My Photography

As many of you know, amateur photography has long been a hobby of mine, even since high school. Granted, I studied photography before the dawn of digital cameras, but I appreciate the digital artistry as much as developing my own film.

Well, upon encouragement from my mother, I have decided to attempt to sell some of my photographs. I have amassed quite a collection from a couple trips to Europe in the last few years (six different countries!) and living in Colorado and Montana. There is a really excellent online marketplace called Etsy.com that allows independent artists to sell their work. I have created a profile on this site and the link appears below.

http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=7033132

Creating an online portfolio is time consuming, so right now there are only a few photos posted. At the very least check them out, and as my dear friends and relatives, I will give you a 50% discount. I also hope to print notecards in the future and set up a blog dedicated to my photography.




Much love,
Amy

one week after PRK

Well, compared to the last post, I am feeling exponentially better. I ended up having to stay home from work on tuesday because I was still seeing everything in double. I worked a half day wednesday and worked my first full day in a week yesterday. I am no longer in much pain, rather discomfort. My eyes are still really sensitive to light, so I have the pupil constriction drops with me all the time. My eyes itch quite a bit as well, but that is just a part of the healing. I have been frustrated by the slowness of the healing process. They warned me that it would be slow, and would take weeks, but I just assumed that it would not happen to me! Even a week into my recovery, my eyes are still worse than they were before I had the surgery. On tuesday, my right eye was 20/100 and my left eye was 20/80. I can see distances for the most part, but have trouble with reading. Distinguishing light from dark can be difficult too, I had a terrible time in the parking garage at DIA today! My mom is visiting Colorado this weekend, and I have to do the driving for us because she is afraid of driving "in the big city". Eventually I will be thankful that I had this surgery, but for right now, I am just trying to be patient.

Curiously, and I am not sure if this is even connected, drinking caffeine seems to help with my vision. Maybe because it is a vasodilator, not sure. But at any rate, it is a great excuse to keep buying lattes!

Day Three

Day Three is by far the worst I have experienced yet. I might describe the pain as and 8 or 9 out of 10 on the pain scale. I woke up in the night with my protective goggles on the floor, and I assume that I had been rubbing and scratching my eyes for hours before that. I have only found temporary relief with the so called "911" drops, of which are allowing me to type. The relief lasts only about 20 minutes. But my computer is the only connection I have to the outside world and I am feeling like a caged animal right now. Many thanks to my friends in Niwot for having me over for dinner and distraction last night. Right now I am glad that I live alone (well, kind of) because presently I have my right eye patched with gauze because it is the most sensitive and painful. I am also wearing my old prescription glasses because they help me see out of my left eye. The vision in that eye is bad, but I can at least sort of see things. Becuase any light at all is intolerable, I have pupil constriction drops. These do not seem to be working today. I have to frequently clench my eyes chut to avoid the burning pain. Because the light in the living room and bedroom is too much to handle, I have taken up residence in the bathtub. I put my thermarest and blankets and pillows in there with all my other comforts like ice water, snacks and my iPod. Once late afternoon rolls around, it is much easier to handle the light. I have already finished one and a half audio books while resting on the futon.

Two Days after surgery

Compared to how I have felt since last night and into today, the day of the surgery was a picnic. My eyes are burning so much that I can hardly keep them open. Even the glow from my phone is hard to bear. I could actually use the vicodin, but I am refusing to fill it because of the side effects. I am still taking the Acular and Zymar, but I added a steroid, Pred Forte, a pupil constricting drop and a strong anesthetic drop. I have been using the strong anesthetic drop frequently. The only way I am comfortable is to keep my eyes covered, blocking out all the light, and ice them. I have some audio books, but because of the neurontin, I fall asleep as soon as I lay down, so I actually have no idea what the books are about.

At the post op, the doctor said that my eyes are healing well, but that it will get worse for a day or two more before it gets better. My vision swims in and out of clarity, and I cannot focus on anything close-up. Looking at this computer is like plasma rays burning my eyes, even with the sunglasses, so I need to go back to sleep now.

Surgery Day

Not sure how clear this post will be, but I had the surgery this afternoon. For the first few hours, you have usable vision, then you are pretty much blind for a few days.

I got to the surgery center and after filling out all my consent paperwork, they started sedating me and putting about six different types of drops into my eyes. They were mostly antibiotic and anesthetic. As I was waiting in the pre-op area, dressed up in my hair net, shoe covers and smock (to avoid bringing in germs) I asked the nurse for another Valium because I was not sure the first kicked in. She laughed and said that it had taken effect and she wished that I could hear myself speak. Because of my body weight, anymore than what they already gave me would be dangerous. I have never taken Valium before, but the effect is similar to nitrous oxide. You are aware of what is going on, feel like you are a part of it (you actually are not) and do not really care what happens. After all these drops, my eyes were sufficiently numb and I could not keep them open. The most unusual thing about these drops is that they get into your tear ducts, then flow into your sinuses and irritate your throat. The nurse used betadine to cleanse my eyelids and all away around my eyes. I would have liked to have seen that (betadine is a horrible yellow color) but they would not let me. I had to keep them closed.

They took me into the surgical suite and into a reclining chair. The chair had a headpiece that would not allow me to move my head. Totally necessary if there is a laser involved. Wouldn't want to slip! I was surprised at the number of people present for this surgery. Dr. A, a tech that ran the machine and two nurses. When the chair rolls under the machine, you look up at a flashing red light. At this point, they bandaged one of my eyes and put this horrible suction device around my eye. I wanted nothing more than to clench my eyes shut. No pain, just unbelievable pressure. There were more drops and rinsing of the eye with cold fluids. Horribly uncomfortable. Dr. A used some sort of tool to scrape off my top epilethial cells, then more rinsing.

The laser itself came after this, which was surprisingly loud. I had to keep focused on the blinking red light, which at this point looked like I was being sucked into a vortex from a cheap science fiction movie. Lots of flashing lights, looking down a tunnel. The worst part of this experience was smelling the tissue burn. I used my years of yoga and meditation to breathe and send myself somewhere else. Then it was onto eye number two. Not quite as bad because I sort of knew what was coming. I guess the valium really did kick-in because I laid there, rigid on the operating table and did not really care that I was smelling my cornea being cauterized. Funny. Both eyes got protective contact lenses and now I get to wear really HOT goggles. I have to sleep in them for a week.

Nicole took me Qdoba for dinner, then home where I crashed. I cannot tolerate light, so I am sitting in my dark condo wearing my sunglasses with my screen resolution as low as possible. I am not in pain yet, although I can feel it beginning. The anesthesia is wearing off. I am hoping I can make it through the night without any pain pills. There is always an eye surgeon on 24 hour call on surgery days, so if I have an issue, they can take care of it.

My eyes are really swollen right now, but I have been given steroid drops, Pred Forte, to keep that in check. I hope that my night will go okay and I am headed to bed to rest my eyes.