They Should Probably Just Refer People Here For A Lasik Summary - Way More Interesting
Tuesday, April 20, 2010 at 9:54AM I’m going to try and answer a few questions I’ve received here, on FB, in real life, etc about the Lasik procedure. For those of you who are able to stomach “eye stuff”, I’d suggest checking out the video of my surgery below. it’s really not “gross”.
How “blind” was I?
Hahahahhaa. BLIND. I started wearing glasses around 3rd or 4th grade because the board became a little blurry in class. At first, the eye doctor told my mom that I’d likely wear glasses as a form of “correction” for a few months to a year.
HE WAS WRONG.
My eyes progressively became worse, eventually leading to a pretty bad astigmatism in my left eye (and only a slight one in my right that didn’t develop until after my first pregnancy). Apparently, it’s rare to have an astigmatism in one eye as bad as mine was - you either have that same intensity of an astigmatism in both, a trauma in the eye, or you have only a slight astigmatism in one or both eyes.
I had no trauma, well - does all of high school count?
My perscription: Left eye — (-)3.25 (cyl/axis 2.25 <- I think this is the astigmatism “number”)
Right Eye — (-)4.50
I qualified for both standard Lasik and Custom View (a more expensive version of Lasik that also corrects the part of the eye that has “indentions” like a golf ball, and causes halos around lights and glare. They evaluate this number during your pre-op and if the number is above 5, you are encouraged to do the CustomView procedure. My number was low, less than 3, so I chose to do the standard Lasik)
Prepping for Lasik
As I stated in the vlog, you have to wear your glasses (out of contacts completely) for a week, or more if you can. This is for many reasons, one being that your contacts change the shape/thickness of your cornea and they measure the thickness of this area to qualify you for surgery. Too thin? No surgery.
Two days before your surgery date, you begin a drop regiment. My drops:
- Restasis (yes, the tear making drops) - 1 drop, twice a day in each eye (morning/night)
- Zymar (even after googling, I still don’t know the purpose of these drops) - 1 drop in each eye every 4 hours
- Sterlids (this cleanses the eyelid area) - twice daily
Day Of Surgery
You don’t drive (duh) and take your Valium (*angels singing*) 30 minutes prior to your arrival time. You come in, set-up your next day follow-up appointment (so you are able to leave directly after your sugery w/o making appointments), and the doctor takes you to an office to go over MORE instructions.
Basically, it’s all common sense - no makeup for a week, advil/tylenol for pain or discomfort, after the surgery, go home to rest and take another Valium, etc.
Then, I was given two advil. My eye area was prepped with betadine and my hair was pulled back into a sugerical cap. Obviously, they stole my glasses (later, suckas!).
The ACTUAL Surgery
I was brought into a dark room with a long bed/table and told to lay down. I was given a snuggly teddy bear (no lie) and a blanket because I was just about to freeze my nipples off. He explained (again) that I was to stay perfectly still and stare directly into the red light I’d see once under the machine.
He then rotated the bed to position me under the laser. I was given numbing drops - as in… he POURED a whole bottle of them into my eyes (they stuff gauze under your surgical cap on both sides to catch all the excess fluid). I was SUFFICIENTLY numb (“I’ve become… comfortably numb...”).
Here’s the fun part….
He then taped back my eyelashes/lids, during which time, I was thinking “I JUST grew those back! Be! CAREFUL!”, but only on one side. The surgeon placed a metal … brace (?) very similar to the clear plastic ring that holds open your mouth when you get impressions made at the dentist - this held open my eyes SUPER WIDE and prevented me from doing… well.. anything with that eye.
The other eye was cover with a patch. Arg.
The uncomfortable description part - he took something to suction my eye upwards, which felt way more than weird. More drops were placed and then a white cylinder (about 2 inches long, it appeared) was placed directly on my eye and it made a “buzzzzz” noise - this cut the flap in the top part of my eye.
Let me know when you are done half-vomiting.
Grayness - and white - I could see nothing. Actual blindness for the next 5-10 seconds. Must say, that was scary.
He did something with a brush and some more drops, I think, and then pushed back the flap with a metal stick (yay for my medical terms, seriously). The machine came closer and I stared into a tunnel with a red light at the end. Then clicking started and I couldn’t feel the laser, but I could smell a slight tinge of burning flesh.
Yummy.
This lasted about 20 seconds, during which time the surgical tech counts down.
Once the laser is done, the machine moves away and the metal stick flips the flap back onto your eye, which gives you the ability TO. SEE.
Yup. I was totally freaked out by that thing touching my eye. He used a brush to smooth out the flap and put some more drops in (enough. with. the. drops. already).
Repeat time! Next eye!
A minute later, I was done and taken to an exam room. The doctor checked my eyes with a special light and sent me home.
After Surgery
Was it like the movies and shows you’ve seen where people break down in tears, thanking their doctor for this amazing gift? Absolutely not. I left very blurry, like I was living in a fish tank full of murky water.
Outside, the sun was intense and I held me eyes closed with Mike guiding me to the car. It was difficult to close my eyes for a long period of time as it burned to do so.
Within 10 minutes, I could read billboards and street signs. It was easier to see far away than close-up (and I had nearsightedness - the inability to see FAR AWAY before surgery, so that part felt odd).
I came home, took my Valium *angels sing again* and tried to nap. It just stung too dang much to truly nap though, and I had to put drops in every 15 minutes if I was awake. 
Drop Schedule Post Surgery:
= annoying
1st day:
- Zymar - 1 drop in each eye every 2 hours
- Pred Forte (prednisone drops) - 1 drop in each eye every 2 hours
- Acuvail - 1 drop in each eye every 2 hours
- Restasis - 1 drop in each eye twice a day
- Artificial tears - Every 15 minutes while awake
Now think about this: You can’t put all those drops in your eyes at once, or it’s just one clustercrap of nonsense and it’ll all wash out. You have to space them apart 10 minutes or so. So, let’s say it’s 1:00 and you put in the first drop. It’s 1:10 by the time you put in the next, 1:20 for the next, 1:30 for the next and then for every 15 minutes for the next hour, you have to do the artificial tears.
IN SHORT, YOU ARE PUTTING CRAP IN YOUR EYES ALL THE DAMN TIME.
Just be glad I uploaded this.That night, I put on my special night guards (that you wear for a week) and went to sleep. Yuummmm, Valium sleep.
The Next Day
I could see! It was still a little blurry and my eyes were pretty sore (from the clamps, actually), but dudes - I could FREAKING SEE.
My follow-up at 9:00 went well and was quite fast. The drops schedule got a little better as well, and it is what I’m on now. Drops schedule from 1st full day post-op for a full week:
- Zymar every 4 hours
- Pred Fort every 4 hours
- Acuvail twice a day
- Restasis twice a day
- Artificial tears every hour (you WANT THESE, they are so relieving)
The two “ah ha!” moments for me have been:
1) During driving I can see street signs at what I would consider the distance I would NEED to see a street sign without ending up with the car behind me in my back seat.
And at night - waking up and seeing is awesome, but I haven’t really been able to completely enjoy it yet as I am wearing the “clear” guards.
BUT -
2) When I go to wash my face and brush my teeth at night, even with the 30 minutes of drops I’m doing, I still feel like I’m cheating! I leave the bathroom WITHOUT RUNNING INTO A WALL! I can SEE as I apply lotion and I can actually find my phone and chapstick before bed WITHOUT USING MY CELL PHONE AS A NIGHTLIGHT TO LOCATE ANYTHING I NEED AFTER I FIND MY PHONE. I can watch tv before bed - shocker!
Was it worth it? No question - yes.
I’m very pleased with it and my vision is better than it was with contacts. I’ll post another vlog about it after I’m allowed to wear eye makeup. That’s right - call me vain.
Reader Comments (9)
YAYYYYYYYYYYY
GUD VISHINNNNZ FTW!
I want lasik SOO bad. I probably have about the same level of blindness as you! Very blind!!! That's for SURE! So bad that "far away" for me was pretty much where I would hold a book to read in front of me....i couldn't read it.
Oh, and Nearsightedness is the ability to not see far away. Farsightedness is not being able to see things up close. FYI. Confusing, I know...seems like it should be the other way around. :-)
Glad you can see now. I can only imagine how much you quality of life improved!!!!
UUUGGGHHH. I'm really pissing myself off today with all the mistakes and typos. Earlier on twitter, I tweeted "I should RIGHT" instead of "write". And then when I tried to correct myself, I left off the '.com' on my URL.
WTF is wrong with me today?
Yes, nearsightedness. I have NOT ONCE in my life reversed those two words. Seriously, crap day.
And yes, my quality of life has definitely improved. Just not having to hassle with contacts and glasses, like I'm "normal", is amazing!
Yayyy for seeing!
whoa. I am so jealous of your perfect vision! I have been blind since 2nd grade and my prescription is -6.50 in each eye. I would LOVE to be able to not feel around in the dark while getting up to use the bathroom at night. Or even use a regular alarm clock instead of my cell phone to see how much longer before the alarm goes off.
Thanks for the wonderful summary. The eye clamps and total blindness freak me out, but maybe one day I can be brave like you!
happy seeing....PERFECTLY!
Ugh. My prescription was way worse than yours (something like a 6.75 and 7 for nearsightedness), but a few years ago i was told I was an excellent candidate for Lasik. But I think after hearing all of this, I might put it off for a bit yet. Sounds stressful with all the drops and the wearing of the glasses for so long (I can't stand wearing my glasses - I'm a contact girl through and through) and I'm just imagining having to juggle the drops along with a breastfeeding schedule (due in September!) so it's on the back burner.
I'm glad you had such success though!
Can you see me now? #smart@$$ LoL. <3 Glad the surgery went good and you can SEE again!
First, those protective glasses are NICE.
Second, I wish I could correct my vision to what yours WAS. My current prescription is -8.25 in each eye. Yeah, I'm blind and have been since second grade.
Oh, the genetics I have passed on to my kids...
And I am JEALOUS!
Janna! I promise PROMISE promise you don't want my old Rx. I hear once you are past -4, it's just all crap. I couldn't see figures in a magazine a few inches from my face AND I WAS NEARSIGHTED. The tv? Just colors (and it's a big tv). No shapes, really, just colors. Moving... in swirls.
GET THEM FIXED!