My Experience with Lasik, 2 Months After

Hello all! First story on Steem, so I figured I'd share my experience with Lasik surgery.

I've been wearing glasses since 4th grade with my prescription topping out at -8 in the left and -7.75 in the right. For those not familiar with their prescription, that's bad enough that my lenses looked like the bottom of a coke bottle. With a high prescription, comes high distortion and the world looked drastically different through my glasses than it actually was. Everything appeared smaller, I remember being shocked at how big donuts are when I first put in my contacts.

Anyways, at the ripe old age of 25 my eyes were not handling contacts well and I did not want to go back to glasses. Thus the Lasik journey started with a consultation at a few local businesses. Every consultation was similar to a regular eye doctor appointment were they dilate your eyes and take a prescription. In addition, they do a contour mapping of your eye using a device which puts out sound waves and processes the returns. If your cornea is shown to be too thin, then you are disqualified.

Figure 1: Imaging of Cornea

After each 20 minute consultation they will ask you to make a decision that will affect the rest of your life. I was happiest with the information and experience at LasikPlus so I took the offer despite my wariness of them being a chain.

The surgery was scheduled the day before I had tickets to Connecticon but I was assured I would be able to attend. My Uber driver dropped me off at the surgery center and I popped a prescribed Valium in order to calm my nerves. I was pulled aside into the doctor's office were he remeasured my prescription just to assure it had been done right the first time. He then applied numbing drops to my eyes and he had me lay back on a nice cushioned platform.

The rest felt like something out of a sci-fi movie, probably because I was on drugs. A rubber ring was placed onto my eye and the doctor said "Vacuum on!". My eyeball felt like it was getting sucked out of my head but there was zero pain. My comfy cushioned platform swung and placed me under another machine. A circle of lights approached the rubber vacuumed to my eye and attached itself leaving total darkness. Stress balls were placed in my hand as I started to feel a bit of anxiety and then I felt pressure as the Femto laser cut around the outside ring through my cornea. This process was repeated for the other eye with no pain once again.

Figure 2: Femto Laser Aftermath

I felt the doctor grab my hand and tell me he was going to lead me over to the final machine. Everything looked like it was covered in vaseline and the Doctor pulled out what looked like metal chopsticks. A device was placed on my eye that looked out of clockwork orange as he used the chopsticks to flip my cornea over. Moisturizing drops were applied to my eye since I could no longer blink. The doctor said "Now just look straight up and do not look away from the green light, no big deal if you accidentally do but it will go quicker". I looked at the giant green blur, as without corneas the entire world looks like its just vaseline. Within 30 seconds it was over and the process repeated on my other eye.

I sat up and could see for the first time in my life without glasses. One last look into my eyes with the dilation machine to make sure everything went ok and I was on my way home.

Figure 3: Me at home, still on drugs.

Opening my Slack chat, I proclaimed that it was over and I felt perfectly normal! Then the drugs wore off and I was in incredible pain.

I sat on the bed with tears constantly flowing from my eyes convinced that something had gone wrong. My surgeon called and jokingly opened the conversation with "Having a bad night yet?". I told him I was dieing and he reminded me of the second Valium which should knock me out. I popped the pill and passed out from 3pm to 7pm. Upon waking I had no more pain and I was able to see 20/20. I joined my friends who had come to sleep over before Connecticon in playing a board game and enjoyed my night.

Starting the next morning, I saw great with the only caveat being dry eyes. After about 3 weeks the dry eyes went away as well and this had become the best decision I had made in my life. Everyone has a different experience, but mine was extremely positive besides thinking I was going to die the first night.