The procedure was simple. It wasn’t painful. The only uncomfortable part of the surgery was the brightness of some of the lights because my eyes were overly-sensitive from being dilated. I had absolutely non of the post-op discomforts they said I would - no itching, gritty, feeling like I had an eyelash in my eye feelings. The only part of the entire post-op experience that was (is) at all uncomfortable is the jelly-like residue that the artificial tears leaves in the corners of my eyes (which, being instructed not to touch my eyes, I can’t wipe away).
I must say, though, the procedure made me feel like I was Alex from A Clockwork Orange. Eyelids wired open, flashing lights, machine counting down (and even saying my name…"Starting Wavefront procedure for Jason Hendrickson. One-minute eighteen. 80% complete.). New Age mind experiment sure to cause seizures if left on the table long enough.
The best part about it (aside from being able to see better this morning without glasses than I was able to see yesterday morning with glasses) was the Valium. Never had that before. Definitely gonna be open to the opportunity for that again. I was rolling around on the bed like someone put the best parts of a hit of extacy, a bong-load of kind bud, and some nice single malt Scotch in me. Good times.
Thanks to everyone for their advice and support. It really made me feel comfortable going in there, and prepared for what to expect afterwards.
Great news J. I have 20-15 since the day after my lasik 2 years ago. Not to sound sappy, but lasik has been life-altering. I had become contact intollerant, with my eyes getting dry and gummy, followed by attendant vision loss, if I wore contacts outside. The problem was severe when i trained or played golf. I remember suffering through a 1/2 IM and ended up quite literally peeling the lenses off my eyes. Hurt like a bitch. No way I could have ever done an IM with contacts as dry as my eyes would get. Since lasik I do anything I want and have never had a single side-effect that some people temporarily have. Best $2500 I have ever spent on anything!
I’d prefer not to wear glasses but THERE IS NO WAY that anybody is holding my eyelids open with metal catches unless I am unconsious or very, very drunk
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Ms Kilt likes to pick stuff. She likes to pick the wax out of my ears and the scabs off old cuts. I don’t mind that much - whatever parks her car. But she is not coming anywhere near my eyes to wipe the slumbers away. It’s just not going to happen.
My nighttime vision is awesome. I just barely thought to look outside (it’s still dark). I swear to god I can see people’s individual porch lights 20 miles away. No halos. No blurring.
I got Valium once when I dislocated a vertabre in my neck. I didn’t feel any of the buzz you mentioned, but I guess I was in so much pain it just made it hurt less shrug
I’m in the process of being evaluated for the procedure. I’m likely a candidate according to my optometrist, but next tues I have an appointment with the lasik center to do a wave something or other and some other tests to verify that I am. I’ll likely have the procedure done as soon as I can schedule it, but likely mid feb. I was in the surgery room when my dad had it done, so I know generally what to expect.
One thing they were telling me, and was in the brochure, was that there was no exercising for a week. Now no swimming for that period I can understand, and no riding outside due to dust makes sense, but no trainer rides, or treadmill? Any experience with this? I asked the question why, and my optometrist said that people have a tendancy to squint when working hard, which could potentially displace the flap as it’s healing. The other thing is sweat in the eyes. I wouldn’t be overly concerned with this except that mid feb. is the time I’m prepping for a bike camp in Cali in early March, and coming from wisconsin, I want to make the camp as enjoyable as possible. This means coming into camp in pretty good bike shape, and a week off the trainer is a lot in my opinion. A few days, even 4 I can accept, but as an obsessive-compulsive type A triathlete, it’s a tough pill to swallow.
Do I really have to take a week off from any exercise, or is that overly conservative? Can I wear a blindfold/mask and close my eyes to prevent squinting? Or should I just listen to the docs?
Great to hear Jason, glad everything has gone well. I would just add a note of caution that it’s likely that your eyesight may fluctuate over the coming weeks. Be aware that it’s not a fauit, but something your eyes might do. Great to hear the night vision is good, that was always a worry to me, but the wavefront stuff really seems to have kicked that out now.
They offered me valium but I said no. From your description that was a bad move I think.
Ben, when I had lasik i was told no swimming for several weeks, just no exercise for the week after. Take their advice, if you mess it up, it’s going to take a lot longer to heal. A week off won’t kill you.
I had to wear an eye mask at night for 10 days, so that you don’t displace the flap by accident when you roll over.
Infection is what they really want to prevent. Sweat won’t help, and swimming pools are definitely out. These are your eyes we’re talking about and you’re having surgery on them. If the race is very important, reschedule your operation. Allow it the time to heal, a couple of months out of the pool and a week off the bike. It will be worth it. If you had to spend 6 months out of action it would be alot worse.
The odds of this happening are slim, but do you really want to take the chance.
Congratulations! I went through the evlauation procedure and really want to have it done but as it’s $6,200.00 up here (there’s no way I’m going discount on this procedure) and the Mrs. and I just put a down payment down on a townhouse, I think I will be some time before I can come up with that kind of cash.
Glad to hear that it went well though as that will give me more incentive to save.
I can start exercising as of today (just got done lifting weights), but I need to prevent sweat from getting into my eyes.
They didn’t say anything about riding outside, but I assume that would be a bad idea as it would dry out your eyes and make them prone to collecting debris.
They said that after one month the corneal flap is pretty well secured and you can go about activities as normal. Of course, you still want to avoid poking yourself in the eye with a stick.