Preparations

I wanted to be crazy prepared for this surgery. I had read about experiences where people could not do anything in the light. I live alone so going to grab something at the pharmacy was pretty much out -- I needed to get anything I could need prior to the surgery. I drove my team nuts with my questions and concerns on what I had read on the web. They were right, I didn't need to be nearly as nervous as I was

Vitamins: I read up that fish oil and vitamins were key. Seems like it's best to start taking those 2 weeks prior to surgery. I ended up moving my surgery up a week so I was on them for 4 days prior to surgery then continued to take them after the surgery to help with the healing. I took fish oils, vitamin C & a standard multi-vitamin. Of course there is no way to be sure if they helped but my recovery was fairly easy :)

Eye drops: My internet research said Systane Ultra and my eye doctor confirmed that. He said they are best as they form a gel layer on the eye versus others that can be blinked or run out of the eye doing minimal good. You must get the individually packaged vials for the first month. I learned that too late and have lots of bottles now too. My doctor told me on the day of surgery that I could use a vial for up to 24 hours. I had assumed one vial per hour, that significantly cut down on the vials I used. Bummer that I had bought a ton already and couldn't return. Oh well. I ended up using about 70 individual vials across the first month. I stashed them everywhere -- at work, in the car, on my nightstand, in my purse. Always had a vial ready to go!

Food: I was not sure if I'd be able to cook so I prepped lunch and dinner for the first five days prior to surgery. Super convenient to have, if I had someone around to help me out this wouldn't have been necessary. Since I was flying solo for much of my recovery I'm glad I did it. Further OCD led me to make salmon for one meal a day. Can't have enough omega 3s!

Pain killers: I was legitimately nervous about the pain. So many reviews said they had pain that was rather consistent. My eye doctor suggested alternating ibuprofen with acetaminophen if I did get pain. Sadly this was after I had bought Aleve so I ended up with a ton of pain meds. I think I took a total of less than 15 pain pills across the entire recovery. Oops! Also, I saw people recommended sleeping pills so I got those. I didn't use them. The only night that I wanted to use them was the first night and I was on Valium so I couldn't. Again, I find myself stuck with pills that will likely expire before I use them. 🙄