So about a week and a half ago I had Lasik surgery. I have been wanting to get LASIK for a long time but it never worked out in the past, but now it finally did. I have worn glasses since I was in 5th grade which was way back in the 1900s, as the kids today would say. For those of you like me, elder millennials, or any generations prior, it was 1999 which feels like it was only 10 years ago right?? Well anyways it was 5th grade and I needed to get glasses. I don’t really remember that first pair of glasses, but I do remember the pair I had in 6th grade and I will not be sharing with the class pictures of me in those wireframes that were extra round to accentuate my already round face. This always was back in the day when 6th grade and junior high were some awkward phases. Not like kids these days, I mean what are you feeding them and why do they all look like models? Just wait, those 90’s trends are coming back and we’ve already lived through them in that awkward stage. No way am I falling for it again. Thin eyebrows, low-rise jeans, those zigzag headbands that poke you in the head all day long. I will have to pass on those trends. I’m good with keeping my skinny jeans and my side part.
Yes, that was a long way of saying since 5th grade I have had a love/hate relationship with glasses. I love that I could now see clearly, but I hated the way glasses looked on me. A few years later I actually tried contacts for the first time, in 7th grade, and that was wonderful, but still a hassle to keep them clean and worse when an eyelash would get in your eye. If you know, you know. I had terrible vision. I mean I wasn’t blind but if I wanted to see anything without glasses or contacts it would have to be about a foot away from my face any further and it was blurry. Even though I wore contacts a majority of the time I still needed to update my glasses from time to time. Picking out glasses was fun until a really bad customer service experience. I had picked out what I thought was an awesome pair of glasses. Looking back I’m not really sure my idea of awesome was truly awesome but we will go with it. My little young heart was so excited to get new glasses that was until we went to purchase the glasses and decide what lenses to put in them. Long story short, the lady working told me that my lenses would stick out on both sides of the frames I picked out because my prescription was so bad the lenses would have to be THICK. Yes, that’s exactly what everyone who gets glasses wants to hear that they are going to look like Arthur, yes the cartoon character, when they put on their new glasses. After that one comment, any confidence I had wearing glasses diminished. Just a reminder your words are powerful. That is also probably one of the main reasons why I absolutely hated wearing glasses even to this day.
So, leading up to my LASIK procedure I had to wear my glasses for two weeks and it was absolute torture. I suffered through it because I knew it would be worth it in the end. Man, was I in for a shock. I had no idea how amazing it would be. I won’t go into great detail because it can be a lot for some people, my husband being one of those people. Side note, he did stay and watch the procedure through the glass window and I was surprised that he did, but talking about it now can make him a little queasy. So for that reason, I won’t go into lots of detail, but if you want to know more just google LASIK and I’m sure you will find lots of information.
We arrived on surgery day at the surgery center and the first thing the dr. measured my eyes to make sure we had the correct prescription, then I had a map of my eyes created with a few different images and thousands of pinpoints on this map. That was then sent over to the laser. I put my glasses in their case for the last time and laid down on the table. This table moved from one side to the other. It moved to the left and this is where the flap was created on both eyes. Finally, the table moved to the right and this is the side that the laser did its thing. After 30 minutes the procedure was over and they had me stand up to check my eyes. Guys, I couldn’t believe it, eyes were still numb from the drops at the beginning of the procedure but I could see further than a foot in front of me. As my husband was driving me home. I would open my eyes from time to time, I kept my eye close for the most part of the rest of that day, one because the dr and nurses said the more you can keep your eyes closed the better, and second because my eyes just went through trauma, I mean it was for good reasons but they were sore and needed to heal. But the few times I did open my eyes I could read the signs off in the distance.
The next few days I cried multiple times just for the fact of how well I could see and was amazed at the technology that I had just encountered. It also made me think back to scripture. When people in the bible were healed from their blindness. I know that I didn’t go from complete darkness to sight, but I got a small glimpse of what they might have been thinking. To be changed in an instant. I went from a fuzzy vision to 20/20 through technology and trained professionals, which is a miracle in itself, but what would I be thinking if my entire life I only saw darkness and in that one instant I saw Jesus in front of me. Woah. This changed how I viewed some of the scripture. I think sometimes we can look over big parts of the story, the next time you read a passage and someone was healed. Stop and really think about how that completely flipped their world upside down and you might just catch why they wanted to run to tell everyone. God still works today and he still does miracles, sometimes they might just look a little different.
I pray that this blog today was an encouragement to you and can help in your daily life. Always know I am available to pray with you or just be someone to talk to when life gets hard. E-mail me at megan@churchanywhere.us if you need prayer!
Talk to you next Monday!