision with the just-done eye.
Surgical masking off, brief rest, during which I think I could tell that I could see the ceiling more clearly through the newly corrected eye than the other. Then we're onto the right - dominant - eye. This was slightly more "uncomfortable" than the left, in a way that's hard to describe, in the way that having yourself anaesthetised for dentistry is. Though this wasn't painful, just... disturbing? Mostly I was worried I was going to blink and ruin things, which is silly. But perhaps the dominant eye fought harder. During this one the surgeon told me about his formative experiences practising on the practice-surgery eyeballs his father (also an eye surgeon) had; and about how the lens he was putting in had tiny dots on the edges so he could get the orientation right (I am astigmatic, the lens corrects this just like glasses). Again, once done, quick basic-vision check and pass; and he says that all has gone well.
My vision is pretty blurry at this point with various cleaning fluid sloshing around, and I get plastic tranparent shields taped over each eye to prevent me rubbing them. I'm taken off for a quick after-care talk (these are your eye drops, anti-inflammatory, which continue for a month, do you feel pain? No, good; don't shower for a bit; and so on), and taken downstairs into the care of M who has come to pick me up. I can see well enough, and could had I needed to have gone home alone, but it is comforting to have someone to look after me. Also it is slightly more comfortable to have my eyes shut, and I'm feeling rather sunlight-sensitive. We go to Fitzbillies in Bridge Street for a light lunch, and then home.
I'm advised to keep my eyes mostly shut for today, so listen to the Henley livestream and the book of John, to which I fall asleep. I find I can watch from a distance, and I think I can see my vision is stabilising. I can't read my phone or a book though; distance is definitely better than close.
Overnight I leave my eye-protectors on, but remove them in the morning. For the first day in my adult life my first action is not to put my glasses on!
10 am: back for a check up: various machine-that-go-bleep and check obscure things like eyeball pressure, but all is well. I'm given an eye test and get 20/20 or a little better at distane, a little worse at close up, and told that it will get better. Things are definitely stabilising, distance vision is close-to-perfect, close-up is still a bit iffy but I can with effort read my phone. To W/S, coffee and book, Radiant Star which happily has a largeish font. And so home. Next check up in a week, then a month.
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