PRK Afterwards

The idea of getting laser surgery is scary!  I refused to even consider it for years because I couldn't stand the idea of someone operating on my eye while I was awake and I was also terrified of losing my vision.  The statistics are really in the patient's favor in this regard, but everyone considers themselves to be the exception to the rule.  I really enjoy being able to see, and while my vision was far from perfect, I was making do with contacts and glasses.  However, after time, my eyes started having issues with the contacts which started me thinking about laser surgery again.

I went to the doctor and found that I was not a candidate for LASIK (the newest laser surgery procedure) as my corneas did not meet the needed criteria.  I was then told that PRK was an alternative option and, after reading everything I could online, I decided to proceed. 

The surgery was simple, the first three days of the recovery were painful (according to the doctor I was experiencing "discomfort"), and my eyes watered a lot while sleeping, but the rest of the recovery was painless.  After five days, I was able to drive, and the next week they removed the contact-like bandages.   After a couple weeks, my day-time vision was good but things were still pretty blurry at night.  After a month, my vision was at 20/15 and the same at my 9-month check up.  According to my doctor, another eye doctor won't be able to tell I had surgery because the cornea grew back as opposed to having an incision heal.  It is a slower healing process than LASIK, but studies show it yields slightly better results and is less expensive.  I would highly recommend this to anyone.  I love that I can see when I wake up in the morning, and that I don't have to carry extra solution and glasses with me wherever I go.  I still put drops in my eyes when I wake up in the morning because they are a bit dry (which is a typical side effect of laser surgery), and I have to wear sunglasses in bright sun and sometimes with fireworks, but that is much better than the reaction my eyes were having to contacts.  So worth it.

Really, What Could Go Wrong?

Shannon and I both love to travel.  A series of events over the last couple years, however, has given us pause.  It seems that when we go places together, things go wrong.  Very wrong. 

 I signed up for a race in Sedona and Shannon signed up for a race as well so that I didn't have to go alone.  I had been sick with a cold all week and didn't feel so great after the race.  Shannon got sick after the race as well and we spent the rest of the weekend sleeping.  What were the odds we would both be sick over the same weekend?

Shannon had an interview in New York so we went out for the weekend.  I missed my flight on the way out (accident on the freeway at 5am, of course!).  The next morning Shannon got stuck on the metro underground for an hour with no cell service because someone fell on the tracks.  I was a bit of a nervous wreck for about a half hour.  The next day we left our show tickets at our hotel in Brooklyn but luckily we had just enough time to rush back to get them.  On the way home, Shannon lost her wallet on the plane.  She got it back a few weeks later.

We still hadn't gotten the hint.  After Christmas we drove back to Arizona from Utah together.  After a few hours of driving we came across a small suitcase in our lane on the freeway.  There was a shredded tire to our left and a truck in the lane to our right which left us no option but to hit the suitcase head on.  It shattered her front bumper and we found a new use for dental floss when we had nothing else to tie the vibrating parts of her car together.  At this point we were laughing about our ridiculous bad luck.

And yet we kept going!  While in California for our powderpuff football game, the two of us went to Sea World for the day.  My GPS took us through a toll road and I didn't have enough change so the lady told me I could pay it online.  On the way back the worker told me I could pay for both of them online.  Turns out the option to pay online is a one-time courtesy for only one toll.  This left me subject to a big fine due to my unpaid toll.  I don't like toll roads.  Fortunately, I was able to get the situation resolved by emailing the main office.

And finally, last week we both met up for lunch in Utah.  I left my car next to a gas station and when we came back, my car was gone!  Apparently my car was in a tow zone and we missed the itsy bitsy sign.  They charged me over $200 to get my car back!  Crooks. 

At this point we have decided we have a problem but we just laugh and keep trying.  We have, however, decided not to travel outside of the country together just to be safe.

Never Say Never

No, this has no reference to Justin Bieber (I actually had to look up how to spell the kid’s name).  I am referring to when someone says, "I will never _______."  I’m still trying to decide if we say "never" because we don’t want to do something but deep down we know that it will happen anyway, or if fate is simply cruel.  Perhaps it is a bit of both. 

 

In junior high I was voted “most likely to become a teacher.”  I was so upset because I did not want to be a teacher and vocally expressed my intent to never pursue that career.  In 2009 I graduated with a bachelor’s in secondary education. 

 

I grew up as a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints which encourages young men to serve 2-year missions.  Girls are able to go as well, but it isn’t expected.  I knew several girls who had determined that they wanted to serve missions.  I had no desire to do so and was totally okay with it.  Those girls were all married by age 21 and I returned from serving a full-time mission in Oakland, California in 2007. 

 

School work is not my favorite thing and graduating with my bachelor’s took me long enough.  Many people asked if I would pursue a master’s when I was done.  I explained that I had no desire to do so and had multiple good reasons to back up my decision.  In 2013 I was accepted to George Washington University for the Fall where I will pursue a master’s degree in Organizational Management.

 

In all honesty, things have turned out for the best and I am very happy, but I think I will stop using the word "never" just to make life a bit easier to swallow in the future!

PRK

My mom always told me that I should look into laser surgery to correct my vision but I always said it scared me way too much to consider it.  I don't think my opinion actually ever changed, but I suddenly found myself getting a referral from my eye Dr., met with the surgeon, and had the surgery scheduled.  If you are like me, then you figure all vision corrective surgery is called LASIK.  You, like me, would be wrong.  Apparently there are three criteria that make one a good candidate for LASIK.  I was missing two of them, but the surgeon told me I was a good candidate for PRK.  It has a longer recovery but it's cheaper and has slightly better results than LASIK.  All of a sudden I was in the waiting room for my surgery.  They gave me Valium: the magic drug.  One problem, it didn't work!  My friend was with me and we had a very coherent conversation for 45 minutes and nothing happened.  They took me into surgery and I was freaking out.  They had to remind me to breath.  I'm pretty sure that Valium was supposed to take care of those things.  I almost asked for two more pills the next day so that I could make up for my lost Valium experience.

The surgery itself was the most bizarre experience I have ever had.  It lasted no longer than 10 minutes, and I didn't feel a thing thanks to the numbing drops they put in my eyes.  They had me stare at the red light then a bright ring of light came on.  He put a cylinder thing on my eye, filled it with fluid, and pulled something (the top layer of my cornea, also known as the epithelium) out and flushed my eye.  Don't worry, they put pads on the side of my face to catch all the water so my hair didn't get wet.  Then he squeegeed my eye and told me to look at the red light while the laser made clicking noises and it smelled like burnt hair.  He then put a clear bandage (like a contact) on my eye and started on the other eye.  That was pretty much the whole thing.  Fortunately, I was still able to watch the BYU football game that night.  A day and a half later I was questioning my sanity, but fortunately the pain was gone by the third day.

I still can't believe I did that, but I'm very excited to see what it's like to no longer be dependent on glasses or contacts.  My corneas are still growing back, and the healing process takes some time so my vision is still pretty blurry since it's only the first week.  Modern medicine is crazy!

Sadly, I do not have any pictures from this experience (actually that was very much on purpose).

Escape Clause

I went to the Mesa Temple this morning to go through a Spanish session.  It was a lovely experience and I was very happy to find that I understood pretty much everything.  My friend Shannon came with me and informed me that I was "so cool" because I didn't need an English headset.  Cool is totally what I was going for.  Mission accomplished.  After the session we went to have an organic breakfast at a place called The Farm.  Surprisingly enough, it is a farm where they grow all the food they serve.  Basically, it is amazing.  As we sat there discussing various topics I looked around at the peaceful atmosphere of the farm and thought that this is how life should be lived.  The morning was refreshing and peaceful.

On our way back I picked up my car from the shop and ended up having a conversation with a guy who is friends with the shop owner.  He explained that he is a Christian minister without any direct affiliation to a particular church and that he is very well versed in the Mormon religion.  I found this intriguing so I asked if he had read the Book of Mormon.  Parts of it.  He admires the dedication of the members and the good we do.  He actually attended seminary with friends.  So what was his reservation?  He told me that we do not believe in the same Jesus Christ.  I explained we believe in the Bible so I was confused how we couldn't believe in the same Christ.  He simply said that we believe in two different people.  I made it clear that there is only one Jesus, so if there are two different statements being made about him that contradict each other, only one of them can be true.  He agreed but failed to make his point.  He simply admitted to believing in the Trinity which I reminded him was created by the Nicene Creed.  He didn't feel like explaining that one.  I then stated that we believe Christ is the literal son of God and that he came to earth to atone for the sins of the world.  Apparently this is not what he believes.  According to this man, Christians believe that everyone but Christians will go to Hell when they die.  How depressing!  Mormons, however, are different because they have an "escape clause" to this.  We sure do! It is absolute madness to believe that God, the father of all mankind, would allow a majority of his children to come to earth without the opportunity to hear the gospel and then tell them too bad after they die and send them straight to Hell.  That is unjust and quite frankly, pointless.  God's main objective is for all of His children to return to Him and all will have the opportunity to do so in this life or the next.  So yes, in a manner of speaking we do have an "escape clause." 

He also told me that if the Mormons are right, then we have a very serious and solemn responsibility.  I agreed and said that I was sure happy to have it.  He mentioned something about the fact that I can take comfort from it right now, but I explained that I am pretty sure it will always make me happy.  He concluded that by either religion he should be okay because he is Christian so he won't go to Hell, and if the Mormons are right then he should end up in the third kingdom and I will go to the highest because I've been a member all my life and I served a mission.  I tried not to laugh and informed him that's not exactly how it works.  I ended the conversation by telling him it was interesting to see how the Church is viewed through the beliefs of someone else.  Overall, it was a good discussion, and I left thinking how lucky I am to have the peace and knowledge that I do.

Coping Mechanisms

We all have coping mechanisms (at least I think so; I haven't done any research on it). I came to a realization the other day that I have a very expensive coping mechanism. I haven't quite narrowed down the exact things I use it to cope with, and it would take me a lot more introspection and time than I am willing to spend before finishing this post to figure it out, so I am going to say that it is my coping mechanism for life in general. I travel. I have always loved to travel (but I do hate the packing part). My family would take trips every summer and I always looked forward to them. It's not just the being on the trip part that I enjoy, but I love the planning, the anticipation, and the prospect of getting away from the everyday. Before my most recent trip to San Diego with my mom, I was in danger of becoming like this poor bear we saw at the zoo (you can't tell from the picture, but he was swaying his head back an forth).

Fortunately, the trip was exactly what I needed. I am finding, however, that this coping mechanism costs a lot of money and I have a limited amount of vacation days at work. Don't worry, I found a way around the latter issue by scheduling things on the weekends. In May I will be gone every Saturday and will only use one day of vacation time. Apparently my coping mechanism is helping me become a better problem-solver which is a character-building trait so it is really helping me become a better person overall. Therefore, I will not be giving up my coping mechanism. Instead I will got to Disneyland with my cousin. It will be family bonding time. See, it really is making me a better person.

This is a picture of me throwing an axe into a hanging log. Yes, I got it to stick . . . after a couple tries.

Blogging

I don't know if this happens to anyone else with a blog, but now that I have one I find myself thinking during various events of the day, "could I blog about this?" I also wonder how often I should be writing. Then I wonder what exactly I should be putting on my blog. Should I keep it to random thoughts I have or should it be more like a journal? I have come to the ultimate conclusion that this is my blog so I can do whatever I want. I'm learning a lot.