4/19/09 - Astigmatism Adjustment

So I had a really good day on Friday with my eyes....

I had my appointment with Dr. Rapoza for my astigmatism adjustment, which basically means that they adjust the stitches in my eye, so that the cornea is as spherical as possible.

I got to the appointment about 4 PM and unfortunately had to wait awhile as Dr. Rapoza had an emergency he needed to attend to - it was worth the wait. Dr. Rapoza first did an over-refraction on my eye and actually got my vision to about 20/40 or 20/35. My wife Caroline actually teared up as she saw me reading the small letters on the chart. I think this basically means that once the eye is completely healed and we can fit a contact lens to it, that I will see at least this well out of the eye.

Dr. Rapoza then put numbing drops in my eye and proceeded to measure the curvature of my eye with a device I had never seen before. He told me that my eye was 3 diopters (I may be getting some of the technical spellings of these terms wrong, but oh well...) off on the horizontal and 1 diopter off on the vertical. I guess to be perfectly spherical, you don't want to have any diopter difference. He took a pair of "tweezers" (there is probably a technical term, but they looked like tweezers) and adjusted the stitches in order to fix the diopter difference. He told me that his strategy was similar to a "stick in the mud", which is to say that he wanted to go 1 diopter too far and as the eye healed, it would come back to perfectly spherical (hopefully!). He was very happy with the adjustment and told me that if it is completely successful that I will not have any astigmatism and only have my near-sightedness (which we can deal with with a contact lens/glasses, etc.).

He gave me additional antiseptic drops that I need to take 4 times a day for 4 days (I should also continue to take my Pred Forte once a day) and told me that I could come back in 1 month. The next appointment I will hopefully get fitted for a contact lens! I am assuming at this point and I will be able to see out of the eye - very exciting!

My eye is still a bit scratchy 2 days later, but it really does not feel to bad. I have been taking Tylenol for comfort and I have been fine. I also went to a wedding last night and had a few drinks and also smoked a cigar with an old friend - that can't possibly be helping!

All in all, I am very excited about the progress and about the possibility of being able to see in 1 month! Thanks to everyone that have been posting comments - it is a journey that many of us are on, but I think it will be well worth it in the end!

1 comment:

  1. I hope everything's well now with your eyes, Brent. Like you, it bothers me to have astigmatism. That's why as soon as I noticed that my vision was blurry, I consulted the optometrists here in Indianapolis. I guess I'm lucky that my condition only requires me to wear glasses, but it also took me some time for me to get used to the feeling.

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