I had my eye correction procedure done yesterday and I thought I’d share my experience while it was fresh in my mind. Before I describe my LASIK experience, I thought I’d tell you my eye history.
My vision started declining when I was in grade school, around 5th or 6th grade. I didn’t get glasses till I was in middle school, it was to the point where I couldn’t read the board. Then came contact lenses, which I didn’t get till I was in high school, probably sophomore year. I wore contact lenses for the rest of high school and into my early twenties. So about about eight years, give or take. Around the eighth year I started having trouble with my contact lenses. I never slept with them on, I had special cleaning solutions that made sure they were clean, I always checked the lenses to make sure they were in good shape, and switched them out quite regularly. One day I put them in and immediately it was uncomfortable. My eyes were so dry and it felt like I had sand in my eyes. So I went back to my glasses, and thought I would wait it out till they felt better to go back to my contact lenses. Well to my disappointment, I couldn’t wear my contacts anymore. No matter how long I would wait, my eyes never accepted contact lenses, As soon as I put them in they would sting and dry up, my eyes would be blood shot and just all around unpleasant.
So I wore my glasses, up until yesterday, when I got my LASIKplus done. I wore glasses for 6 years. I’m a picky person, so trying to find glasses to fit my very wide framed face and to look “good” in glasses was a struggle. Luckily thick frames glasses have been very trendy the past few years. In 2012 I had my daughter, and that’s when I really felt my glasses were in the way. My glasses were always dirty, smeared with oil, sliding off my face, or her just knocking them off my face and trying to break them, everyday! LASIK was sounding more and more appealing, granted I was thinking about LASIK long before my daughter came into this world, but I was skeptical because I didn’t know anyone who had it done, and always heard the cons rather than the pros. My husband is actually the one who suggested I go in for a consultation. The place I had gotten it done was having a $600 off promotion and a free eye exam. I was like, what the heck, why not? Well once I had my eye exam done, I was certain this was something I wanted. They told me I was a great candidate for the surgery and I could get it done in a week! I was so happy to hear that because I wasn’t sure if my eyes were strong enough for it, especially with how my eyes had reacted with contacts. The eye exam is slightly more in depth than your regular eye exam, and they dilate your eyes, but nothing painful, and none of that air puff in your eye! That alone makes me never want to have an eye exam.
Fast forward a week, to September 13th. They tell you to give yourself an hour or two for the appointment. Mine took about two hours, but an hour and forty five minutes of it was me waiting, which is the worst part! They check your vitals, temperature, ask you if you have any questions, they go over what you need to do after the procedure. They truly try to make you feel comfortable. After the excruciating long wait, I’m taken to “the room”. It’s cooler than the rest of the office, which I’m guessing is for the machines running the lasers. First thing they did was check my eyes, which took 4 seconds. Then they laid me down on a bed for the first procedure, which is where they make the flaps. The lady technician put in numbing eye drops in both eyes, then some more. Another 4 seconds later the doctor is putting a suction ring on my eyeballs. That did not bother me at all, he didn’t push very hard and it was very quick. The laser to make the flap, on the other hand, did feel uncomfortable for a few seconds, but it wasn’t painful, just some pressure. After they were done with opening the flap, they took me over to another bed, which was a foot away from the first machine, they help you over there because at this point your vision is very blurry. The next machine is where they reshaped my eye. The doc puts in instruments to keep my eye held open, held my head still and told me to stare at a green dot. This one lasted a couple more seconds than the first one. Out of the whole procedure, which only took seconds, the one thing that caught me off guard was when I started to smell something. The burning of my cornea. Yup, that was unexpected! It smelled like burnt hair, EW! After that was done he flips the flaps back into place, puts in a liquid solution, then voila, you are done! The whole process is done one eye at a time. He checks your eyes again and I was walking out the door. My vision was blurry but at the same I would read the clock on the wall, and I would see my husband and daughter on the other side of the window.
The whole thing literally took a minute! The doc said that the numbing drops will fade in about 15 minutes, and sure enough they did. My eyes felt strained and started stinging, my eyes started watering and it was hard to keep them open because I was so sensitive to the sunlight. They prescribe you antibiotic and steroid eye drops, so we went to pick those up. They recommend you have your eyes closed the first 4-6 hours after the surgery, which means you get to take a long ass nap! 🙂 So my husband bought some Advil PM for me to take, went home, had some lunch, and went straight to bed. I napped for 4 hours, when I woke up the sensitivity and stinging was gone and I could see clearer. I was still sensitive to bright lights but I was feeling great! Today, which is the next day from my procedure, my vision has only gotten sharper, the sun and bright lights are still something to get used to but that will get better with time, I mean it’s only been a day!
Other than having perfect vision, the only evidence of my surgery is a little red spot on my left eye, which was from the suction ring. Which is normal and harmless, it’s a bruising that will go away in a couple weeks.
It’s only been a day and the whole healing process will take up to a year. The flap should be healed in a week. I’ll try to update my progress in 3 months which will be my last follow up with the LASIK office.
If honestly don’t know if I would have gotten LASIK done if I was able to wear contact lenses, BUT now that I know what it feels like to have it done and to be free of glasses and contact lenses, I’m totally happy with my decision!
I totally recommend LASIKplus to whoever is considering laser eye correction! I only wish I had gotten it done sooner! It is costly but it’s so worth the money, and if down the road your vision starts changing, you can go in and get it redone, for FREE! As long as you get your eyes check yearly, they’ll fix it, no charge!
I hope this helped a little bit to anyone who is thinking about getting it done!
Sunshine Mommy 