I guess my years of wearing contacts for months without taking them out paid off, or maybe it was hanging out at the pool instead of inside sleeping.  Either way I was 60% healed by day 2 which they said was amazing.

I never took any ambien and I just took normal aspirin instead of the lortab.

They said I would get worse before I got better so I spent all day of day 2 in bed.

Day 3 I was back in the pool.  Same with day 4.  Vision was fuzzy and I didn’t have my laptop.

Day 5 they took the bandage contact out and told me to stop the neurontin.  Vision was good enough to drive, but when I tried to use my computer it just drove my eyes crazy.  Apparently my vision is legal to drive.  It makes me really wonder about others on the road because I don’t feel comfortable enough with my vision to drive anywhere I don’t know.  You know what that meant?  I didn’t drive anywhere I didn’t know (until I had to go back to work).

Day 6 I had to do some phone training and boy did my eyes drive my crazy, but my old pinhole glasses helped a lot.  I also flew on 2 flights without issue with my eyes, but not without mechanical delays.

My vision isn’t 20/20 yet, but it’s better than it was before surgery!  PRK has around a 2 month healing process so my vision may be hazy until then since I have to regrow my epithelium.

I have to use preservative free artificial tears for a while, but considering how much dry eye I lived with in the past I’m sure I’ll be fine.  So far I don’t regret my decision at all.

My appointment was scheduled for 10:20 am.  Since I needed a driver I went over to my friend’s house and we went to the office together.

I got called back, took some ativan or valium and they proceeded to verify my prescription hadn’t changed and reviewed my medications with me.

Medications

• Vigamox drops
• Lotemax drops
• Neurontin for pain
• lortab for pain
• ambien for sleeping
• vitamin C
• Systane Ultra preservative-free drops

Since this is me we’re talking about, I already had all the medications scheduled into my phone in an app called AnyTimer which was one of the few free pill apps that allowed multiple schedules.

I knew the gist of the procedure.  Use a tooth brush to dissolve the epithelium of the cornea, scrape it off, and laser my eye to vision perfection.  Many blogs stated they didn’t feel anything from their benzo, but I sure felt calm during the whole thing.  I also just kept reminding myself less than 5 minutes to perfect visions.

I went to my friend’s house and hung out at the pool for a few hours.

I have worn glasses since 3rd grade and contacts since 7th.  I started on contacts worn for a year and that lasted until college when I changed to Acuvue2s.  I wore Acvue2 contacts until I started my travel job.  Even though they are designed for dry eyes and I didn’t sleep in them I had horrible issues with dryness on long flights.  That led me to Acuvue Oasys which I used up until the surgery.  I was pretty happy with them.  I would sleep in them, wear the same pair for over a month, and still had little issues with discomfort and dryness, but red eye flights became frequent and even the oasys became uncomfortable.

Other contributing factors: although contact solution is exempt from 3-1-1 since it’s a medical liquid, that doesn’t mean TSA won’t stop you to test the liquid.  I prefer to get through the check point as quickly as possible so I chose to stick with contact solution bottles under 3.4 fl oz.  Of course contact solution manufacturers like to package in 2 fl oz and 4 fl oz packages.  Renu was always uncomfortable so I had to buy Alcon Lasting Comfort. I’d run out of this stuff often and would constantly spend $3 for a new bottle.  Of course this was my choice to stick with small bottles.

I wanted laser vision correction for a while, but wasn’t sure where to go, how to pay, or when to do it.  Then on of my acquaintances got Lasik in one eye and PRK in the other and was quite happy with her experience so I finally took the plunge.  I found out that everyone I know in Charlotte went to Providence Eye and Laser so it made the “where” question quite easy.  I decided to call right away and just get it over with.  Since my open enrollment is in December and I didn’t have anything in my FSA this year I financed with CareCredit for 18 months at 0%.  I could have paid with visa or mastercard and gotten points, but I didn’t want to pay interest.

Everything was set up, I started taking my vitamin C and antibiotic drops and headed in for the procedure.

Today is the day of my PRK surgery.  That means I’ll not touch my computer for a few days, but afterward I’ll do a full write up.

I have my first post-PRK flight scheduled for Wednesday so we’ll see how that goes.  It’s a short hop CLT-ATL-MCO.

Today my coworker complained about a guy in the airport playing solitaire with the volume on.  She could hear every time he shuffled and did various other motions during the game.  The sounds for the most part are not necessary and could easily be muted.  I leave my laptop on mute unless I am listening to something.  If everyone else did this I wouldn’t get the constant chorus of the windows logon and logoff sounds.

So unless you are listening with headphones please try to mute your laptop.

The pilot test is based on U.S. customs programs and initially will be available only to certain participants in the customs program and a limited number of air travelers. Those include certain frequent fliers on two airlines — American and Delta — flying out of certain airports. Delta passengers must be flying out of Atlanta and Detroit airports, and American Airlines passengers must be flying out of Miami and Dallas airports.

http://www.cnn.com/2011/TRAVEL/07/14/tsa.trusted.traveler/index.html?hpt=hp_t2

This doesn’t affect me yet.  I am a Delta frequent flyer, but I have only been through security in DTW 4 times…and 2 were in the non-Delta terminal.  Will I sign up for such a program?  I have to feel that the amount of personal information I divulge is worth the expediency.  The current CLEAR program requires a good bit of personal and biometric information and only confers advantages in a few airports.  I do currently fly through MCO often, but not often enough to pay the money for that program.  I also don’t have a NEXUS or Global Entry ID because I don’t travel internationally enough to justify the application process and fee.  Periodically I’ll go to Canada several times in a few months, then I won’t go again for over a year.

For me to buy in to any of these programs:

1. Has to be available in Charlotte (my home airport)
2. Has to be available in a few airports I frequent for work although these change every 6 months
3. The cost has to be worth my time (which goes back to 1 and 2)
4. I have to actually perceive a time/privacy saving.  The current Clear program just eliminates the line before the ID checker, at most airports you get dumped in the same line for the X Ray as everyone else.  You still have to take out your laptop and take off your shoes.  If the TSA’s program just cuts me to the front of the ID checking line then I don’t see much time savings to that most of the time.  I often wait longer to get through the X Ray than I do to get my ID checked since I can use frequent flyer lines to cut the queue to the ID checker.

Of course the flying public notices TSA more during busy travel seasons including the holidays, spring break, and summer vacation time.  Last year during the holiday travel season of course interest in TSA and disgust of their practices escalated to one of the highest points thanks to the naked scanners and enhanced pat-downs.

Of course this died down almost instantaneously after the new year, but now that it’s summer travel season the buzz seems to be a lot quieter than previous years and policies haven’t changed much since the holidays.

Legislators have made news about TSA, but the flying public makes news much less frequently.  Last week there was that horrible story about the elderly lady who was manhandled, but those stories are a little too few and far between considering the volume of passengers and the lack of change in TSA policies.

So do we just not care?  As the proverbial frog in boiling water have we adjusted to this temperature for the time being and it will take more changes to get us riled up again?

Even the Flyertalk forum on travel safety and security is relatively quiet.