Day 9 - Almost normal

Friday, 24 July 2009
Today has been the closest day to normal in over a week. My left eye continues to improve in visual clarity and acuity. My vision on the left is steadily sharpening. A visit to the doctor this morning revealed that the epithelium over the left eye is 95% healed.

My right eye has also made significant improvements. It is lagging about 2 days behind the right eye. This means that today has seen the elimination of double imagery. This is a very happy development. Whereas all vision on the right--far and near-sighted--has been split into 2 or 4 images throughout the week, today's near-sighted vision has been clear and convergent to a single image. This has allowed me to sit down at the computer for the first extended stretch since my surgery. I am very relieved, because this means that I can effectively work come Monday morning. While not clear, my right eye has progressed from being a victim of double-imagery to merely blurry. Blurry is ok. Blurry I have experience with now.

At this morning's post-op visit (which I drove to), the optomotrist explained why my right eye was taking longer than my left eye to heal. My left eye was near-sighted to about -4 diopters with an astigmatism. My right eye was near-sighted to about -6 diopters. So while the laser penetrated deeper into my left cornea to correct the astigmatism, it didn't do as much total work as on my right eye. The doctor explained that because my right eye was about 50% more near-sighted than my left, the laser worked more and reshaped about 50% more of my right cornea. So the wound to my right eye was greater than than to my left eye, and the resulting healing process is taking longer. He also explained that the reason that my right eye still feels irritable (slight burning and scratchiness) is because the epithelium has not yet finished regenerating. There is still a faint healing line cutting down the center of my pupil. As the epithelium finishes regrowing, and the eye polishes it through blinking, the regenerated cell layer will smooth out into a clear refractive surface.

I am hoping that my right eye's vision will fully clear up tomorrow and allow me to see equally well with both eyes this weekend. Regardless of whether this ends up happening tomorrow or Sunday, my vision will finally be corrected and clear by Monday morning.