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| Not the worst prescription, but not the best |
I'm doing it Friday which means I'm going to blow up my three day weekend, but it also means I get an extra day to recover before I have to stare at a computer screen at work. Having LASIK is going to require an extended period of time away from the barn and CrossFit, sigh. If I had planned better I would've done it over the winter, but hey, here we are.
I've stocked up on special sweatbands that divert sweat away from your eyes, goggles that keep dust out, sun hats (no sunscreen on my face for a while which is terrifying to me since I wear it year round!) and sun glasses. I'm going to take it easy and follow orders to a T, but I'm also going to do whatever it takes and buy whatever it takes and look as ridiculous as necessary to get back out there as soon as possible.
(Related: does anyone know what the definition of 'light exercise' is because running and CrossFit have totally blown up my level of effort calibration...)
So knowing I'm going to be out of commission next weekend, I used this past weekend to get stuff done around the house and horse:
Breaking sod to create this:
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| which got mulched the next day |
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| Things that are totally thriving: $5 clearance section roses from three years ago |
I also gave Connor a bath after a great ride on Sunday. I've been giving him one weekly bath with soap so far this year and I'm so happy with his coat condition. I've always been a soap minimalist, but I found one that's not super harsh, and weekly baths are really helping keep his mane/tail/feathers staining at bay:
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| Not super thrilled about it, but not enough of a bad boy to make his feelings known |
And finally, I scraped the paint off five out of six transom windows this weekend too. That concludes a project four years in the making that took several weekends in the end, but I couldn't be happier with the results. #6 is intentionally not getting scraped yet pending a couple of other projects.
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| Gorgeous wavy leaded glass with seed-like imperfections. No one has seen them in decades before now. <3 |
Anyone else have a productive weekend? Anyone have any thoughts on LASIK and horses and/or exercise?
i think you'll be back on the horse sooner than you think :P Lasik has pretty fast recovery. And you'll be super pleased with the results, just buy lots of single use eyedrop packets. Name brand. LOTS.
ReplyDeleteI know, but I also know myself, and I'm a terrible patient when it comes to recovery and eyes aren't anything to fuck with. This whole thing is just going to be easier for everyone if I plan on being out of the saddle for a couple weeks lol
DeleteHAHA okay, true. no riding. Not even in the super cool googles they give you.
DeleteThose transom windows look awesome!
ReplyDeleteThank you! I am so in love with them. Can't believe they were hidden for decades.
DeleteI had LASIK done a long time ago. Not sure if I was too young (early 20s), or law school/work but within 10 years I was back to a -3 prescription :( I hope you have better luck! Pretty much everyone else I know has been happy with the results. I don't remember how fast the recovery was, but I don't really recall any discomfort. The procedure is quick and painless but I have to warn you... the smell or singed flesh.... super gross!!!
ReplyDeleteGood to know! Yeah I've heard some people slowly drift back over time and of course everyone eventually needs readers. It's worth it to me to try though.
DeleteCongrats on the eyeballs! I can't do it because, uh, Rx is -9 now & my eyeballs are apparently all the wrong shape anyway, but I have several co-workers who have done it & been really happy with it. It doesn't stop age-related degeneration, so both have had to get reading glasses after a year or two, but that is still better than having to wear something all the time so you don't run into walls (i.e. me, LOL). Hope it all goes perfectly smoothly & you can enjoy your new in-focus world!
ReplyDeleteWhew, -9!! Wow! I'm -2.75 and they said I was an ideal candidate so fingers crossed. Darn aging, lol. Readers are fine, I can deal with that, but I've had to wear glasses 24/7 in prep for the surgery lately and it's seriously cramping my style! Can't wait to be done with them forever.
DeleteI think they say it's "light" if you can still easily talk while you're exercising? I should get some $1 hostas too, our front yard tree looks a little naked. Fingers crossed for a quick recovery!
ReplyDeleteThanks!
DeleteI had LASIK early one morning and was working on my computer that evening. They never gave me any restrictions on the barn or exercise, but said to limit driving in the dark for about a week. Best thing I ever did for myself!!
ReplyDeleteDang, my husband was a wimp lol! He only wanted to be in a dark room all weekend. I was told light exercise is okay, but no heavy lifting or high impact anything for two weeks. If it's shorter than that I'll be thrilled! I am supposed to go to the Indy 500 in a suite with Nick's work on Sunday and the eye doc said that will be fine as long as I wear sunglasses, so fingers crossed.
DeleteOh I'm so jealous. I want LASIK so badly. Sadly, my prescription changes way to often for me to be a candidate. The projects around here never end. My getting them done is a different story. I'm also jealous of how much you get done. We did get some downed trees chainsawed and then dumped out in the woods today, but I need to go back out to fix the fence they fell on.
ReplyDeleteWow, is that rare for it to change much? I've been within -0.25 of a number for most of my life.
DeleteCannot even imagine a farm's worth of projects after a long winter. All props to you!
My husband and I both got LASIK within the last 3 years -- his recovery was easier than mine because he was able to come home and sleep right after the procedure. I couldn't fall asleep, so the first 4 hours or so were rough. But I was back to normal routine (work, gym and riding) within 4 days. You'll see an IMMEDIATE improvement during the day, but you'll have moderate to sever "halos" around lights at night for about a week or two (those slowly get better over time, although I still have them a little bit).
ReplyDeleteInteresting! My procedure is midafternoon and I'm a terrible napper, so I'm considering either staying up late the night before, or taking something to knock me out when I get home. My husband had it last year and his recovery was slow - he was basically in the dark on the couch all weekend. Thanks for sharing, hearing everyone's stories is helpful!
DeleteI think everyone's recovery is highly individual! I had a really REALLY hard time with screens at 3 days out from my surgery. It took probably ~2 weeks to be better with them and my eyes do still get tired/dry more easily than they used to. Only marginally, but still. The best thing I did about screens was to buy and religiously wear those goofy blue light blocking glasses for computer work. $10 on Amazon and it made a huge difference in eyestrain.
ReplyDeleteMy biggest post-surgery problem was headaches from eye strain. It's apparently a very uncommon side effect but it was like my eyes were going WHOA WE CAN SEE?! and straining constantly with the adjustment. So I popped ibuprofen pretty regularly for about a week.
I was back at the barn within a few days but pretty neurotic about dust for a while afterwards. I did have one ride about a week back that was too early. Even what I judged to be a tiny amount of dust irritated my eyes and I backed way off.
Buy SO MANY DROPS and use them obsessively. My doctor told me the #1 reason for regression is letting eyes dry out. You want a wet/moist eye to keep healing going.
And finally night vision - mine is finally settling down, ~9 months later. That was my longest recovery. I had really bad haloes for a while and then this winter at 6 months out it started settling down. I still have them but I can easily ignore them.
Ping me with any questions - I've been REALLY happy with my decision to do it!
Ordered! Thanks for the recommendation. Amazon is getting a ton of my money lately, ha. Was it just the dust that irritated your eyes when you rode too early, or was it something else that bothered you? I've tentatively scheduled a week off (a week of trainer rides for C) and then my first ride back will be 9 days post-op. The night vision thing is worrisome to me, but I know everyone is different. I have to do a lot of night driving for work at times. Fingers crossed it all goes smoothly!
DeleteAlso - THANK YOU for such an in-depth response! Really helpful!
DeleteI felt like it was the dust and mayyyyybe the breeze just from trotting? My eyes just got that dry-eye-squint feeling. Like I wanted to put drops in to flush them out or moisten them but I was riding.
DeleteI described riding activities fairly carefully and completely to my doctor when we were discussing a return to normal activity and her biggest concern was the dust but followed closely by being hit or falling and dislodging the flap on my eye. So Tris swinging his head into me, or falling off, or anything that might bump my head and sort of squeeze/bounce my eyes. I suppose a good hard buck might also qualify. Kind of anytime you feel like your eyes might "bulge" from strain.
Trust me, you'll get hyper-aware of all the potential situations that might impact your eyes, you're going to realize SO MANY ways that your eyes are vulnerable that you never thought about before! I was so neurotic I didn't even turn my face into the shower spray for WEEKS. I rinsed my face by collecting water in my hands and verrrrrrrry gently splashing. And I had to rinse because my eyes were so gross and crusty from the drops in the morning, because basically anytime I woke up in the night I did more drops.
I did a lot of night driving pretty soon afterward. It was never that I couldn't see or couldn't drive, even when it was at its absolute worst. It was more like - light looked different? The worst for me was reflective light. So like a speed limit sign on the highway: at a certain distance out it sort of looked like there were ghostly white squares on either side of it. And it was kind of weird and distracting. And then it slowly got better and now it's like I can still see a bit of it if I look AT the square and think "something is not right" and then figure out what it is. But it's not like it was ever "oh God I can't possibly drive."
You should definitely blog about it - I did because there are basically no firsthand accounts of recovery from equestrians, and I wanted future people like me to be able to read something from a horseperson POV. The more narratives the better!
I've been waffling a lot on Lasik, I look forward to picking your brain about it! Also a great reminder to do it during the rainiest months lol
ReplyDelete