Pre-Op Appointment

Today was the day I've been nervous about. Meeting Dr Herzig, having my final measurements taken, and hoping that their measurements matched the ones I got done in FL, and that the lenses they ordered were correct. After a bit of a wait (we were late as we did not expect so much traffic, so I don't blame them for the wait),  I was taken into a room where a technician used two different machines to take images of my eyes. Next, he took me into another room with 2 more machines for additional measurements. I was then led to another waiting room. There, I got to chatting with some of the other people waiting, all of them seemed to be there for cataract surgery. They were surprised to find out that I came from FL to have this surgery, so I got to explaining a bit about the FDA hold up and all of that. We had a nice chat about FL and Orlando in particular, as the gentleman had been there recently on a business trip. Eventually, I was called back to meet with the Optometrist who did a standard eye exam to check my vision and finalize my prescription. She confirmed that the astigmatism in my L eye wasn't high enough to warrant a Toric, but that Dr H may do a procedure where he makes an incision in the cornea which can eliminate the astigmatism (this is the same procedure the Dr in FL was planning to do). She also made sure to mention that their hope is to get me seeing as well with the ICL as I do with glasses, and to not expect to see better than that. She said that it does happen, but that should never be the expectation. That was a bit disappointing to hear, as so many of the blogs I read, even of people with a higher Rx than mine, reported seeing much better after ICL. As it is I am only corrected to 20/25 with glasses. But truthfully, if that's the best I ever see, I'm still happy to have peripheral vision and to not have the safety issues I have had with having to wear glasses all the time.

 I went back to the 2nd waiting room for a bit (where there was coffee and cookies) , and eventually was called back to see Dr Herzig. He did his own vision screening and then we talked a bit about the surgery. At first he said that he saw I was getting Toric lenses in both eyes, and that he thought that was good considering i do have astigmatism in both. I said that I was told that I would only be getting Toric in the right eye, at which point he checked my chart and confirmed that, since my left eye was only showing a +0.5 astigmatism, that he could not correct that with a Toric since they only come in +0.7 5 and up. He checked my vision again and  confirmed that prescription was correct, and therefore I wouldn't be getting a Toric in that eye. He said that I wouldn't be able to notice it unless i closed my right eye and compared the two, then my vision in the right would be slightly better, but that together they should be fine.  I asked about the procedure that the Optometrist mentioned, but he said that in young corneas (and he considers mine young) , they are so elastic that they often go right back to where they were, and therefore he doesn't do that in people my age. In the end he said he felt confident that  the lenses they have are the right ones for me , and that he was ready to proceed with the scheduled surgery for tomorrow. I left excited but the whole feeling was so surreal. I tend to think of all possible scenarios and expect the worst, so i was pleasantly surprised and it hadn't really sunk in yet that I would be having surgery early the next morning! Before leaving,  I was called back to see one more technician. She went over the cost of the procedure, and provided me with eye drops (Vigamox) to use every 2 hours that day. (Normally these would be started 2 days before surgery every 4 hours, but since I was getting them only one day before, they had me use them every 2 hours) . We left the appointment, spent some time walking around the city, and then headed to check in to our Air bnb condo.