New Eyeballs

"Lyndee" and "risky" are not synonymous. I don't like to push limits. I tend to be more of a "better safe than sorry" type of person.

That's why last Monday was kind of a big step for me.
Since about 2nd grade, I've had glasses. I can remember sitting at the kitchen table before school one morning trying to make the oh-so-important decision of what glasses frames I would wear for the next several years of my life.

When I started playing sports, I got contacts, and it was awesome not to have to wear glasses.  I thought that was about as good as it was going to get, but for the past year I've been thinking about LASIK eye surgery.  The risk-averse side of me said to just stick with the contacts. They allowed me to see without glasses with practically zero risk to my eyes. But the thought of not needing anything to see was just too enticing.

So after going through some tests to make sure I could have the procedure, I was scheduled to have surgery on Monday, October 14. My mother-in-law came with me to be my moral support and chauffeur.

When they took me back, one of the first things they did was give me a couple of Valium to help me relax. Then when they took me into the procedure room, the first step was to put me under a machine that went down onto one eye. Mostly it just felt like a lot of pressure on my eye, but if I remember correctly it kind of created a suction to my eye and then a laser was used to cut a flap on the top of my eye. Then I was shifted under a second machine. Under this machine, they just told me that I had to hold still and focus on the orange light above me. Then a laser would be used to correct my vision.
Even with the Valium in my system I was still very tense during this part of the process.  When they moved the flap to make the correction, it made it very difficult to see much of anything, so I was focusing every part of my being on that orange light and not moving underneath that laser (no worries, if I had moved too much the laser would have automatically shut off).
Thankfully this process only took about 20-25 seconds, and then the whole process was repeated for the second eye.

One of the things that I think stood out the most to me was the smell similar to that of branding cattle (although slightly less pungent) as the laser corrected my vision. :)

In less than 10 minutes I was out of procedure room.  From there Roshel took me home and put me to bed. They tell you to go home and go to sleep afterward to help your eyes heal more quickly, so I spent the majority of the afternoon in bed asleep.  And when I woke up later that afternoon, I was able to open my eyes and see clearly without glasses or contacts.  It was a pretty awesome feeling!

Before the procedure I was kind of nervous and felt like it was a bit of a risk to have LASIK eye surgery, but now that I've had it done, I would do it again in a heartbeat. And I would absolutely recommend Fry Eye in Garden City, Kansas. They did a fantastic job! Their patient care was superb, and they are very good at what they do.

By my follow up appointment the next day, the flap on my eye was already half-way healed and yesterday at my weekly follow up today, it had completely healed, and I now have 20/20 vision!
Now the only thing left to do is to delete the bi-weekly reminder in my phone to put in new contacts and take my glasses to the eye doctor to be donated to someone who actually needs them. :)

You were good to me glasses, but I have to say, I won't miss you!

These were the goggles I had to sleep in for the first week so I didn't accidentally rub my eyes without knowing it. Attractive, I know!

Earlier this month Taylor and I went back home for a nice, relaxing weekend with my family. On Saturday night, we had a weenie roast in front of my dad's machine shed. There's nothing better than simple family time around a campfire together.

Mmmm.... Chili dogs!

We've been looking for a used 4 wheeler to check our cows, build fence, etc. Taylor went to a consignment sale while we were at my parents and was able to find one.  Kolden had fun trying it out with Taylor that night while checking Dad's cows.

Annie taught us how to make a cinnamon fire bread that she had while in Austria this summer.

On a rather random note, while I was at Mom and Dad's, we drove by one of Dad's fields and a car was stuck in the ditch right next to the gate.

No one was in the car, but as we got to looking closer we could see that they had run off the road several hundred yards earlier, drove across my dad's fence, taken out a fence post, drove through the corn field, ramped a steep incline into the bean field, finally drove out of the field along the fence and as they went to get back onto the road, they missed the turn and ended up stuck in the drainage ditch. We were pretty ticked about the amount of crops that they ran over. But thinking about it now, I just would have really liked to have seen the whole thing happen. It must have been a heck of a ride.

Western Kansas Fact: Who knew there'd be a great place to have LASIK eye surgery done in Garden City, Kansas. I sure wouldn't have guessed that a lot of people travel to Garden City just to have this procedure done.

"Come to me, all of you who are tired and have heavy loads, and I will give you rest."  Matthew 11:28
When I'm feeling stressed this Scripture always brings me peace.  I love knowing that God doesn't want to watch us stumble and stagger beneath the weight of our lives. He wants to carry it for us.  He wants to give us peace in this life even when things are hard.

I hope you all have a wonderful week!
Lyndee