The Gift of Vision
March 29, 2010
While we were without a computer, lots of things happened here, I went through minor back surgery (nasty and painful), bought a new computer (thank goodness), and my hubby went in for Lasik surgery. He has used glasses since he was little, about first grade (I think). When his grades started getting low, they gave him an eye exam and found out that he could barely see. He tells us stories about seeing the mountains and seeing just a fuzz of green, then after he got his glasses that he was able to see the definite lines of trees and shrubs and was amazed that he had never seen that before. Having always had good eyesight myself, I can't begin to imagine the way he saw things without glasses. Soon after, he was diagnosed with astigmatism and nearsightedness and he was given some thick glasses to wear around.
He spent 20+ years of his life with glasses, when I met him he had them and I couldn't imagine him without them. Glasses and him were always together. Each morning, he will reach out for his glasses and put them on, at night, when he would fall asleep watching the tube, I would reach and gently take them off him. When we would run or ride bikes he would leave them behind because the sweat will just make them fall off. It was this very thing that made me start looking into options for his eyesight problem.
We had talked about the possibility of getting him some type of surgery but we taught that because his eyesight was so bad that the chances were quite minimal. Then, enter "The Eye Guy" Dr. Hammond. I saw him first while we were at the movies, one of his ADS came before the movie started and I quickly grabbed my phone and saved his number. Then, a neighbor told me that she was going to go get surgery at "The Eye Guy". She raved about her first visit and how promising it all seemed. So, I went home and talked to hubby and I called and made an appointment (I have to get things rolling fast!).
The appointment went so great. They checked his eyes on the regular optometrist widgets and then on some other machine that I had never seen before. Dr. Hammond came in and told us that Sam was a great candidate for eye surgery, specifically Lasik! We were told the good and the bad about the surgery and what the chances were of it being successful, 99%. We knew the risks but we also knew that the possibility of him being able to see without glasses outweighed everything else. So we jumped. We booked his appointment and a month later, he went in.
The big day arrived! We drove to the appointment, he kind of needed someone to drive him back as he wasn't going to be able after the surgery. They gave him some valium before the surgery and he took some tylenol. Under the knife..sorta...he went. The entire Lasik procedure didn't last more than 15 minutes! There were no knives involved,everything was done with a machine. He just lay there while the doctor measured and then the machine did the procedure. Left eye first, then the right one. In a matter of 15 minutes, his entire world had changed. Hubby claims that it wasn't painful, the only uncomfortable part was the clamp around his eye but that was it.
We came home shortly after, he took a nap or two, or three, alright, he slept all day long! His eyes were just tired and the body itself was sending the signals for recuperation and sleep is the best way to recuperate. By that afternoon, he was able to see perfectly out of the right eye. The left one wasn't all the way perfect, but he was seeing without his glasses.
The left eye didn't get better right away and Dr. Hammond examined him and booked him for an enhancement appointment right away.(He wants the best service for his customers and he works hard to provide it.) Apparently the astigmatism was so bad in the left eye that the first time around didn't fix it 100 percent. Hubby went in two weeks later and got another treatment on his left eye, this time, success!!! He can see better than ever before. He now has 20-20 vision (and the left one may get better as time passes).
The service he received from Dr. Hammond was spectacular. The staff was always friendly and Dr. Hammond always showed concern for Hubby's welfare. After his surgery, Dr. Hammond called him in the afternoon to make sure that he was feeling okay. Even after the enhancement surgery, he called. He even provided Sam with all the eye drops that he needed that second time around.
We miss seeing hubby with glasses as that was him for so long, however, we recognize the great gift that Dr. Hammond has given him. He is now able to participate in sports without his glasses and he is able to see everything around him. I still sometimes reach out at night trying to take his glasses off only to find his pretty blue eyes. :)