I had eye surgery (not LASIX)
After twenty-nine years of living with intermittent strabismus, and starting to notice things like headaches, trouble concentrating, and even losing peripheral vision in that eye (basically, whenever it drifted, it stopped seeing), I decided to finally do something about it.
Let me explain.
The first thing I did after deciding to have surgery was the single worst move any sane person could make: I looked up videos of the procedure. Good thing "sane" isn't exactly a word I'd use for myself, because 1) it's stomach-churning, and 2) it actually pushed me to go through with it. How? No idea. I think it's just my need to understand how everything in this life works... however grim the details might be.
After that, I started seeing the doctors to get a diagnosis and get the ball rolling. All routine on that front: the usual eye tests you get when updating your glasses prescription, plus a few extras. Then they scheduled a second check-up and a pre-op appointment.
The surgery itself was quick, around an hour. General anaesthesia, a little nap, and then I woke up in a recovery bay. Once I felt steady, they sent me on my way and I headed home.
"How exactly do they fix strabismus?" you might be wondering. Well, the eye has a muscle on each side, top and bottom.
Fixing strabismus (in my case, intermittent exotropia) means trimming a small piece of the side muscles so the eye stops wandering off whenever it feels like it. My deviation was pretty severe, around 55 degrees, so they trimmed roughly 7 millimetres.
It's been twenty-four hours since the surgery as I write this (well, closer to thirty), and honestly, I feel fine. A little tired, sure, but nothing serious. I need to rest for a couple of weeks to fully recover, since there's some discomfort afterward, mainly a gritty, sandy feeling in the eye.
So, would I recommend the surgery to others with my condition? Right now I'd say absolutely. Eye surgery can be terrifying, and I'm as squeamish as they come, but honestly, it's well worth it.
Cheers, and may nothing in life ever change your point of view! (pun very much intended)