I can see clearly now... well, not exactly now.

T minus 70 hours until I have a useless pair of rigid gas permeable contact lenses in my medicine cabinet. Crazy. I'm approaching 30 years of being in corrective lenses, so it doesn't seem real that I won't have them anymore. I just can't wrap my brain around it.

I'm nervous and in my ever present compulsive nature, I have a list of things that scare me:
1) No makeup, lotion, soap or hair product. If you have ever had the pleasure of seeing me upon rising in the morning, this would scare you too, probably more than it scares me.
2) The chair. I have some nasty claustrophobia. Things that impair my senses stress me (i.e. earmuffs, face masks, blankets, sometimes even gloves and socks). The chair has a deep head well to lay in to help prevent you from moving during the procedure. I'm a little light headed and sweaty even thinking about that.
3) Seeing. Yeah, of course I'm excited about being able to see normally, but actually seeing the procedure happen really kind of freaks me out.
4) The laser. Dude, it's a laser - 'nuff said.
5) The smell. On the heels of #4, the laser burns away your eye tissue and it smells, just as you would expect, like burnt flesh.
6) The meds. So I get Valium when I get there and I take Ambien for the next 24 hours to make me sleep because having your eyes closed heals them faster. I'm a light weight. Not exaggerating here - everything, except ibuprofen, makes me drowsy. For me, those meds that say "non-drowsy" or "daytime" on the label mean I've got about an hour of full functioning before I'm in a pharmaceutical fog. And for those drugs that are known to make you sleepy, well let's just say I've been known to pass out mid-sentence with those. Literally mid-sentence, in front of people. It's not pretty.

BUT, I'm excited, so excited and here's why:
1) Seeing the clock. Our alarm clock has a large, "easy to read" display and is on my side of the bed. However, upon waking in the night, I still have to squint and put my nose on the clock to read what time it is.
2) Shaving. Ah, to be able to shave my legs and armpits without guessing.
3) Make-up. Being able to putting on eye makeup and knowing what it looks like and without poking myself in the eye with the mascara wand will be fabulous.
4) Throwing away the plunger. As anyone with RGP contacts knows, they will on painful occassion, slide up underneath your eyelid. I have a mini pink plunger so that I can pull out my eyelid and pluck it off of my eyeball - which, while probably comedic to watch, is incredibly painful to go through.
5) Driving. I'd love to be able to read street signs before I need to turn, instead of when it's too late to commit.
6) Zambia. This makes me smile. I don't have to worry about glasses or contacts for a painfully long flight or trying to care for contacts with bottled water. yay!
7) Sight. Just in general, being able to see unaided for the first time in my life - how can that not be on the list?

I've been watching Lasik procedure videos for the past few days, intentionally staying away from "Lasik gone wrong" and such. I guess if kids supposedly get desensitized by watching t.v. and playing video games, I can do the same in a more positive fashion, right? Here's a still photo for you: