Recovery: next day.
Waking up the next day was something else. When you’ve been basically unable to function without glasses for most of your life, then one day wake up without that limitation, you feel quite exhilarated.
There was a bit of a weird moment when my vision was blurred, but this was entirely due to the plastic shells that were still taped to my face. As soon as I took them off — and I did that quickly — I could actually see things from a long way off sharply without glasses. It was an experience that I hadn’t had for as long as I could remember.
I proceeded with my morning routine with added vigor that day. And my vision was good enough that I felt confident to drive that day, albeit wearing sunglasses; so I got in the car and proceeded to the follow-up visit at the clinic.
The follow-up
I was far from the only person at the clinic at 8:00 that day, it was in fact quite busy. When I was called in my vision was measured with a machine, and then through a “normal” eye test. I noticed with glee that not only was the “goal” of 20/20 met, I was in fact somewhere around 20/15.
The doctor then had a look at my eyes with an instrument that used a bright light. This was more difficult to endure! The doctor did notice a little irritation, but nothing out of the ordinary.
So, I was given eyedrops — one bottle of antibiotic eyedrops, and one sampler bottle of lubricating eyedrops — and advised to use both 4 to 5 times a day; the antibiotic drops were to be used for 5 days. I would probably need the lubricating eyedrops for a few weeks. Any brand would do, except Visine specifically.
Later on
After that, well, that was pretty much it. I went home, did a few errands, like nothing was out of the ordinary. Except of course that I was going about seeing the world through new eyes, so to speak.
Some friends came by later and we went out for dinner and a few drinks. That was my first experience of being out at night post-op. The halos around street lights were quite prominent, but this was normal.