Day 0 -- Surgery Day!

Heading over to the surgery was buzzing iwth excitement and a healthy degree of fear. I could take the easy way out and do LASIK so I was nervous doing PRK. It seems people agree it's long term better but I had read so many scary things about it. So grateful to have an awesome team at TLC. The doctor was so nice, we bonded on being from the same zone of New York State. So after the pre-check items, they put me in a zen room for a few minutes to wait for my turn in the surgery room and to take my Valium. I've never taken Valium so I didn't know what to expect, the staff in the surgery room were super welcoming, I was still a bit jittery with nerves. As I laid down on the table I started to wonder if the Valium was actually doing anything for me. I ended up being aware the whole time so I just had to be brave. Squeezing the hell out of the soft stars they gave me. The doctor gave me the play by play and instructions to stare at the green light. it was helpful to know what was happening since I could see what they were doing (man did I wish I could just close my eyes and go to a happy place ... but that wouldn't work 😝). I got a countdown of 30 seconds on the drops for my epithelium then I could see him removing that which was freaky. 9 seconds laser. The cold rinse was fine, no brain freeze for me. Repeat on the second eye with 10 seconds on the laser this time. At times it was hard to focus on the green light, I kept getting distracted with all that was happening/trying not to freak out. The doctor held my face which also was calming to know he was right there. I can't say it enough, my team was AWESOME! I could see immediately. I started to bawl partially in happiness, partially from the emotional release. I was pretending to be brave but it was scary. Then as I drove home my eyes struggled to stay awake more & more. I thought that meant I'd fall right asleep. NOPE. I took the second Valium when I got home. Nothing. 30 min later nothing so I took the third. The numbing drops were wearing off and I was in a ton of pain. Couldn't take any sleeping pills bc I was on Valium so I just laid in the dark suffering. {Learned afterwards, DO NOT mix Valium and sleeping pills, apparently you can die from that mixture -- yikes!} Even Friends (one of the greatest TV shows of all time, full stop) wasn't funny -- I was so consumed by the eye pain. They had warned me, you don't want to me be awake when the drops wear off. Truth. My eyes watered a ton and I had to be careful not to touch them when blotting that up.  After 2.5 hours of the pain I called the emergency hotline about taking ibuprofen. Got the ok and my life was changed. Within 30 min I was asleep. Woke up 3 hours later. Glorious! I did have sensitivity to light. The light coming through my blinds was a bit much, forget about when I walked to the bathroom/kitchen. I literally covered my eyes to protect them (thankfully I did not walk into walls but it was a risk I was willing to take). I put in drops before taking ibuprofen and then did again before I went to sleep again. I was much more comfortable so rested in the dark for a bit and naturally fell asleep again. Day 0 done!