Day 43

Despite having engaged in a good 30% of this list I'm still intimidated when I read through it. Granted it's exciting all I've given myself to look forward to. I encourage everyone to put down what they want to do in writing, and then not question too much why. Sometimes it's better to go with your gut. Many passions are just ends in themselves, but in order to find the ones that lead elsewhere you have to explore them all. Serena and I were in a bookstore the other night and we were laughing about this book a women published that lists 1000some things that make her happy. Happiness is just so particular that such a book would be useless in most anyone else's hands. This was my idea behind constructing a book of quotes that held distinct meaning for me.

64) Schedule appointment to see if you qualify for Laser Eye Surgery; if yes, begin saving for and have procedure; if no, contacts appointment for 5/26/07

'Why would you want to let someone cut a flap in your eye, lift that flap and shoot down your cornea with a laser?' you might ask. The risk nowadays is actually very low. Most side effects occur in less than 1% of patients, and over correction/under correction has pretty much been eliminated due to Customwave (also a major factor in side effect reduction). There are things that can prevent you from being a good candidate though. If you're under 18 or your prescription hasn't stabilized, if you have an eye disease or your eyes are otherwise unhealthy, if you have an extremely strong prescription, or if your pupils are over 7 decimeters you're ineligible or just at risk for side effects. I've scheduled an appointment with my childhood optometrist for next Sat to see what my exact prescription is, how large my pupils are (I suspect they might disqualify me), and to see if there's anything else that makes me a bad candidate. I'll also run by her all my others concerns. One of my concerns that should be the smallest factor when considering surgery is cost, because my dad went and offered to pay when I thought it was like $1000 an eye. Research revealed it's more like $2000 an eye. When I told him this I added I don't expect him to pay that much as it's my thing and I was prepared to save for/finance it. But were going to talk more after we know my individual situation.