Good news!

Had my 1 week followup today. Got a clean bill of eye health, and the vision test was kinda surprising... I tested at 20/15, which means that someone with "perfect vision" would have to be at 15 feet away to have the resolution that I have from 20 feet. I think I could have got the 20/10 line even, but I am still way better than expectations!

Saturday was a busy day...

Well.

First I apologise for posting an update about Saturday on Monday. I didn't want to upset anyone by posting in a timely manner. Just deal with it, OK?? :P

My first followup appointment with my local eye doctor went well, My vision was about 20/30, wich is good for 3 days after surgery. My epithelium is almost (99%) healed, just one little spot left. I am now off of almost all of my medicated eye drops, but it still burns a little. I was supposed to have the doc take out my bandage contact lens, too, but he couldn't do that, cause it had fallen out overnight. And I thought it was just that I had adjusted to the thing finally. Oops. :)

Then after I got back from the eye doc's, I got a call from the RCMP, they wanted to book my first interview. March 7th! It will be a retired RCMP officer who does the interview, who works on contract, so the operational officers are left to do operational duties. They used to also have retired members do the background inquiries, too, but that process was returned to regular officers a little while ago. This will be the first interview, I have to go to the Calgary headquarters building for it, "Southern Alberta District" they now call it. M'eh. Calgary Subdivision was just fine, thanks. The second interview will be the polygraph, and that will be booked sometime after I pass the first interview. This one is about suitability and selection, the polygraph is about security and reliability.

I love the smell of deep-fried eyeballs in the morning...

... It smells like mounties!

Tuesday was the pre-op appointment. I went in with a tech for some measurements: first a corneal map, then a wavefront analysis, then they tried for an ultrasound measurement of my corneal thickness. Tried. The way that works is they stick a probe that looks like the end of a pen onto the surface of the eye then get a reading. it didn't work. twice. It sucked. Fortunately I didn't really need that test since I only had a very small amount of correction, which means a very small amount of cornea to remove, i.e.thickness was not a factor. Thank god. Then it was off for the dialation, so I got to sit and wait for it to kick in for a bit, not too long, they use a faster acting solution than my local optometrist does, and then a doctor (opthamologist I think) got to have a go at me. The usual routine, like every time you go for a checkup, "better 1 or 2?" lights, depth perception, all that stuff. In all it took a little under 2 hours, and then we were done.

I had the surgery wednesday... I had a hell of a time sleeping, partly from nerves, partly because the couple in the apartment above me were celebrating valentines day... Got up early and had breakfast, then my Dad drove over and picked me up for the drive down. The weather was a little skosh, but not that bad. It's winter in Canada, what did you expect? I showed up 40 minutes early at the clinic and checked in, they went through the medication that I have to take with me, and gave me a name tag to put on my right side of my chest. Double patients put theirs in the middle, but mine is only for the right eye, so mine goes on the right. One less way to screw up. First thing was the meeting with the surgeon, then back out to wait some more. I got led into the room after a while, sat down in a supersized version of a dentist's chair and they tipped me back, then tracked the seat over laterally to sit under a special microscope. I chatted with the nurses/physician's assistants/techs/whatever they were for 10 minutes or so, then the surgeon came in and it was time to get to work. She put an eyelid retractor thing on my eye, she called it a speculum, I called it a car jack; then they put a few different types of drops in to freeze the eye. Then they put some sort of, um, puck over my eye, I'm not sure what it was, then it was time for the Laser. I stared at the red and green lights, and then the unit powered up and then when it was emiting it made a snapping, arcing sound... kinda like a clicking noise I could smell the eyeball burning away.... not really burning, because it's a cold laser, but there was a smell of burnt hair coming from my eye. 14.7 seconds later, it's over. The puck was removed and a couple of more drops went in, then a bandage contact lens, the car jack came out, and then I was done. They sat me up and then out into the waiting room and I got to sit in a very nice lazy boy for a bit, and a bottle of custom labeled "gimbel water" while they waited to see how bad I was in shock (I was, but not bad at all - you wouldn't think something like this would affect the whole body, but it does put you a little bit into shock) I had gotten myself pretty stressed and worked myself up with the whole thing (hey, it's my eyes! You are gonna cook the front of em while I'm still trying to use them!!!) I had taken a sedative pill that morning and they gave me stress balls to squeeze, but the ease of the procedure was almost a let down. I got my sunglasses on, went downstairs to the pharmacy to get my collection of eye drops and Tylenol-3's and then we were on the way home. I have a collection of eyedrops of every description - there is a steroid, an antibiotic, a kind with ASA (Asprin) in it, and 3 kinds of artificial tears. I have to use this special kind that is preservative free every 15 minutes, a gel kind for sleeping, and then the plain old OTC ones for after I have the bandage lens out. When I'm sleeping I have to use the gel drops, and then tape a plastic sheild over the eye so I don't pop out the contact accidently. Only until Saturday, fortunately.

On Thursday we were back down in Calgary again, this time for the followup visit. I got another visual acuity test - this time it was 20/30 in that eye, much better than usual for 24 hours after surgery, or so they told me. Then I just hook up a garden hose to my eye full of eye drops...

On Saturday I have an appointment to get my bandage lens out, but not in Calgary, only with my regular eye doctor.

I have been seeing my vision fluctuate since the surgery. Fuzzy - clear - fuzzy - clear. It is supposed to take about 6 weeks to stabilize fully. I can start going to the gym any time, I just have to wear a sweat band, and I have to be careful how I wash my face in the shower - can't get soap in it. I should be able to drive again, too, once my bandage lens comes out. I'm off work until next Friday to recover and then I have to wear safety glasses to help protect the eye while I'm at work.

On the way!

I am a few minutes away from leaving for Calgary to see the eye surgeon. My surgery is tomorrow, and I have to get another dialated assesment, so my pupils will be the size of a hubcap, and they are going to do a corneal mapping and wavefront analysis. Click here! I won't be able to get onto the computer for a couple of days, the docs say that I can't read, watch TV or use the computer tomorrow. So I'm posting today in advance. I'll give a full play by play when I get back on the computer later this week. Until then... :)

I got some of my application back from the mounties the other day. I did not fill out the security clearance form to their satisfaction. I neglected to put the street address on for an employer and a camp in a town (Norman Wells NWT) where nobody uses addresses and similar type of things. I called the Norman Wells detachment and asked them for the addresses I needed. Of course they were happy to help out, but when they looked them up on the computer (they just know where the locations are, why worry about addresses??) the stupid thing started to chug and took forever to come up with an answer. The Constable I talked to told me that when you press the enter key, the query and response travel by dogsled! Hey, it's a government computer, why should they be fast either? Two typed pages and then it was back in the mail. It is going to be three more months before it is actually looked at with serious intent - I have that time line form the recuiting branch Constable I talked to the other day. Once I have my laser surgery next week I am officially on hold for three months, not counting the interviews.

I also got a letter from them at the same time saying I had advanced to the interview stage. I now have to get ready for the structured interviews sometime in the not too distant future. The preparation is pretty severe in itself, Those and the polygraph will get done in the time that I am on hold.


I also stopped by the detachment here in town and got the name of the Emergency Response Team (SWAT) commander, so I can ask him for the physical training standards that they have to meet - why just meet the basic requirements for Depot, when you can blow them out of the water?