Darkly through a lens

Welcome to this week’s Reno News & Review.

OK, if I tell you what’s going on with me without whining about it, will you promise not to ask me a bunch of questions? Because I think I’m going to write a cover story about it, but it’s got to wait until I know the end of the story.

Here it is: Last Wednesday, I had eye surgery: PRK. PRK stands for Photorefractive Keratectomy, and I’ll just say it’s similar to Lasik and leave it at that. I mean, it’s substantially different, but the idea is I’m trying to get my eyes into good-enough shape that I won’t be as dependent on glasses or contact lenses.

Last Wednesday, I had my left eye done. This Wednesday—yesterday for people who pick up this paper on Thursday—I’m getting my right eye done. (Don’t you just love this temporal fugue with the time?)

Today, Monday, June 25, I can see pretty clearly, using my glasses. See, I’m getting monovision, so my left eye will be able to read without reading glasses, both eyes will see intermediate distances, and my right eye will be good for spotting flags on top of distant mountains. I had my contact lenses set for monovision, so I can tell you it worked pretty well for me.

Anyway, here’s how it went: Wednesday, I took a valium and had lunch with Kathleen and Hunter. At 1 p.m., they dropped me off at the surgery center, and I took another valium. The surgery, which included scraping the outer layer of my eye off and the odor of burning eyeball, took about 10 minutes (including 20 seconds under the laser). I got a lift home, took another valium and slept the afternoon and evening away.

Saturday was the worst. It was like looking through rain rivulets on a window while a cat clawed my eye out. But the pain only lasted two days, and here I sit, ready to do it all again. It is, though, wa-a-ay too soon to decide if I’d recommend it to anyone else. I’ll let you know.