I'm Getting New Eyes Tomorrow

... Well, kind of.

I suffer from a hereditary disease known as Karatoconus. What it basically means is that instead of my eyeballs staying round like most people's, my eyes are coning and becoming more the shape of a football. If you want to know more about it click here for the Wikipedia entry about it.

This is a degenerative disease meaning that it's just going to continue to get worse as time goes on. I already wear glasses (although barely), but as my eyes change shape the prescription needs to also change. While there is no full cure for Karatoconus they have come up with a procedure that can help stop it from worsening.

I'm getting this procedure done tomorrow morning.

Before I go any further, I need to tell you that stuff pertaining to my eyeballs really freaks me out. I've never been able to do eye-drops without someone (like a nurse in the eye doctors office) holding my eyes open and lots of nervous eye twitching. Also, I've never even looked into contacts (even though I was told to numerous times) because the idea of touching my eyeball creeps me right out.

So this is how the procedure I'm getting tomorrow goes:
They prop my eyes open with some sort of machine that in my head I picture as looking like the things they use to hold Malcom McDowell's eye's open when he's getting brainwashed in A Clockwork Orange. They then put these special drops in my eyes for 30 frigin' minutes straight. These drops are all fancy chemicals I don't know anything about, but the main active ingredient in them is riboflavin. Yes, riboflavin like in your morning cereal. After the 30 mins of drops, I then have to expose my eye to a special UV light for another 30 mins. Then we repeat the procedure for the other eye because they can't do both at once for some god awful reason.

What this will do is harden the linkages of my corneas so they stop changing shape. It's not going to fix my eye sight, but it will help to stop it from getting worse. There is also a slight chance (and I'm hoping this happens) that when my eyeballs harden they will slightly retract a bit too, making my eyesight slightly better. Also, 6 months down the road there are some other things I can look into to help improve my site, but not laser surgery. Apparently laser surgery weakens/thins your corneas meaning it would just reverse what I'm having done tomorrow.

I've been ok and even semi-excited about the whole thing for a while. Until last night. I was reading about what could happen after the procedure is done, and now I'm a little freaked. First, I'm going to have to use drops while my eyes heal. Not looking forward to that at all. Also, they said some people will experience blurry vision for the first week or so, but some may experience it for a few months. I'm really hoping I'm the first week type of person.

I don't think any long term harm can come from having this procedure done, but it's still freaking me out. I mean, these are my eyes!! Hopefully though this will prevent me from needing full corneal transplants later in life.

Anyways, I'm freaked, but excited at the same time.

Wish me luck.

Now, here's a song (kinda) about eyes that I haven't heard in a while: