last week went pretty well. on tuesday, i didn't feel well, so i stayed home from work.

on wednesday i had a HUGE headache all day long. now, i've had these headaches before. they typically start at the base of my neck and wrap around the top of my head to settle in the back of my right eye. of course, me being paranoid, on wednesday it was my eyes bothering me from the surgery.

but wednesday night i borrowed the hubby's percussive massager and spent 15 minutes pounding on the side of my neck. conclusion: neck was badly out of place. headache that excedrin would not touch had nothing at all to do with the eyes.

{sidenote: at my chiropractor's office on friday, when I mentioned the past headache, he showed me a diagram mapping the symptoms i described as "classic" pain for C-1, the very top vertebrae before your head, being out of place. so... now i know.)

thursday was unventful.

friday, i went in for my one-week checkup. everything looks normal for the healing process. i did not get the individual breakdown for each eye's vision, but i was told i have 20/15 vision... i tend to be a bit skeptical about that, because it seems that if i can make out the fact that there are LETTERS on that line, they claim i can "read" it. so truthfully, i think it is more accurate that i have 20/20 vision. and you know what? i can LIVE with that.

i had a few "dry areas" on my eye...the doctor recommended that I not sleep with a fan running in my bedroom. unfortunately for me, that is not an option. no fan= no sleep. on my way out of the office, the nurse gave me a sample tube of a moisturizing GEL to use in my eyes before bed. the gel will make my vision VERY blurry, but it lasts longer than the drops.

since i've been using the gel at night, the morning dryness has pretty much gone away. i'm still trying to mentally adjust to the difference. after all, i've needed glasses of some sort for 20 years. so the habit of reaching for glasses first thing in the morning is very deeply ingrained.

when my eyes get tired late in the day, it feels like i need to take my contacts out. at least, that is how my mind interprets the tired, kind of dry, kind of strained feeling. only, there aren't any contacts to take out.

{sidenote... i had a fairly graphic fuzzy sleepy visualization last night of going to the bathroom and actually trying to take contacts out of my eye, but instead ... well, i said it was graphic. your mind comes up with REALLY odd things when you're sleepy)

my night/low-light vision, especially distance vision, is not-so-good. the difficulty i had before in distinguishing different objects [like driveway openings or corners at the edge of the road when looking for a turn off] has become much more pronounced.

i also have the classic "starburst" effect around every light source. i notice much more when i'm outside than when i'm in the house, so it seems to be only when looking at stuff a block or more away, not things in the house which are reasonably close.

i don't remember the expected time for that to go away - i think it is somewhere around the 3 - 5 month range. i CAN see to drive at night, but it is very tiring to the eyes. but again, i remind myself - and you, my fearless readers - that it has been a scant 12 DAYS since surgery. so, i'm not terribly concerned.

another note on dry eyes. since i have started using the eye gel at night, i am also noticing that my daytime dryness seems to be a lot less as well. i find that my eyes don't FEEL dry during the day.

when i mentioned to the doctor on friday the somewhat irritating daytime dryness, he recommended I switch from the Refresh Plus drops I'd been using to the slightly thicker Refresh Liquigel product.

However, my eyes can really tell the difference between natural lubrication and the liquigel [and the night gel] drops. putting the thicker drops in makes my eyelids feel unnaturally heavy and sleepy... much like they felt when the entire area was deadened for dilation. this feeling persists for about a half-hour with the liquigel drops, including increased strain to focus during that time.

i was prescribed to use the liquigel drops every four hours, so i'm staying with that schedule for now. if the feelings of strain and tired continue to persist, i may call the dr's office and see if i can just go back to the other drops.

i can't really think of any other information that wouldn't be something you hear at the doctor's office. overall, i am very pleased with my results, and would still do it again. even knowing how scared i would be.