YAG Laser

Nine years ago I had to have cataract surgery. It was a surprise to the eye world because I was so young. It was depressing to me because I was young. In researching the cause of cataracts we discovered that the sun causes it and that people who worked outdoors were susceptible. Ah Ha! My years in the swimming industry were to blame. I wrote about my surgery here, and here, and, because I had to have two separate surgeries, here. Bottom line was I opted for the big bucks procedure that put in Crystalens so that I would not have to use glasses. In the consultation it was mentioned that I would have to "have some laser down the road", but who paid attention to that.

Two years ago my surgeon turned me over to a new doctor for my exams. At the time he brought up the whole laser thing again for "touch up", but the new guy didn't think I needed it last year as I was seeing the chart well. This year when I went in I was not seeing the chart so well. It was blurry. I hadn't noticed any blurriness in my life as I wandered through the day, but in that dark room with that chart under the teeny light I had blurriness and could not read it well. He did his exam and said I had scar tissue. He told me not to worry that my surgeon would zap those babies with the YAG laser and I'd be on my way. He smiled and left the room.

I was taken by another girl to another room where a woman behind a desk scheduled my appointment to have this laser. She said that they wouldn't be able to get it done right away and that because I had to wait they would just do both eyes at the same time. She printed off some paper work, told me this laser thing was "no big deal" and sent me on my way. I worried about it for a couple of weeks. The surgery was scheduled for the day before I headed out to the UK. While the scheduling chick assured me that wasn't a problem, I was sure it was. I had issues after my cataract surgery with infection and eye dryness and I use Restastis especially when flying or driving long distances or sitting under fans.

I worried about the timing of this laser thing and when the office called to tell me they had to reschedule my procedure I believed that divine intervention had occurred and I expelled a huge sigh of relief. The woman calling me was horrified I was waiting so long. I explained I was out of the country and so we rescheduled a couple of weeks after I returned. That happened to be when my SIL was here and I assigned her to be my caregiver. Note to people: Do not assign care-giving roles to people who have fought cancer.

I spent the whole week before the surgery worrying. My caregiver told me to stop whining. I would mention that this procedure was my EYES for heaven's sake and she would come back with, "I had cancer. Did you have chemotherapy, a double mastectomy, and a hysterectomy? No. Stop whining and get me some sun!" I suffered alone. Loudly. I had to go to the office to pay my insurance deductible, and I asked a million questions about this YAG laser procedure which I of course had looked up on the Internet. This chick, like the others, assured me that it was "no big deal". That finally sent me over the edge, and I inquired as to whether she had had the procedure. She looked at me horrified and told me she wasn't that old which just pissed me off more. She told me she had watched it being done. Please. I told her she wasn't reassuring.

The day of the surgery it was pouring down rain. We got there at the required time and we went upstairs to where I had been told to go. We got sent back downstairs where we sat. I made multiple trips to the bathroom because my nerves had finally gotten the better of me. My SIL did not pat my hand. She told me I would be fine and to stop whining. I tried. I didn't listen. We were sitting in front of this older couple. The wife kept telling the husband what to do. Since he had come out of an exam room I thought him the patient, but apparently they were both there for eye appointments because eventually they called her and she disappeared into a room. When she returned several minutes later she had a blue dot over her right eye. My SIL looked at me and said, "If you come back out with those dots over your eyes I am so going to take a picture and put it on Instagram." I have to say that that made me laugh and relaxed me somewhat.

We waited about 45 minutes before they called my name. I went into the examination room and messed some with the tech who felt the need to give me another eye exam. Who cares now what I can read on some chart? Her expressions in regards to my hilarity were great and relaxed me some more. She checked my eye pressure and put a green dot over one eye and a blue dot over the other. I mussed my hair up so that it would cover said dots before being taken back out to join my SIL in the waiting area. She did not take my picture. I went back to the bathroom.

A few minutes later we were taken upstairs. Immediately, they pulled me from my SIL's unloving arms and took me back into the surgery room I vaguely remember from my past surgeries. An older gentleman sat me down and put eye drops into my left eye. Then he took my blood pressure. I mentioned that I was having both eyes done and he pulled up my hair, saw the other dot, checked my chart, and put in drops in that eye. My blood pressure was high and he said that was anxiety. I told him I had a lot of anxiety. He told me it was a simple procedure and I wouldn't feel a thing."

Apparently people think I'm worried about pain. I'm not. Pain is something I can handle. What I was worried about was complications like I had after my last experience. I went almost seven months with an eye infection that made me completely crazy. I was in and out of that eye building more times than I could count. I spent hundreds of dollars on medications for my eye. I saw several different doctors. It wasn't until I finally got to see my surgeon that the problem became manageable, and then I was taking 3 Advil every two hours for days to bring down the inflammation.  It took weekly appointments with him to clear up the eye and maintain the problem. Pain. Pfft. I could handle pain. Blindness? Uh, no.

He led me to a set of chairs where I was reunited with the lady from downstairs. Sans husband. I made a comment about how we were already acquainted, but she was nervous too and just smiled. Then they called her name and she went through a door directly over my left shoulder. The man nurse who had been taking care of me followed her and then yelled back over his shoulder, "I need a catcher!" and this woman came running to stand in the doorway.

Me: "What? A catcher? For what?"
Her: "It's just an expression. It means someone to lead the patient to the chairs over there."
Me: "You might think about changing that if you're going to yell it over the patient. I pictured you catching an eyeball."

And no sooner did those words come out of my mouth then the lady was back in the doorway and being led to another set of chairs. Standing in the doorway was my surgeon and he asked me if I was ready. I followed him and the nurse man followed me. We went through another set of doors into a small room with a piece of equipment that looked like the same thing all eye doctors use when checking your eyes. I sat down on one side and my surgeon sat down on the other. The man nurse gently applied pressure to the back of my head as I put my chin into the cup and then he applied solid pressure to hold my head there. Immediately I said aloud, "Are you afraid I'm going to escape?" My surgeon laughed and told me to blink my eye a few times. Then he said look here and he started shooting me as if I were the bad guy in a video game. Bing, bing. Ping, ping. Boosh, Boosh. It sounded exactly like a video game and the lasers coming at me were red. It was over in mere seconds, my head was released, and my surgeon congratulated me and stood up to leave.

Man Nurse: "Um. Actually, Ms. Boss has both eyes being done."
Me: "So sit back down in that chair because you're not finished yet today." And I lifted up my bangs to show the dot over my right eye.

He laughed. Sat down and we went through the whole process again. I was done in mere seconds and was led back out through the double set of doors. There was no catcher waiting, and so I shouted for one. The same girl came running and she led me to the row of empty chairs where she put drops into my left eye and took its pressure. I reminded her that I had two eyes done, but apparently the pressure in my eye was not where it was suppose to be and so she was flustered and had to ask for help.

This went on and on. The pressure in both my eyes kept going up instead of down. It was suppose to be under 20 and was between 25 and 27. I kept getting drops and then waiting five minutes before being tested again. The more this went on the more anxious I became. I kept trying to ask questions, but Chicken Little was too busy running around the room alerting the other nurses to my eye pressure results I couldn't get a word in. When she mentioned she would soon be in overtime I thought I was going to explode. Eventually she turned me over to someone else who was way more calm. She was the one who explained what the pressure should be. She was the one who told me they would call my surgeon if my pressure didn't go down. Which it didn't. She called my surgeon who ordered more drops of some kind and told me to go home I would be just fine. Hmmmmm...

I whined. The girl told me to go home, lie down with my eyes closed in a dark room, and call them if I needed them. I asked how would I know I needed her. She said a headache. I told her I had one now. She said a "really big headache". I reminded her it was Friday and that no one would be here until Monday. She calmly told me they had an emergency operator that would get my surgeon for me. Since I remembered that he lived one neighborhood over from me I figured I would hunt him down if necessary, I took my drops, and went out into the waiting room to my caregiver.

I followed instructions. My eyes were diluted for over seven hours so I had blurriness all that time. I slept for four hours. By the time I went to bed that night my eyes were almost back to normal. I didn't have the floaters they said I would have until two days later (that's another story). I have found that my right eye vision isn't as clear as the left eye. My poor right eye. No one wanted to work on that one and now it is like a slow child trying to catch up. I don't see my eye guy until the end of the month, and I'm anxious to read the eye chart because I think I saw better before the laser procedure, but perhaps time is required. The one good thing out of the procedure is that I don't need readers again. I can read close up in any light where before I had to be outdoors. I have just gotten to the point where I have stopped reaching for my glasses on top of my head when I want to read something.

So for any potential YAG laser patients who happen on to this site....the procedure itself is painless and simple. The aftermath isn't bad at all, but I did not carry on with my day like they told me I would be able to. Take the day off. Sleep. Let your eye/eyes recover. As for both eyes done at the same time? Why do they usually only do one eye? Makes me stop and wonder. Good Luck!