I had LASIK last Friday and thought you guys might be interested in a race-type report. Note that this is not intended to be a technically correct report of the surgery, but merely a report of my perceptions of the surgery.
I was scheduled for surgery at 11:10, but had to be there at 10:10. I had a little low level anxiety, but nothing too bad. When they called me back, they cleaned my eyes and gave me a tranquilizer (I can’t recall exactly what it was, but something in the Valium family). I kept waiting for the loopy feeling to set in, but it never did. If I had it to do over, I’d probably ask for two pills. I was ushered to a dimly lit room to wait for surgery. There was a gal there named Ellen who was getting RK done on her left eye. She was a talker and about drove me crazy – I now know that she has 4 kids, loves Florida, loves the heat, hates the cold, can’t sit still . . . . When I was called back for surgery, they numbed my eyes and the doc put some marks on both eyes with a marker. I then sat in what looked like a dentist’s chair that was then reclined all the way flat. I had asked for and was given a blanket, because the room was cold. I was also holding a little stress ball that they provided. My husband and dad were allowed to watch the surgery from a viewing room. In that room was a TV that showed the procedure up close as well as a patient coordinator to narrate the surgery. I should have asked if the procedure could be videotaped, but didn’t think of it at the time.
The first thing they did was put more numbing drops in my eyes. They then patched my left eye and put these plastic things in my right eye to hold it open. A machine then descended on my eye, turning every thing black. My husband later told me it was that machine that cut the eye open. I didn’t feel a thing, but there was pressure and the darkness felt a little creepy. After the cut was made, I was able again to see light. There was a blinking red light I had to focus on. After the doc did a little more prep on the eye, the machine again descended and the laser starting making little popping noises. After that was finished, the doc used some sort of instrument that sounded like a drill. The eye was then flushed and the flap returned to its original position. The entire procedure took about 5 minutes and was repeated on the left eye. I was able to see immediately after the surgery, but it was very blurry (kind of like being under water). I was led to a recliner in a dark room. Ellen was there, but thankfully, she was quiet. After about 10 minutes there, I went home, wearing eye shields and dark sunglasses.
At home, I put my antibiotic and steroid drops in and took a nap. The doc had recommended this, as most of the irritation and burning sensation occurs the first few hours after surgery. This was the case for me, because when I woke up a few hours later, I felt no discomfort. My right eye was amazingly clear; the left was still a little blurry. I took it easy for the rest of the day and went to bed early. When I woke up the next morning, the vision in my right eye was perfect with the left again a little blurry. The blurriness cleared up though when I put in my eye drops. I went for a quick post-op appointment. The doc said my eyes were very dry and recommended even stronger wetting drops then I had been using. I put these rewetting drops in about every half hour. My vision tested at 20/20 (less than 24 hours after the surgery), which is amazing since I think it was about 20/200 before the surgery, and I’ve been wearing glasses and/or contacts since I was 10.
Overall, I had a very good experience. There was no pain to speak of. The procedure itself was creepy, but its brevity made it tolerable. I am hoping that this morning bluriness in my left eye will clear up over this next week. I also hope the dry eye problem diminishes, as the rewetting drops are goopy and make my eyelashes clump. I go in for a second post-op on Thurs.
For those who are wondering, the procedure cost about $4K, which included a 20% discount through our vision insurance. It was the custom LASIK procedure using Wavefront technology. For those in the CO area, I used Dr. Spivack and Spivack Vision Centers.