Lasik Adventure!

So, today started out just like any other day. We slept in from being out late with friends and lazily enjoyed the morning as we got things ready for Aimee's Lasik appointment. We ate at Ihop, and had their new omlettes. Oh my gosh they were huge!! I mean it looked like they rolled a puppy in egg and cooked it, thats how big it was! Anyways, we swung by Target to pick up the last minute essentials for the day and were on our way to the Hoopes Vision Center for Aimee's Lasik appointment.

When we got there we were taken back to the Pre-Op room where Aimee was given valium and some numbing drops for her eyes. We were then taken back and Aimee was given a last minute eye exam to make sure that she would get the proper adjustment. I was a little worried when afterwards she said that she was worried because the final setting on the eye machine was more blury than the original eye perscription for her glasses. So we asked the eye doctor about it and they assured us that it was fine. They just didn't want to give too strong of a correction so that test and the one we did when we first went in for a consultation would balance out.

Anyways, Aimee is passed out next to me as I am writting this so I can say whatever I want. :) :P hehehe. LOL. Anyways, we went back and they put some more numbing drops in her eyes and had her close her eyes and rub them with I think detadyne. She looked like a crazy racoon it was great. They then took her in and had her lay down under the IntraLASIK machine. This is the machine that creates a button-sized corneal flap on the surface of the eye. The benefit of this is that there is no blade used. Also the flap is precise and when finished can lay perfectly back on the eye because of the beveled edge made around the corneal flap. Pretty cool hu? Here is the video of it.



During this process they use a suction thingy on the eyeball to ensure the precisness of the laser. When the eyeball is sucked up in this vaccum thing there is a complete loss of vision (you see nothing but black, or so Aimee says. she was kinda freaked out by the whole thing of being blind for like 3 minutes) when the procedure is done with that eye, they do the same to the other eye. For Aimee it took about 2-3 minutes for her vision to come back after being in the suction thingy. When the laser is doing its thing it is creating little pockets of air about a 10th of a milimeter under the corneal tissue. When they are left for a few minutes the tiny bubbles dissapate and essentially connect into one big bubble under the corneal tissue so that a flap is created. Then the laser cuts a beveled edge around it so that it can be lifted up later.

After this process is done they then bring her back out to the observing room and have her sit back with her eyes closed. After the bubbles have dissapated thus creating the flap needed she is taken back into the room and placed under the ALLEGRETTO WAVE™ IQ 400 Excimer "Laser" :) which will then correct her vision by from what I understood cutting away a portion of her corneal tissue under the flap to effectively compensate for the astigmatism she had and the nearsightedness. Below you can see the video of her going through this.



The coolest thing that happened during this process actually happened to me! I was watching the procedure very intently through the ginormous glass windows like a greasy fry fingered kid does on the glass of the McDonalds play area. when a guy came up and stood inbetween me and the window. It took me a second to pry my eyes away from the TV and looked at him as he looked over his sholder at the TV and then back at me and said, "Think you can stomach one of these while watching that?" and then looked down at the big plate full of chocolate chip cookies he had. "Fresh from the oven", he said. Oven? where do they put an oven in here? So I quickly accepted one and then two chocolate chip cookies from the dude and happily ate them as Aimee was finished up.

Afterwards, she was brought out and we were sat in an eye exam room to let her eyes relax until she was checked out and given the ok to go home. We got home and by this time the valium had already done its job and she was out. We got in the house and she barely made it into bed, where she slept for a couple of hours before waking up to eat dinner and socialize a little and go back to bed.

So there is our exciting Lasik adventure in a nutshell. We will be sure to keep you posted. Until then be sure to check out the Hoopes Vision Center Website if you have any questions, comments, concerns.. well the comments you can put here. :) Hoopes is the best in Utah. Did I mention that Dr. Hoopes was actually our doctor? I was kinda suprised, I figured it would be somebody else.


if you have any questions or are curious about who they are. They are the best in Utah!

Sincerely,

Jason McDaniel