Yoga during Surgery

I recently had surgery done on my eyes. Based on personal experience, it is not something that I would want to do again. I’m sure you can imagine the amount of discomfort one would feel, having to lie awake while people are inserting foreign objects in and around your eyes.

The surgery I had was Epi-Lasik, which was done about two weeks ago. Yes, I know it is not an “intense” surgical procedure like ACL replacement, but it is still surgery nonetheless – AND on my eyes, for that matter. Epi-Lasik is a cross between Lasik and Lasek, where it requires the doctors to cut the outer layer of the cornea – the epithelium. They do this by inserting a tubular device into the eye to suction the layer prior to cutting it. I won’t go into gory details about the procedure, but natural human instinct shies away from having things done to the eye area. People don’t normally go sticking things into your eyes, and to have to force yourself to calm down while this procedure is taking place takes a lot of effort.

Even though I was given a healthy dose of numbing drops for my eyes and some valium to calm my nerves prior to surgery, neither helped me. I think it’s funny what goes on inside your head when you are lying around waiting for the surgery to start.

I therefore decided to try some yoga to see if it would help calm my nerves.

As I was lying on the table, I did the best I could to try and relax as the doctors started the surgical procedure on the first eye – my right eye. I took a deep breath in and mentally focused on my breathing as I lay there in Savasana (corpse) pose. That helped calm me down a lot better than the valium did. Having my first eye operated on was definitely not a very pleasant experience. In fact, my eye felt rather irritated due to the numbing drops that they put in as well as the suction device that they were using.

Once they were done with my right eye, it was onto my left one. When they began to suction my left eye, I accidentally moved my eyeball at the last minute and the wrong part was suctioned, which was very uncomfortable. I asked the doctor to give me a minute as I tried to re-center myself and my mind. I took a couple of breaths and focused again for the next part of the procedure. Again, more irritation.

I was so relieved when the surgery was finally over! And you know, while it wasn’t my intention to write a full blog regarding my Lasik surgery, I think I’ve proven to myself that it really is possible to do yoga practically anywhere!
[tags]Savasana, corpse pose, breath, Epi-Lasik, Lasik, surgery[/tags]