One of the few things about LASIK that I dislike:

[camwyn]

Even nearly five years after the fact, it is still possible for me to wake up and discover that I have pushed my face into the pillow so hard that one of my corneas is distorted. I've spent most of the morning with my left eye trying furiously to compensate for the distortion coming in via my right. It's getting better, of course- it always does- but it's really a nasty surprise to wake up and discover that you've slept on your eye wrong.

Comments

[mephron]

Wow. And I thought the fact that sometimes I sleep so strangely that my hair hurts when I wake up was bad...

(I think it's just that I cramp the muscles in my head a bit, because as soon as I hit the shower and start to lather up the hair, the pain eases and goes away.)

[camwyn]

Well, it hasn't happened to me in years. It happened a few times immediately after the surgeon said I no longer had to sleep with goggles, and then off and on for a few months, and by then I had learned how not to sleep. It's only happened once or twice since then. This morning's incident was particularly distressing, because the left eye was seeing perfectly clearly and the right eye was so distorted that for a few moments I wondered if I'd actually injured my cornea. When I got enough light in my room to see a little better, I realised I could focus relatively well on a number of objects at varying distances, but that close up was right out and so was fine focus. I spent most of my shower with that eye shut, hoping that this would ease things back into place. It's been getting better all morning, though it still isn't quite right.

[camwyn]

Er. By 'how not to sleep' I mean 'sleeping with face all squeeshed=bad, sleeping with face resting lightly on pillow=good', not 'mustn't sleep, corneas will eat me'.

[dormouse-in-tea.livejournal.com]

*laughs so hard she chokes*

Oh dear. That does sound really disturbing, but...oh dear.

[camwyn]

Well, y'know, my instinctive response the first time this happened was "oh, CRAP! I sleep with my eyes open sometimes - did I knock my corneas off in my sleep???" Took me a moment to realize I could still sorta focus, just not very well, and then I spent ten minutes in the bathroom trying to find any kind of visual sign of corneal displacement.

Once you've gotten used to the idea that you might potentially remove one of your own body parts during the night, you're in a whole 'nother category of disturbing, really.

[dormouse-in-tea.livejournal.com]

*stares at you*


I loooves my glasses, yes I do....

[camwyn]

I'm sure you do, dear- but when I put my head under water, or try on random drugstore sunglasses, or even just go to the beach, I can see. A little squishy vision for a few hours once in a great long while is a very small price to pay for that.

[dormouse-in-tea.livejournal.com]

*whimpers*

[logicalpsycho.livejournal.com]

ewww.. maybe you should sleep on your side or back .. ewww... :)

[camwyn]

I do sleep on my side. That's why only one eye ever has the distort-o-vision.

And sleeping on my back would probably mean that I snore. Everyone else in my family does. I'm told I'm the only one who doesn't and I can only attribute it to sleeping on my side.