Lasik Vision Correction Surgery - I Did It!

I can see! I had Lasik surgery one week ago today and, like most that have had this procedure, I have no regrets. I thought I’d write this up because I know there are a lot of people out there who dream of – or are considering – having the Lasik procedure done to their own eyes and people always like reading reviews when they do research, at least I do. First a little background…

I first started having to wear glasses for distance when I was in my early twenties and they progressively got worse over the years, although they’ve pretty much stabilized over the last several years. My prescription was 3.75 in one eye and 3.5 in the other and I had a very minor astigmatism in one eye. Until about a year and a half ago, I wore contacts for around twelve years. I wore the two-week disposable kind and I was not a good contact wearer – I slept in them and took them out of my eyes maybe once during the two weeks to give my eyes a rest. My ophthalmologist got on my case every year during my check up, telling me that I’m going to damage my eyes doing that – yet every time he also told me that I was lucky because he saw no damage at all.

Well….about a year and a half ago while out running errands one day I suddenly felt this pain in my right eye and then it felt like something had gotten under my contact and boy was it annoying!  So much so that while sitting at the red light on my way out of Lowes I had to rip the contact lens right out of my eye and head straight home, driving with one eye closed. Long story short, it was a corneal ulcer, probably caused in part by my bad contact-wearing habits over the years.  I had to wear glasses until it healed and when it did, and with no signs of scar tissue or anything, for some reason I could not wear contacts anymore. I didn’t see right in them even though they were the right strength and curvature and they weren’t comfortable like they had been for so many years.  I tried over and over again but the trying different things got too expensive and I gave up.

After having worn only contacts for so many years I was not at all used to wearing glasses all the time and it drove me crazy – I wanted Lasik so bad but it was not within my reach financially, and it scared me a little. 

Okay, fast forward to 2011 and Groupon – yes, Groupon!! An offer came out for Lasik at 52% off – it was basically a 2-for-1 deal, two eyes for the price of one! Okay, I know what you’re thinking – my eyes are not something that I’m going to risk getting Lasik from Joe Shmo just because it’s a bargain! Well, it wasn’t Joe Shmo – it was Dr. Gailitis, who has been doing this surgery for decades and has an excellent reputation (I did my research) – in fact, he is well known for being the doctor that patients get sent to when someone else screws up the procedure. Plus, a very good family friend works for him and she talked him up a good bit, too. So even though my finances haven’t really improved a whole lot, the possibility of finally being able to have this done to my eyes at this price was too good to pass up!

I went for the free consultation and found out that I was a candidate and the surgery date was scheduled. I went in for a thorough exam two days prior and they dilated my eyes – no fun, but also no real big deal.

I walked into the office that afternoon and found the waiting room full with a few other waiting patients – Thursday is surgery day there and Dr. Gailitis churns them out one after another. I had not even noticed this on my previous two visits, but the room in which the procedure is done is adjacent to the waiting room and there’s a huge window between the two rooms where you can actually watch the procedure being done. More so, there’s a large flat screen mounted near the ceiling that gives you a close-up view of the surgery – it literally shows a close-up of the patient’s eyeball.

While I checked in, I noticed that a surgery was taking place and was immediately intrigued ….. and then I was immediately freaked out! I said out loud “I don’t know if I want – or should – watch this!” After a few seconds, though, I found myself taking tiny steps back toward the window and then the office’s intern stood next to me and explained everything that was being done as it happened and I found myself not freaked out about it – it was really not that invasive and so fast! The preparations took way longer than the procedure itself.

There were a couple of people ahead of me, so they offered me a Valium and began going over the post-op instructions. They then left me in the exam room to wait and I fell asleep (it was my first time ever taking Valium and it sure relaxed me!)

I was nice and relaxed when they came in and told me it was my turn.  They lay me down on the table in the procedure room and began the process of placing numbing drops (lots of them)  in my eye and then taping it open and inserting a contraption to hold the eye open.  Now many people would think (as did I) that they would have an overwhelming feeling of having or wanting to blink – that does not happen; it is not at all uncomfortable because you don’t feel anything.  Oh, by the way, they cover the other eye with some sort of a patch to protect it while it’s waiting for its turn.

There was no pain involved in the procedure at all, but there was some pressure. Once the procedure starts, one of the first things that they do is place the “blade cutter” (my made up term for it since I don’t know what it’s called) on your eyeball and tell you that you may feel pressure and you’ll have loss of vision for a few seconds. Having watched the procedure (with narration) from the waiting room, I knew that this was the device that actually creates the corneal flap. They weren’t kidding when they said I’d feel pressure – it felt like my eyeball was being pushed way back into my cranium!  It lasted about ten seconds and was not a big deal.

After the doctor cuts the flap, he gingerly folds it back and then instructs you to look at a green light (or maybe that instruction was given before the flap cutting?) right above your eye.  Then the laser does its job and before you know it the doctor is replacing the flap and smoothing it out and then the tape and eye-opener brace thingy is removed and it’s over.  The whole procedure (less the initial prep) is quicker than it took you to read about it here!  Then they did my other eye the same way.  I was in and out of that room in probably twenty minutes!

When they helped me up from the table I could already tell that my vision was improved – I could see the clock on the wall and tell the time, but everything was very fuzzy still.  They walked me to one of the exam rooms and put lubricating drops in my eyes and gave me a pair of dark glasses to wear for the rest of that day and through the next day, inside and out.  My husband drove me home and I went straight to bed – instructions had been given to keep my eyes closed for the remainder of the day, except to go to the bathroom, to eat, and to place necessary drops in my eyes.  I thought that that would be the hardest part, but it was actually easy because all I felt like doing was closing my eyes! 

The following morning I opened my eyes and could see, but everything was still quite fuzzy.  The fact that I had to wear the super dark glasses indoors made it hard to tell what my vision was like.  On top of that, my eyes were dry – extremely dry.  By the time I got to the office for my post-op checkup (which, by the way, I was able to drive myself to – slightly fuzzy vision and all!) my eyes were so unbearably dry that even as much as I had wanted Lasik for so many years I felt a slight tinge of regret.  A lady who had the procedure done right after me walked in and we chatted.  I asked if her eyes were as dry as mine and she said “No, not at all, they’re perfect!”  All I could think was “bitch!”

I then saw the doctor and he told me that I wasn’t experiencing anything unusual and that everyone is different as to the dryness.  Lubricate often is what I was told and we’ll see how it improves; I was told to come back in 10 days.  Oh, and the best part was that even though I was still seeing fuzzy, my vision exam indicated that it was 20/15 – better than perfect!  The next day, the dryness suddenly, and quite significantly, improved.  It is now 6 days later and I’m lubricating only 3-4 times a day and I feel slightly dry, but completely tolerable and improving daily.

It still seems almost unreal to me, like I’m just back to wearing contact lenses – I have to remind myself that I’m actually seeing everything without glasses or contacts and after I’m all healed I’ll be able to swim, go to the beach, and all the other things that doing with glasses or contacts was so uncomfortable and annoying to do! Now I have to start working on my sunglass collection!!