Arrrrg Matey!

In a few short hours from now I will be having surgery to remove a Pterygium (pronounced ter-ridge-ium) from my eye.  For those who don't know what it is...
"A pterygium is a wedge-shaped benign growth of the cunjunctiva (the surface tissue of the white of the eye) that extends onto the cornea." (Thank you, Dr Wolsey)
I'm also told that one of the main causes is being exposed to dry, dusty climates for long periods of time and I am not really sure how this relates to me.  I do love the sun and being outside but no more than the normal person and I wouldn't say Riverton is that dry and dusty of a climate.  Vegas, yes but I had this thing long before Vegas.  Maybe it goes back to the time(s) of being left in a sand storm at Bearlake.  For example, one time the wind started to pick up so we (Lindsay, Andrea, erin and I) quickly gathered everything on the beach and bundled it down so it wouldn't blow away then Lindsay and Andrea said they were going to go up to the cabin with a load and would be back down to help us.  Well, erin and I stayed huddled on the beach between two collapsed lawn chairs trying to keep the sand from whipping us waiting....and waiting....and waiting....
Just when we were deciding what we were going to do we heard an engine and we peeked out to see our neighbor in their mini-van pull up and ask if we needed some help.  We hurried and loaded everything into the van and they drove us up to the cabin safe and sound.  Needless to say, Lindsay and Andrea were there comfy and cozy in the cabin (probably showering and reapplying makeup for the cute boys they were going to meet that night)
Anyway, back to the reason of this post, normally if these appear in your eye they will just watch them and as long as they don't grow you are good.  Sadly, mine started growing and is now slightly over my pupil which is affecting my vision - especially at night so under the knife I go.  During the surgery they will cut away the growth then will do a graft on my eye where they will cut away some of the white from the top of my eyeball and sew it onto the side where the growth was to prevent recurrence.  Below is an up close picture of my eye and I will show you the after pictures too, cause I know you will love to look at a gross goopy eye.  They said the worst part of the surgery is the recovery and that I will look pretty beat up right after and my eye will be red and irritated for about eight weeks.  I was going to post a video of the surgery from youtube but honestly I started watching one the other day and when they pulled out the scissors and started cutting the eyeball, I had to stop it so feel free to watch the video on your own time if you would like :)

(this closeup, you can really see the wrinkles under my eye - how embarrassing!)