I know I haven’t posted in quite a while, and really, don’t expect too much from this one either. For those of you who don’t know, I’ve always had really bad vision ever since I can remember. I refused to wear glasses when I was really little, so that I’m sure didn’t help the matter. In high school or so, I got contacts and wore them until I was around 22. When I was 19, I decided I wanted to have LASIK surgery, but I knew I wasn’t eligible yet. You have to have a stable prescription for at least a year, usually at least 2 years, before you’re eligible.
When I was 22, I went to get fitted for some glasses, since I was realizing that I couldn’t wear contacts at all times. I found out that the contacts had been giving me minor scratches on my cornea, which was making my vision even worse. I haven’t worn contacts since, just glasses. When the scratches were healed, I got a new prescription in my glasses, and continued with my life.
Over 2 years went by and my eye doctor never sent me a reminder card, so that was annoying. I found a new eye doctor and went in for a prescription check-up about a month or so ago. I found out that my prescription had changed so little over the past two and a half years that I didn’t even need new lenses. I immediately looked up LASIK surgeons in the area, and found Dr. MacRae, who actually invented part of the technology that Baush & Lomb use on their laser, and had a 94% rate of 20/20 in each eye after the first surgery, and 99% after the second.
His staff also host free seminars to learn about LASIK, so I signed up for one. I then found out that if you go to a seminar, you can also get a full 37 test per eye evaluation to see if you’re a candidate for free, so I scheduled that as well. The seminar was last Wednesday, and the evaluation was Monday of earlier this week. I found out on Monday that my eyes were perfect for LASIK. I had been thinking about scheduling the surgery for late next week, but they were booked next week and through the middle of September. But they had an opening for yesterday. And I took it.
Yesterday morning I had horrible, horrible vision. I was very nearsighted and had strong astigmatisms in both eyes. I went in for the surgery at 10 am. By 11 am I was heading home. They had me look at the clock on the wall before I laid down on the table, and the numbers were barely legible. When it was over, I looked again and it was as if I was wearing my glasses, but a little hazy. I’m not going to say that it didn’t hurt. For 3 hours afterwards, it hurt like hell and everything was incredibly bright. But by 3 or 3:30, almost all of the pain was gone. By 5:00, the gritty feeling was gone, the pain was gone and my vision was clear.
This morning I went in for my first post-op visit. I have 20/20 in each eye, and 20/15 combined (using both eyes). Less than 24 hours after the surgery! Absolutely incredible. Obviously my cornea are still healing, so it’s likely that my vision will continue to improve over the next couple of weeks. I may even get to 20/15 in each.
The surgery itself was actually pretty easy. The only disconcerting part is when they are cutting the flap of your cornea, so they can reshape the part underneath. The machine needs to apply a lot of vaccuum pressure to make the cornea flat. For some people, this just means that things will get dim. With my strong astigmatisms, my vision went completely black for that process. That was unnerving, but they prepared me for it, so it wasn’t too bad. The rest of it was easy as pie.
I meant for this to be a shorter post than it ended up being, so I’m going to wrap this up. If you’ve ever considered LASIK, but been on the fence, DO IT! Best decision I’ve ever made. This concludes the first post I’ve ever written without contacts or glasses.
