Same-Day Vision Surgery

My name's Allen Pace and I'm a manager at Applebee's here in Brookings. I've been a manager up here since we opened up for 13 years ago. Before that I was a manager in Sioux Falls in Spearfish, and before that a bartender for Applebee's in Sioux Falls. I presently live in Aurora where I'm also a member of the city council and president of the city council of Aurora. From when I was raising my hand, I couldn't on my right eye from right here, I couldn't if it was like below my...the top of my head, I couldn't see...from right here I wouldn't be able to see my hand, and now it's like I can still see, can still see, can still see, can still see it. And I had to, like, when I was taking pictures, I had to be conscious about opening, making sure my eyes were open, because if not, it would be just like this. So yeah, it definitely affected my vision.  
 
What procedure did you have at Brookings Health System?

 I had doctor Minton from Yorkshire Eye Clinic did a bilateral ptosis, which was my tendon on my right eyelid had come completely detached for the...from the cartilage so it's causing my eyelid not to open all the way, it was actually half closed. He knew right away what was wrong, he looked at me, had me do some tests, some movements of the eyes and all that and whatnot, and he had also discovered because it was quite telling on the right eye, on the left eye you couldn't tell but he could tell by looking at it that it was already that my tendon was starting to become detached from the cartilage on my left eye as well. So what they did, he went in and I was under local anesthesia because I still had to be awake so they could tell me to move my eyes right or left so they could get it just right and they reattached, completely reattached the tendon of the cartilage of my right eye and where it was had starting coming off on my left eye they did that also, it was just right on the eyelid, just left a little scar under each eyelid and stitches were out on my left one in a week and on my right one in two weeks.  
 
Why did you feel comfortable with Dr. Minton?

 When I went for my pre-surgery screening, Dr. Beck Avandacop who's my primary care physician, she was like, "Do you know who he is?" And I was like, "No, not really." She's like, "You need to look him up because we're quite lucky and he's quite well known in his field nationwide. I did a little research on him and found out exactly who he was and how lucky we are to have him in Brooking since he's one of the top in his field when it comes to ocular surgery. He's like one of the top five in the United States, and he has people from all over come to see him, so this was something that was like a cakewalk for him.  
 
How did Dr. Mintion prepare you for surgery?

Doctor Minton prepared me by answering all my questions that I had and which were mostly the ones that will it happen again? What is going to happen during the surgery? How long it would be. He told me that all it would take would be the two little slits, two little slices, and they put me under a local and they gave me an IV with some calming medication in it, and I had to be...the weird thing was I had to be awake during it because even though my eyes were covered, he would say, "Okay, right, move right, left, look up, look down, because they had to get the tendon and the cartilage exactly right for that so he wouldn't have to go in and do it again.  
 
How was your recovery?

The recovery was wonderful. The stitches on my left eye got removed after about a week. A week to 10 days the right eye, just because it was completely detached, we had to keep them in there an extra week, so it was about 2, two and a half weeks for that. After that I went for a follow-up visit everything was fine, he took more...he took the pictures of it completely done and checked my field of vision and did all his little tests with his machine and like how high, you know, with my peripheral vision and everything, and then that was it. No problems whatsoever.

Has you vision improved since your surgery?

A hundred percent better, especially on the right eye. My peripheral vision, my up and down vision, it was very limited before on my right side and now it's back to normal, plus people tell me that it made me like 10 years younger once I got it done because it was...my eye was like pretty much half to two thirds of the way closed at all times.  
 
What did you appreicate most?

Dr. Minton and everyone over at Yorkshire Eye was very professional, they answered all my questions, very friendly, very upfront, just very casual. You know, everything was at ease because you're always, you know, even little surgeries, whenever it has to do with your eyes or whatever, you're always just a little bit in the back of your mind worried, they set all my worries at ease before it even happened and I was just in and out and that was it. It was just over and done with in a snap.