The Linda’s get Lasik…

Yesterday we left the park about 1:00 for the hour’s drive into Denver to get parked and settled before our 2:30 appt. with Dr. Cutarelli. Traffic was very heavy going into the city but we arrived and parked in the huge parking lot next to the Dr’s office. It’s a very pretty spot to be parked. It overlooks a beautiful grassy area with a basketball court and there’s a beautiful view of the Denver skyline.

 

 

We arrived for our appointment and got checked in, signed some papers and waited to be prepped for the surgery. Here is the last time that we had glasses on before our surgery. In case you’re wondering why we picked Dr. Cutarelli, he has over 60,000 Lasik surgeries to his credit. He did his residency at John’s Hopkins. He also worked on the clinical trials with the FDA on many of the machines that are used in Lasik surgery and was the first to perform Lasik surgery in Denver. He, and his whole staff, are top notch and super nice to deal with. Since he owns the practice, he sets and controls his pricing. When he asked us what we had expected to pay and we told him (which was less than his current special), he said he could do that.

When they were ready for us, they took us into the exam room and they checked Linda B’s prescription again. We stressed to them to make sure they get the right prescription with the correct Linda as our eyes (contrary to our show and clothes size) are entirely different. They took me first to get me prepped. I had to put a surgical hat on and the little booties over my shoes. They gave me a valium and put drops in my eyes to start numbing up my eyeballs. After Linda’s exam, she too came in and got prepped. They took me in to check my prescription and brought me back to the room again. Then it was time….

They took me in and you lay down on a table and they pull a machine down in front of your eyes. They taped something over my left eye and inserted something over my eyeball to keep the eye open. The inserting the the “eyeball vise” isn’t my favorite part of the surgery. My left eye was really ouchy when they did it so they took it out and put more drops in and used a different device to hold it open (kind of felt like maybe they used a piece of barbed wire….LOL). After this step, I can only guess what takes place. Everything goes dark so I think they pull the machine down and put it on top of the eyeball. At this point, I was stiff as a board, toes pointed to the ceiling and jaw clenched. He kept telling me to relax but that was a tall order. When they finish with this machine, they escort you over to another machine where they do something that involves a psychedelic light show in your eye and then you’re done. It only took about 15 minutes. My eyes were tearing up so badly I couldn’t hardly see to get back to the waiting room so luckily they held on to me. Then Linda went in. She came back under her own guidance so I think it went much easier for her. When she asked me how it was, before she went in, I didn’t want to tell her the truth cause she’d freak out. I said something like, “Just do what they tell you and you’ll be fine.”

They gave us our post-op information and we left but not before dropping our glasses in the donation bin.Freedoooooommm ! Before we left, they taped the eye shields over our eyes and gave us sunglasses to put on. We wear the eye shields when we sleep so we don’t rub our eyes or bump them. The sunglasses block out 100% of the UV rays and are awesome. Ultra stylish!

During the first 24 hours, we put steroid drops in every two hours and antibiotic drops in every four hours. We just finished that regiment. We now do both of these every four hours and the tears as often as we need them. I can tell that my left eye is my reading eye and my right is my distance eye. Linda is the opposite of me. We are both thrilled with the outcome so far and the best is yet to come. We had an awesome stay here last night. It is so beautiful at night with all of the buildings lit up. We feel like we have the city all to ourselves and that we’re on vacation. We’re going to stay until Sunday morning and then head back to the campground. We couldn’t believe how quiet it was last night. No trains, no traffic like we hear at the campground. So peaceful !

 

 

 

                                                                                       Here’s Dr. Cutarelli…