Meggie Velasco Photography

I’ve wanted to get LASIK for a very long time, but the thought of some laser happy doctor messing up everything I had worked for with my photography just frightened me.  What pushed me over the edge was when my parents gave me LASIK as my Christmas gift.  So I decided to at least check it out and see if I would rather have that, or the new Canon Mark III (considering they are about the same price).  So Adam went in to our regular eye doctor to begin the research process.  He told us that the only doctor he would trust his family with is Dr. Woolfson with The Woolfson Eye Institute.  We hear that the Calmpbell Cuningham something or other here in East Tennessee is the foremost something in Lasik eye surgery.  Well, they’ve done about 5,000 procedures.  That’s pretty impressive sounding.  But Dr. Woolfson stopped counting at 75,000 LAST YEAR!  He is the most experienced LASIK eye surgeon in the Southeast.  SOLD!!!!  When I went in for my consultation,  it was with Dr. David Smith (my friend Mikey’s dad).  They took a ton of time to answer my questions and make sure I was a good candidate and well informed.  They even put up with my phone calls with more questions between my visits.  I was pretty pumped about everything.  Not only have they had an incredibly high success rate, but most of the staff has had the procedure themselves, so they could speak from personal experience.  Another great selling point was their lifetime Assurance Plan.  Basically, I only pay for the surgery once.  If I need adjustments at all for the rest of my life, I don’t have to pay for it.  Once again, SOLD!!!!  I feel like my quality of life is going to be so much better and I’ll always be able to save up for the new Mark III.  Ok, so here comes surgery day.  I was having panic attacks.  I couldn’t breathe, and I couldn’t stop crying.  It’s one thing to plan for it, but it’s another thing to be sitting in the center waiting to go in.  They took us back in groups of 3 to go over all of our care, medications, what to expect, etc..  I was good while I was talking to all the girls that I had come to know and we were joking around, and I had forgotten why I was there.  Then Dr. Woolfson came in.  And the tears started again.  He went through everything to expect again and then spoke to us each individually.  Again, still crying.  Then comes Amy, the one who had been fielding all my calls, telling me it’s my turn.  And the tears come heavier.  I sit outside the room, starting to sob.  Then they tell me to come on in.  I was frozen to my chair.  Adam helped pick me up and sit me on the table.  Still sobbing.  I couldn’t see anything, but I heard all my girls out in the hallway.  They told me to look at a dot on the wall, I still don’t know where that dot was, and Dr. Woolfson marked my eyes and asked me about my photography to get my mind off of things.  Then he told me to lay down on the table.  HOLY CRAP!!!!!  Adam prayed with me and I tried to control the sobs.  Heart pounding and hands shaking.  He put the retractor in my eye, poured some cold stuff in and started scraping off the outer layer of my cornea.  There was some pressure and moments where I could see him lifting the cornea off of my eye, which was pretty cool.  Then THE FLASHING VORTEX OF TERROR!!!!  SCARIEST ENVIRONMENT IMAGINABLE!  While most people didn’t feel the same way I do, I was so terrified of the entire procedure, the purple flashing laser just frightened me.  I never felt the first thing, I just saw and heard the laser and I knew that what I was scared of was finally happening.  The only thing that got me through was Adam holding my hand and Dr. Smith telling me that I was doing a great job.  After only about 5 minutes on the table, I was done.  They sat me up, and I saw that it was 8:55.  When I laid down, I could only see the fuzzy black rim of the clock.  Of course, MORE TEARS!!!!  There were hugs all around!  I CAN SEE!!!!!  I haven’t been able to see since first grade if not before.  When I walked out into the hall, all the girls in the office had gathered outside the door to watch.  They saw me crying and all started crying!  So I went home and began my recovery process.  It wasn’t so bad, just stinging, light sensitivity, and the feeling of really dirty contacts.  I’m getting better every day.  I’ll be able to see what the full effects will be in about a month.  But I already feel comfortable driving and carrying on with every day life.  Working on the computer is a little tough right now, but gets easier.  If you’ve ever thought of looking into LASIK, go see Dr. Woolfson.  He’s the one that does your surgery, not a member of his practice.  If at any point he thinks it’s a bad idea, he won’t do it.  He’s not just out to make a buck like a lot of surgery centers.  He’s the man!  Make sure you tell him I sent you!  

I want to thank everyone who has taken the time to send me an e-mail, written a comment, called to check on me, or sent a good thought or prayer in my direction during my recovery.  Everything has gone perfectly!  I went to see my eye doctor the day after my surgery and he said that I was already 20/30!!!!  I’VE NEVER BEEN 20/30!  If I could have kept my eyes open longer than a second, I would have been able to drive.  I had a lot of light sensitivity and the bandage contact lenses I had to wear gather a ton of junk, so my eyes were not feeling awesome till yesterday.  I got new bandage lenses and I felt like a new woman!  I’m hoping that my doctor will take the lenses out tomorrow so I can see what life looks like past all the build up on the lenses.  My eyes are still not where they’re going to be and they aren’t even on the same page with each other.  Basically, I feel like I’m a little cross eyed.  Not really cross eyed, but they are healing at 2 different rates, so I get a headache when I use them for a long period of time.  The coolest thing is when I wake up.  I can see tons better than I could when I went to sleep.  I’ve reached my limit for the day, but I’ll write another post about my amazing eye surgeon, his team, and the “flashing vortex of terror” tomorrow.  

Greetings to all.  Meggie had her PRK Eye surgery today!! She did great throughout the procedure and could even read the clock on the wall when they were finished.  Now the healing time with PRK is a little longer than with LASIK but the results are no less impressive.  Meggie will be healed and footloose and glasses free in a couple of weeks.  Thank you all so much for your prayers and support and Meggie will be back blogging away again soon!

So I had a dream last night that I went in for my surgery and Dr. Smith was going over everything with me.  Then he wanted to make sure that I knew how to play guitar hero because that’s what I was going to be doing during the surgery.  I thought that was pretty random.  Anyway, so I’m going in tomorrow at 7am and probably won’t have my actual surgery till about 9 or so.  Please keep everyone in your prayers.  Please pray for the doctors that they will be on top of everything and also that the perfect laser machine won’t decide to not be perfect during my procedure.  On top of everything, I haven’t been in tip top shape the past couple of days.  The doctor tried to tell me that I have pneumonia yesterday, but I don’t believe her.  What does she know?!  I’m counting on the power of positive thinking.  OH, one more prayer request.  I was supposed to photograph a charity event on Friday that I’m obviously  not going to be able to do.  So I’m sending my girls to do the dirty work.  This is their first event ever for me and I’m not to happy about not being able to be there with them.  Please keep them in your prayers that they will be confident and quick thinking and that their cell phones will reach me quickly in the event of an emergency!  I’ll have someone post something tomorrow to let you all know how things went with my new HD eyes!