Partly cloudy with a chance of showers.
Lane ends merge left.
Please pay before pulling away.
Florida 53, Kentucky 52.
Save Tibet.
Words like these are part of my everyday life. A sign on the highway, the daily weather report, the bumper sticker on my neighbor’s car and the result of a bad day for Wildcat fans.
But now they read like the pages from a Pulitzer Prize winning book.
For the first time since I first learned to read “See Spot Run” in the first grade at Orangeburg, I can see without the aid of glasses or contact lenses.
Ten days ago Dr. David Schneider at the Midwest Eye Center in Cincinnati performed surgery to correct my vision.
I feel like a kid just chosen to try out all the toys for Santa Claus, Publisher’s Clearing House knocked on my door two days in a row, and they decided to extend basketball season another two months all rolled into one.
Except with one gigantic difference.
This is real.
When I was 6 years old my mother took me to Dr. Ann Simpson’s office on West Third Street. She fitted me for glasses and I’ve worn them every day since. The prescription changed slightly over the years but never for the better.
For my 16th birthday my gift was contact lenses because my parents knew I wanted them more than anything. They took me to a doctor in Carew Tower in downtown Cincinnati to be fitted for lenses. I chose to have mine tinted purple and they put a tiny black dot on the right one so I wouldn’t get them mixed up.
I will never forget the first few days I wore them. My family went on a camping trip to Boonesborough for the weekend. Armed with my solutions and a big mirror, I sat at the table in the camper every day and struggled with putting the hard lenses in my eyes. When I managed to get it right, I walked around for a couple of hours looking like my dog had just died.
Gradually I got used to them. Everyday I wore them a little longer, and eventually the crying stopped. But as soon as I took them out at night my glasses went right back on. If my eyes were open, I was wearing one or the other.
But I had a secret.
I could hold up one finger about three inches in front of my nose and I could see every tiny line of my fingerprint. But if I moved it one inch forward or backward, my finger once again became a fuzzy blob.
I called it my Window of Opportunity.
I believed as long as my perfect little space never changed, small as it was, there was hope.
Ten months ago I visited Dr. Schneider’s office for an evaluation. When you make the appointment, they tell you to take out your contact lenses and leave them out until the evaluation and possible surgery.
Five weeks of wearing my glasses in public was excruciating. Too many memories of being called “four eyes” when I was a kid I suppose. But not as painful as the final news — I wasn’t a good candidate because my corneas were too flat.
I cried.
The staff at Midwest Eye Center tried to console me with the fact that new technology and procedures were happening all the time. Just because I wasn’t a candidate then didn’t mean I wouldn’t be in a year or so.
In mid-January I took out my lenses once again in preparation for another exam. After six weeks I received the news I had been waiting for — they had a procedure for me.
My surgery, however, was going to be divided into two parts. The important first step is the cutting of the corneal flap. Dr. Schneider recommended IntraLase. With this new technology, a laser instead of a surgical instrument, is used to precisely cut the flap. The laser to correct my vision would take place three days later with another machine in a different office.
My flap cutting (I’ve already heard all the jokes) took place on the first Friday in March. It went quickly and without incident. I was sent home with a Valium in my system to take a long nap. When I awoke a couple of hours later my eyes were scratchy and I was a tad bit irritable but another nap took care of both. All weekend I could see with my glasses just like nothing happened.
Monday morning Jim and I headed to Florence for my procedure. Again they give me a Valium to help with the nap afterwards, not to help during the procedure. Eyedrops make it painless.
As Dr. Schneider began to lift the corneal flap on my left eye, I instinctively knew that step was taking a little too long to accomplish. He told Jim later it was like trying to lift a tiny piece of wet tissue paper without it tearing.
He was finally able to lift it to begin the laser treatment. All the facts and figures from my extensive pre-surgery testing had been fed into this smart machine and it set the time needed to correct my vision.
When the machine blurted out three minutes and a few seconds, Dr. Schneider talked back to it as if it could answer.
I now hold the record for the longest treatment in his office.
After repeating the procedure on the other eye and a few minutes of rest, we were on our way home. Because of the difficulty with my flaps, he placed contact lens bandages over my corneas to hold the flaps still.
I expected a tough afternoon but it didn’t happen. I either slept or sat and listened to the television the rest of the day but without even the slightest twinge of pain.
The next morning after a trip back for a check-up I returned home to rest. I was still basically resting my eyes, only looking down when I attempted to walk alone through the house.
Jim turned on the television and I was listening to the end of the Today show. Something caught my attention and without even thinking I looked up.
I could read the words on the screen.
It was the breakthrough moment every LASIK patient has — the first time you realize you can see.
Jim was downstairs and I called him to come quickly.
“I can read the words,” I said with tears streaming downing my face.
He put his hand on my shoulder and quietly said, “It’s a miracle.”
And he knows.
Jim received his “miracle” in November, 2000, thanks to Dr. Schneider.
I immediately called all three daughters. By that time I was sobbing. After years of having to search for dropped contacts on the bathroom floor and glasses I couldn’t find, they were ecstatic.
Jim also holds a record in Dr. Schneider’s office, but not one to be proud of. He drove himself home after his surgery though I cannot even imagine how he did and lived to tell about it. I like to tease him that there’s a poster hanging in the office with his picture with a big red “X” across his face entitled “What NOT to do!”
Every day my vision gets better. I still have to wear reading glasses to read and play the piano but that’s a very minor inconvenience.
Jim says it’s like being around a 6 year old these days. I read out loud every scrolling school closing, street sign, license plate and every word I see.
Because I can.
Most people with vision problems dream of being able to see the clock beside the bed and tell what time it is. Not only can I do that, but I can raise up on one elbow and read the STOP sign across the street.
For anyone contemplating the surgery, do your homework. Read everything you can find. Ask for recommendations from your eye care professional and from friends who have had it done. Most LASIK specialists offer a free initial exam to determine if you are a candidate. Then ask the hard questions.
Let his or her experience and knowledge guide your choice, not the price they charge. If you can’t afford the best, save until you can.
My tiny little Window of Opportunity is gone forever. Instead, it has been replaced with a panoramic view of my world that gets clearer every day.
It is an incredible miracle.
Contact Laura Rains at Laura.Rains@lee.net or by phone at 606-564-9091 Ext. 275.
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