Surgery

Friday, August 21, 2009

Lasik is amazing. It's incredible what they can do to your eye and have it recover so quickly and perfectly.

My Lasik experience:
I've done a ton of research and felt very prepared for the surgery, but I was still very nervous.
The assistant handed me a teddy bear when I laid down on the table. I don't know if they do that for everyone, of if I looked especially nervous.

They gave me Valium just before the surgery, but I don't think it had kicked in yet, because it was cold in the room and I was shivering.
They had me lay on the table with my eyes closed as they calibrated the laser, discussed my vision correction, etc. That's the part where I was nervous- just wanting them to get it over with.
By the time they had me open my eyes and stare at a pulsating green light, I was good to go. It was kind of mesmerizing and I found it easier to relax.
I heard the doctors calling out measurements and instructions and I actually understood most of it (since I was super anal in my thorough research of the procedure).
I didn't feel any pain during the surgery (only pressure). The weirdest point is when they cut the flap on your cornea and peel it back. Everything slowly started to fade to black as they cut the flap and there's a lot of pressure. So odd, but I didn't find it disturbing at all. Maybe the Valium had kicked in by then :)

After the surgery, I sat in a dark room for about 1/2 hour. It was during that time that the numbing drops started to wear off and I did feel a lot of scratchiness, burning in my eyes. This lasted for about 1 hour after I got home. That was the most uncomfortable part of the entire experience. It just felt like I had cut a bunch of onions and made my eyes burn. But, I took some Advil, eye drops and went to bed. I woke up in the morning feeling great.

So, now my eyes feel really good, but since I did PRK in the right eye, it will take a week or two to have completely clear vision. I did the Lasik in the left, which already seems so great. Everything is clear. I still surprise myself when I go by the mirror and I think, wow- I don't have my glasses on and I can see! I'm so glad I did this.

6 comments:

HaH said...

I'm glad it went well!

I will wear contacts for the rest of my life. I don't know how you did all that research. I even had to skip your one detailed paragraph. And I'd be so nervous I probably would have ripped the legs and arms off that poor teddy bear. :)

Amy Leininger said...

I'm so glad everything went well, Linda! I would LOVE to get Lasik, but it's just not in the cards at the moment...too many other things going on right now to consider doing that. I'll have to suffer with my contacts! Actually, my allergies were so bad this past spring that I couldn't even wear my contacts. I wanted to scratch my eyes out, so I was stuck wearing my glasses, which I hate wearing!! Anyways, so glad you are going to be corrective lens free!

Anonymous said...

My eyes hurt while reading it. I'm happy it was a smooth ride for you though.

Dave Bjarnason said...

Congratulations Linda! Can't wait to hear more about your experience with Lasik going forward. My friends that have had this surgery all rave about it.

Dave Bjarnason said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Jess said...

Yay! I'm so excited that you got it done. Best decision of my life.

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