≡ Click to see image ≡

Uh oh! ;-)

Ooooooh!

OOOoooo! How many fingers am I holding up?

That's pretty cool! So, yesterday, specs were required, and today, not at all? Wild.

Seriously, I am totally jealous. I'm a -8 in one eye and a -7.5 in the other. Blind as a bat, essentially.

So ... are you in any pain or anything? How does it feel to be able to SEE?

Yay! My oldest brother got LASIK this summer and just LOVES it. I've been wanting to do it, but my insurance covers approximately 0% of it and I don't have the money saved up.

You're very brave. I'd never have it. The fact that my optician has an almost identical prescription to mine, but he won't have LASIK is enough for me.

Brina, my eyes are very similar to yours, my contact lens prescription is -7 in one and -6.5 in the other (slightly different for glasses). Apparently the type of LASIK I'd need would be the one where they have to cut your cornea open - while you're awake - and then zap you with the laser. Nuh-uh. Not in a million years.

Richat, it's totally, totally bizarre. I was -6 (couldn't see my alarm clock) and now I'm 20/20 in the left eye and 20/30 in the right. If people are curious, I'd be happy to post the details: kinda gets into GYOFB territory, so I'll hold off unless asked.

But the upshot, yes: walked in with glasses, walked out without 'em. No pain, but a slight feeling like an errant eyelash. Took a two-hour nap at home, then went to a Mustaches for Kids kick-off meeting and a roller derby practice after that with vision akin to slightly smudgy glasses. Work up this morning crystal clear, no irritation whatsoever.

Hard to stop adjusting my non-existent glasses, though.

Please please tell me how your night vision works out. That's what I'm afraid of losing by getting LASIK.

That was my big worry, too, and I'm particularly at risk because I have large pupils. It'll be another few days before I know where I'm at there, so I'll try to follow up.

eamondaly, congratulations, that is so awesome!

My sister-in-law had it done about three years ago. She now has to wear glasses when driving at night, but other than that she sees fine. My friend had it done last month and noticed that at night there is a cloud or haze around lights. Other than that her vision is perfect.

They both wish they would have had it done years ago.

Eamondaly, I'm totally jealous!

If people are curious, I'd be happy to post the details: kinda gets into GYOFB territory, so I'll hold off unless asked.

Please go ahead and post any and all details, follow ups, everything... this is YOFB

*watches thread with great interest*

That's awesome, eamondaly! Yay for eyesight!

It's hard to not adjust your glasses, no?

What scares me is night vision, and long term vision.

I knew someone who had it done about eight years ago who still had to wear glasses after the procedure, but she was told, "oh, but they will be lighter!" Eh, I don't think glasses weight reduction was the desired result. But again, it's been awhile.

Being pretty near sighted, I've thought about it, but am still waiting for something better. I gotta get me some Zeiss Ikons.

I had it almost 4 years ago, and I've been very happy with the results. I had it in two stages (twice for each eye, that is), and there was some pain the second round, but, wow, I never imagined that I'd be able to do without glasses. I still, every now and then, reach for the glasses first thing in the morning, or feel a nagging sense that I need to take out my contacts at night, but I guess that comes from needing lenses for over half my life.

Good for you!! I'd like to have it done someday; but I'm always afraid I'll be the one it goes bad on. What's it like to wake up being able to see?

kinda gets into GYOFB territory, so I'll hold off unless asked.
Consider yourself asked.

Well, I've been thinking about having it done for years, but the costs were always a bit out of my range, and I have to admit there was a certain level of vanity keeping me from going through with it, as I've always thought I looked better in glasses. I kept up with the literature, though, and when a buddy of mine had his done, experienced a bunch of issues with rogue cells underneath the flap requiring several weeks of follow-up and not one but two "scraping" sessions, and still insisted it was the greatest thing he'd ever done for himself, I went in for a consultation with his doctor.

For those who don't know, LASIK is an outpatient procedure, during which a flap is cut from the eye, a laser reshapes the tissue underneath, and the flap is flipped back. The patent remains conscious throughout. As mentioned above, I had nearsightedness and a vision index of -6, which means that I couldn't read the big "E" on the chart without glasses. Oddly enough, that made me an excellent candidate: my eyes were good enough to correct, but bad enough that any change would probably be a dramatic improvement. I felt really comfortable with the doctor and scheduled a pre-op scan for November 9th.

The pre-op procedure is pretty straightforward: it takes two hours, but a big chunk of that time is waiting for your pupils to dilate. I did all the normal tests of a routine eye exam, plus several weird pokes at my (numbed) eyeball with what looked like a giant magic marker, and a couple of robotic eye scans. The latter proved to be problematic, as it turns out I have unusually long lashes, so an assistant had to hold my lids open while the machines scanned my eyes. Bizarre, but not painful in any way. The doc gave me the go-ahead for the surgery on November 12th, and the missus drove me home (as planned), as my pupils were way too big and the light was giving me a raging headache. I was also given prescriptions for eye drops to be applied four times a day starting first thing Saturday morning: Vigamox (anti-infection) and prednisolone acetate (anti-inflammatory). Also, a prescription for 2 pills of Valium to be brought to the surgery on Monday.

So the day of the surgery, I went to work as usual, left at about 11:00 in the morning, and took a series of buses out to Glenview. Rather than compose a narrative, I'll just cut to the chase with a play-by-play:

12:45 - Arrive and go directly to hospital billing to pay my first 1/3 of the surgery cost ($1,333).

13:05 - Check in at the LASIK office. Review some post-procedure documents and discovered I was supposed to wait 5-10 minutes between drops. Receive a post-op kit including Systane drops (eye lubricant), polarized sunglasses, and goggles to be worn while sleeping. Take the Valium.

13:15 - Brought into the doctor's office for a quick set of checks to make sure the eyes are in shape for surgery.

13:20 - Shown the operating room. Return to the doctor's office while the assistants prep the machine.

13:40 - Led back to the operating room. No apparent effect from the Valium, but I haven't felt particularly nervous all day. Excited more than anything. I sit in the big chair and an assistant asks me to hold on to a giant stuffed dog/bear thing throughout the procedure. They tell me the dogbear's name repeatedly and will continue to mention the dogbear throughout, but I'm more annoyed than relaxed by the duty of holding on to the damn thing.

13:45 - An assistant tilts the chair back and swivels the unit so I am staring up into a very very bright circle with an orange blur in the center. I'm asked to focus on the red light, which also annoys me, because it's clearly orange. I focus. The doctor enters the room, says hello, and starts turning on various equipment throughout the room so I won't be surprised by the sounds during the surgery: the laser itself sounds like a regular series of staticky shocks, as from a doorknob. The flap-cutter sounds like a very old, very slow scanner. The light is still orange, though the doctor, too, insists it is red. It remains very blurry and very bright.

13:50 - Here we go! My left eye is covered, and my right eye is swabbed with what I assume is Betadine or similar. The doctor opens up my right eye while an assistant tapes the lid open, then puts some numbing drops in. Again, focus on the little (no, it's big) red (orange!) light and breathe. Some ring-like utensil enters my field of vision and then the scanner noise starts. Things go black very slowly and I struggle to blink. I don't feel particularly afraid, but I do discover that if dogbears existed and I were holding a real one, it'd possibly be injured, but most likely dead. I relax and the doctor approves. Popping noises now, and a strange countdown from the assistant that starts around 465, goes down to 450 or so, and then starts again at 80, then disappears. The popping stops, and now a series of instruments enter my field of vision that all look like little white rings with long handles. I can see! I can't see. I can see! I can kinda see... yep, nope, yes! Yes. It turns out I was very wrong: the big fuzzy light is actually quite small. It is, however, orange. The doctor says I'm doing great.

13:58ish - Time to do the left eye. Same as before, but either the doctor moves more quickly or the assistant didn't add as much numbing, because now I can tell that they've inserted a speculum into my eye, which is the first real discomfort so far, as is a bit creepy to imagine. I'm trying desperately to keep my eyes as wide as possible and stare at the fuzzy light, but I can tell it's not working very well, as the doctor is really pulling pretty hard on my eyebrow. The scanner starts, which I find oddly relaxing, and the same fade to black begins. Popping again, perhaps a bit longer than before, and the same weird broken countdown. Then more tools and some futzing by the doctor and I can see again: a bright orange dot with a thin white circle surrounding it. The doctor congratulates me and says he'll meet me in his office. The attendants swab my eyes a bit and lead me out of the room. I realize I can read the clock, which says

14:05 - Things are a bit hazy, as when I have smudges on my glasses, but I can definitely read letters and numbers without squinting. Other things I can see: the room number, the pattern in the carpet, the buttons on my backpack, the second row of the eye chart, my hands. An assistant performs a handful of vision tests, and the doctor double checks the flaps to make sure they're back in place and look good. He declares the operation a success and goes to get my wife to talk about eye drops and post-op procedures. If I crane my head, I discover I can see myself in the mirror across the room, without my glasses, for the first time ever. I don't look so bad.

i'm thinking of getting a touch up after nearly ten years. It was still 20/40 in the worse eye last i checked, from 20/10.
Since i was pretty much legally blind before that, it's still amazing.

Also, I forgot to mention: seanyboy, I burst out laughing at your post.

Why isn't it possible to have it done under general anaesthetic? Anybody know?

I am more and more thinking about getting this done, because the contacts are not as effective as I had hoped - there doesn't seem to be a prescription available that exactly works for me and my peculiar combination of defects, which probably means the surgery won't work either.

I couldn't read it all because it was freaking me out. But glad that it went well. Still sticking to my contacts and glasses for now!

It must be a great feeling to have such a major noticeable improvement overnight in seeing things. So were they reshaping your lenses or what?

It'd be nice to be able to see without the eyeglass frame around everything, and have clear peripheral vision too. I'm still hesitant on the whole thing, though. Glad to hear it went well for ya. Updates on your eyes would be welcomed.
Note to King of Prontopia: nice Gibson reference there. Ikons'd be great to have. :)

chew: yep. The laser basically vaporizes tiny little bits of the cornea, removing imperfections as it goes. I believe they can't put you completely under because a) anaesthesia is always a risk and b) you need to focus directly on the laser during the procedure.

Please please tell me how your night vision works out. That's what I'm afraid of losing by getting LASIK.

The X-Ray vision, too.

I had it done four years ago - my results have been wonderful. There is a lot to be said for being able to read the clock first thing in the morning :-)

(and I pushed my nonexistent glasses up for some time, too)

I'm sooo jealous.

Stupid diabetes and the ongoing possibility of retinopathy.