LASIK EYE SURGERY!

This past Wed. Feb. 11th Ralph had Lasik surgery done on his left eye. Dr. Parkhurst performed the surgery.

Here is Veronica (L) and Jenni (R) with Ralph. They gave him a "HAPPY PILL" and put this nice fashionable hat on him. They asked him what kind of music he wanted to listen to during his surgery, of course he said Traditional Country. The staff here is very attentive and best of all the office has a nice Keurig Coffee Machine, chips, granola bars, candy and other goodies for us!

I could not resist, I had to take a "Selfie". Oh yes, I think the Happy Pill is starting to kick in.

Soon they called Ralph and I gave him a kiss. I knew he was in good hands and so did he. I grabbed a cup of coffee and sat down on this big comfy chair. I had a front row seat to watch the surgery. The wall between me and the surgical room had a floor to ceiling glass wall. They had Ralph lay on the table and put on a nice warm blanket over him. I could see Ralph on the table but I needed to look up at the big screen TV to see the actual procedure. Now all I needed was a box of popcorn!

Before he went in, I asked the surgery staff if the Doctor had a lens that when Ralph looks at me I would look about 30 lbs. lighter. Although Lasik surgery has come a long way, they haven't come that far. So for now I will keep on with Weight Watcher's.

Ralph asked Dr. Parkhurst if he would guarantee that his surgery would make him shoot better. Dr. Parkhurst is good, but not that good. Over the years Ralph has been blaming his eye sight on all his misses, of course I always knew it was operator error.

I was just amazed at what I saw. Now I don't know all the medical terms and the name of all the eye parts, but I will do my best to explain the procedure. An apparatus came on down to Ralph's face and these clamps pull back the upper and lower eye lids. Another gizmo comes down close to the eye and the next thing I saw was this other instrument cut around the lens but not all the way. A hinge is left and then the clear looking lens that was covering the eye gets lifted and peeled back. Dr. Parkhurst lifted the flap back, did some stuff and returned the flap back over the eye and smoothed it out with this tool. The tool looked like a thin "L" shape metal tooth pick squeegee is how I would describe it. He smoothed it over sort of like how you would do wall paper trying to get all the air bubbles and wrinkles out.

Before I was even close to finishing my coffee, Ralph was done! They put goggles on him and he will wear them for the first 24 hours and also to bed for the next 7 days. I felt like I was with a "Super Hero", now all I need is for him to wear a cape.

He also had to keep his eyes shut for the next 4 hours. So of course I drove home and it was already dark since our appt. was at 5:30 p.m. But I had "Gertie" our GPS to take us home so I was good to go.

I had Ralph lay the front seat down and made sure there was no peeking at the heavy traffic and let him know that I would be fine. We were at the tail end of the San Antonio rush hour. Don't get me wrong, we like San Antonio, but we have purchased a Dash Cam because of the erratic drivers here. This is a big city of 1,500,000 and the highway system in massive. It reminds me of a big giant spider web.

We arrived at the ranch and I took Ralph's hand as we walked to the RV, I still made him keep his eyes shut. One thing Ralph does is listen to Dr. orders all the time and mine some of the time.

I fixed some easy left overs because it was so late. He was good and kept his eyes shut as he ate. As much as I love him, why is it that I like to torment him? Over our  25 years together I have played some good practical jokes on him. As I sat across from him I kept thinking, wow, I could sprinkle hot habenero sauce on his chicken or pour vinegar in his water.

After dinner he relaxed in his recliner and listened to some TV with the lights out because of the sensitivity. For the rest of the evening, I would put two different RX eye drops in his eyes every couple of hours. He soon went up to bed but I stayed up since his next dosage would be at 11:30 p.m.

I went up to wake him up at 11:30 p.m. Now Ralph never snores, but he sounded like a freight train! I said his name several times, each time getting louder and louder. Finally I started shaking him and nothing, he just kept on snoring!

Well I saw his chest rising and his color was good and I could see he was in "La La Land". I thought the Happy Pill must have kicked in big time. I was worried that if I woke him up, maybe he would start feeling the pain they told him to expect for the first night. So I let him sleep.

He woke up the following morning at 8:00 p.m! He was feeling good after a restful night sleep. I put drops in his eyes several times during the day and I kinda liked how my "Super Hero" looked in his goggles. Unfortunately he wouldn't wear the towel I brought over to him to wear as a cape.

That afternoon we went to Dr. Medina's office for his check up. He is affiliated with Dr. Parkhurst and has an office in another part of San Antonio. Dr. Medina has been Ralph's eye doctor while we have been "wintering" here in San Antonio these past several years. He was happy with the results and tested Ralph. Ralph read all the letters on the eye chart and Dr. Medina had me stand behind Ralph so I could see the small print that Ralph was reading. Dr. Medina said he has 20-15 vision and it will even get better as time goes on.

I said maybe he will even get X-Ray vision!

Next week we go back to Dr. Medina for his 1 week follow up.

Until then.............Happy Trails!