So, after wanting to do it pretty much my whole life, I finally got up the courage to start researching ptosis surgery. What's ptosis, you might ask? Well, it means that my left eye is all droopy and uneven with my right. I find it highly annoying because in pictures, it's all I see (even though some of my best friends have known me for literally years and never noticed). Recently, it's become more annoying because when I work on the computer all day long, it gets slooooooooooowly looooooooooower as the day goes on, and by the time I drive home, its really a mess.
So I started the process a few months ago and went to get a visual field test. It was kind of neat. They covered my right eye, and I looked into this machine with my left. Little flashes of light would occur and I had to push a button whenever I saw one. They did one round with my eye as it is, and one round with my lid taped up to mimic what my vision would be like if I had the surgery.
I have never been so happy to fail a test in my entire life...
Round One was with my eye as is. The red dots are the parts of a normal person's vision that I am missing. Round Two shows how I will see with the lid lifted. No wonder I've been having so much trouble!So needless to say after seeing the results, the ophthalmologist sent me for a surgery consultation. That was the appointment I had on Wednesday night. I went to the office and was thrilled to hear all about the procedure and how easy it is. They do it under local in a surgery center (I am terrified of general), you can drive the next day, there is very little pain and if you use ice, very little bruising, etc. Total results within a month to six weeks of healing. Plus he does all his work on the inside of the eyelid, so the only scar I will have is one stitch's worth.
While I was there, they took photos for insurance to prove that I will benefit from being corrected. They also ran a few tests to see how my eyes would react to the surgery. One of the tests was adding epinephrine dilating drops to my left eye. This basically overrides the "lazy" muscle and makes it work normally for a short amount of time — mimicking the effect that surgery would have. I was very excited about this because I have literally had the problem my whole life and have never seen myself "even."
So Dr. Abel put the drops in and we were chatting while we waited for them to work. He was telling me about his eight-year-old and two-year-old daughters, the eight year old with a currently broken arm and a birthday coming up....and all of a sudden I felt bad. Really really really bad. Woozy. Dizzy. Warm. Annnnnnnnnnnnd passing out.
Apparently I told him I wasn't feeling well before I went totally out because before I knew it I was reclined back in the chair with a bottle of water behind my neck and the lights off. Awesome. And of course since the drops only work for so long, I'm lying all the way back and they're showing me in a mirror what it looks like, and I'm excited despite being sweaty and pale as hell. (For the record I actually do get paler when I get peakish. I actually lose all color in my lips and don't have freckles. It's really weird.)
So after getting myself together but still not feeling well, I had them hand me my phone. Since Alex was in class, I called Mom who came right over to take me back to her place since I obviously wasn't going to drive all pass out prone and such. In the short time it took her to get there, even though I hadn't moved or sat up, I decided it might be fun to get woozy and pass out again. Sweet.
Needless to say I made an impression, and I don't think that office is going to forget me anytime soon. The good news is, they were very cool about it. And I am thrilled with all my news about being able to have surgery (and never having to have epinephrine eye drops ever again).
Looks like I'll be scheduled for surgery on Monday and then we'll find out insurance info. Very exciting.
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