We dropped the kids off at their grandparents and drove to the clinic for my noon appointment. Once we arrived, they slapped a nametag on me. Later that afternoon, I found out they perform between 10 and 15 procedures on a busy day, so the nametags help them keep everyone straight. (That's not what they said, but it's what I'm guessing.)

The entire procedure took 1 hour, 45 minutes with about 15 minutes of actual action. The rest of the time is spent resting and waiting between phases.

The main event unfolds in three phases:

• Phase 1: Preparation. Dr. Lee puts what feels like a dozen different drops into my eyes and swabs my eye area with iodine.
  
• Phase 2: Flap creation. Dr. Faktorovich and assistants attach a variety of devices to my right eye to keep it from moving around. She activates the laser to create the flap, which takes about two minutes. My job is to keep staring at a blinking light. She then repeats the process with my left eye. After this process, I'm led to a waiting room where I sit for about 20 minutes with my eyes closed.
  
• Phase 3: Cornea reshaping. Finally, I'm led to the machine that will reshape my cornea. Again, my job is to stare at a blinking red light. The reshaping takes about two minutes an eye. Surprisingly, I can smell burning as the laser reshapes the cornea.

None of the process is painful in the same way a dentist is painful. But it's certainly uncomfortable as they have to clamp down and make sure your eye doesn't move around much. Dr. Faktorvich continually reminds you to look at the blinking light, which makes me feel like my eye must have been drifting even though I felt I was concentrating hard.

After the reshaping, they have me close my eyes and walk to another room. One of their staff named Aimee (who I talked to during my initial consultation) explained how to take care of my eyes after the procedure and put eye shields on. I'm supposed to wear the eye shields as I sleep for the next week.

Fedora brings the car around and helps me into the car. We pick up the kids and go home. Since I'm supposed to keep my eyes closed for 4 hours, I take a nap. I wake up at around 3 hours and continue lying in bed. I don't feel pain, but my body definitely is acting like it's been through a trauma -- which it has been. It's hitting me this is really surgery.

At 4 hours, I head back out to get some dinner. Things are very blurry, so I decide to rest my eyes rather than watch TV or otherwise use them. I sleep on and off until the next morning.

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