Lasik

Top 10 Best Things about Lasik

1. I can see...
   Ok, so there really is only one good thing about Lasik. But the great many things that I can see are amazing. I was able to rearrange my room so my TV is farther away because now I can see it. When I read books in bed, I can see the words without my glasses making an uncomfortable indent in my head. When I wake up, I can see the alarm clock and know what time it is. When I'm driving, I can look behind me and know that I can see clearly in my peripheral vision (the spot where you look without actually looking through your glasses). Plus, I can wear sunglasses when it's bright out and I can work out without glasses on which is so wonderful. I know that some of these things would have been possible wearing my contacts, but I just hated them. Plus, I can take naps in the middle of the day and get up and still see (couldn't have comfortably done that with contacts). There are also other great benefits that I didn't think about -- for example, it is so much easier to shave in the shower when you can see what you are doing.
   
   I guess there are a few other good things -- the price has gone down from what I expected it to be when I started saving two years ago. The recovery time was pretty short and even though there are some vision issues common (like halos) things continue to improve over time.
   
   All in all, I have been very happy with my decision and can't wait for the summer when I can go to Valleyfair, swimming in pools or lakes etc. without wearing glasses. AND I can wear sunglasses when it's bright out too.

Top 10 Worst Things about Lasik

1. The two hours directly after the procedure suck pretty bad. It's before you get any pain medication. You're supposed to go home and go to bed. It was the worst sleep that I have ever had. I was in pain, not really intense pain but my eyes were really scratchy and kept watering. I was crying all over the place and so my nose was stuffy and I had all kinds of weird dreams. As soon as my mom came with pain meds, I was able to sleep and woke up feeling great.
2. Missing out on things. That day, I got a call with an opportunity to go on a Disney cruise in the Caribbean in February, but since I didn't answer my phone and my message said I would be off work until January 2nd, they called the next person and I missed out. Also, a friend of mine and his wife were around that night and let my family know that they are moving out of the cities -- somewhere south and west. So, I missed out on seeing them too.
3. The eye drops -- the week before and after the appointment, I had to do antibiotic/steroid eye drops 4 times a day. Not too terrible. Then, the three weeks after the procedure, I have to do artificial tears every hour while I'm awake. I'm getting used to them now and they don't seem to be as big of a hassle, but that week and a half after the procedure, I was so sick of eye drops.
4. The waiting -- ok, really it wasn't that bad, but there was a lot of waiting. I saved for two years for the procedure. Then when I was ready, I had to wait two months for an appointment, and then the day of the appointment, we were at the office for 3 hours. I usually don't mind waiting, but I couldn't read or do anything looking up close, so it made things a little long.
5. The consent form -- man that thing is SCARY. I"m glad that I didn't read it before the day of the procedure. You can die, you can go blind, and those are the things that seem the least scary. You can have double vision, you can see halos and star bursts, you can have extremely red eyes, you can develop early cataracts, etc. Plus, just the idea that someone is cutting into you eye and you are volunteering to have them do that.
6. The Easter egg dyer -- ok, so the procedure wasn't that bad. It was pretty quick, and the doctors tell you what to expect the whole time, so it is pretty reassuring and less panicky (maybe the Valium helped with that too). I have been describing the procedure to people by telling them that it involved an Easter egg dyer (you know the metal thing you put the egg on), an unbent paperclip and a nail polish brush. This is the part where if you're squeamish, you may want to skip. They tape up your eye lid and your eye lashes like in a horror movie. Then they take the Easter egg thing that goes around your eye to make it wider -- that part hurt the worst. Then they put a suction cup thing on your eye and tell you that everything will go black. Then you hear an assistant counting down time from 30 seconds. I'm pretty sure that is when the doctor cut the flap. People say that the pressure is very uncomfortable. I didn't think that it was too bad. When you can see again, you are looking up at the laser light. Then you smell burning. That's kind of creepy. To me it smelled like someone burning ants with a magnifying glass. Then they smooth things out in your eye with what looked like an opened paperclip and then brushed everything over with what looked like a nail polish brush. Then we wait for a minute, they close that eye and start over.
7. The eye drops during the surgery -- that was unpleasant. They drop these eye drops into your eye and it felt like they were splashing so hard on my eye and of course I couldn't blink. I didn't like that part at all.
8. The second eye -- everything went well with eye #1, and the doctor was very reassuring. However, I got really panicky for the second eye. For one thing, the second eye was my stronger eye, so I was more sensitive to someone messing with it. Secondly, just the idea of both eyes being messed with was a little intimidating. Of course I knew that was the plan the whole time, but in that moment, my stomach lurched!
9. Playing trivia at the bar, looking at computer screens, and reading captions on TV. I don't have really any issues with side effects or problems that can come up. Things are going well, but I do see halos around lights like words on screens that are back lit. It's annoying and it will improve, but a bit of a pain in the meantime.  I also sometimes feel like there is something in my eye -- a little weird for sure.
10. Being afraid about getting hurt -- you have to be careful with your eyes while they heal. You can't rub your eyes (I was a massive eye-rubber, so I was concerned about that). It turned out that since the surgery, I've only mistakenly rubbed my eye twice, both times just coming out of sleep. It hurt pretty bad and I stopped pretty immediately. Also, you can't go swimming and need to avoid water getting into your eye (especially water with shampoo or soap in it), so I was a little nervous about showering, etc. Also, when my brother was over playing dominoes, he hit me in the eye which made me very nervous, but no harm seems to have been done.