Lasik was a success!
Laser eye surgery is nothing short of amazing. In just 10 minutes, my eyes were fixed and now I can see perfectly without glasses.
I went to the TLC centre in Toronto last Thursday morning and had a great experience. I was there for about two hours, with most of that time spent going over paperwork, finalizing details and prepping for surgery. The staff were all friendly and assuring, easing most of the stress I had about the procedure. My surgeon, Dr. Nick Nianiaris, was very straightforward, very skilled, and kept me calm during my time under the laser.
Here’s a basic recap of what happened: I sat in a waiting room with two other people awaiting surgery. A nurse came in and explained what we’d be going through, and talked about aftercare and recovery. She cleaned my eyes a couple times, put in a bunch of different eye drops and gave me an ativan to help with the nerves.
When my time came, I went into the surgery room, laid down and Dr. Nick started the process by putting some more numbing drops in my eyes. First, he put a suction ring on my eye, which felt weird and pretty uncomfortable, but didn’t really hurt. At this point, my vision went black, which was pretty scary, but I knew it was coming, so I was somewhat prepared for it. The Intralase laser then cut a flap in my cornea, which took about 30 seconds per eye.
Dr. Nick then removed the suction ring and my vision came back, although it was pretty blurry. He used a little metal instrument to gently lift up the flap that was created, and then positioned another laser above my eye to do the actual correction on my cornea. He told me I would smell the laser gases, which I did, in addition to the smell of burning cornea tissue. The laser made a weird clicking sound and one of the two nurses in the room gave me a countdown every 5 seconds, telling me how much time was left and telling me how great I was doing. I think it took 23 seconds of laser time for each eye.
I’ve watched tons of videos of lasik surgeries, so I knew exactly what steps would be taken and what to expect, but it was still really weird to watch it from the other side. I could actually see the flap being lifted off my eye, which was a little disturbing. While the laser was doing its work, I could see little purple circles of light pulsing randomly around, which was kinda neat.
Overall, I’m very happy with the results. I have a bit of dryness in my eyes, especially in the mornings, and I use lubricating drops 4 or 5 times per day, but it’s not unbearable. I still sometimes go to adjust my glasses and I still reach for them first thing in the morning, until I realize that I can see without them. I guess those habits will fade over time.
As I said, I’m really happy with how things turned out, and I’d recommend Lasik surgery to anyone who is a candidate and can afford it.
Spencer "monolith" McCormack says:
Congratulations Rob!
One thing though, Now when I see you how will I know you are a “computer guy”?
December 18th, 2008 at 12:24 am
Rob says:
Thanks!
Don’t worry, the greasy hair and squeaky voice will still give me away…
December 18th, 2008 at 1:58 pm
Little Al says:
Hi Rob,
thanks for sharing yoru eye surgery experience. I am planning to have Lasik. I haven’t decided if I should have the surgery at LASIK MD or TLC.
Could you please tell me the surgery price that TLC offers?
thanks
Alice
July 12th, 2009 at 3:02 pm
Rob says:
Hey Alice,
TLC is probably more expensive than Lasik MD. I paid around $4200, some of which was covered by my work’s insurance plan. The rest was out of pocket. I looked at Lasik MD, but liked the professionalism and overall feel of TLC better. Lasik MD has ads offering surgery for as low as $490 per eye, but they usually try to upsell to “custom wavefront” technology, and there may be additional costs, too. I have heard great success stories from both companies, so my suggestion is to do your research and find the company that you like the best.
-Rob
July 15th, 2009 at 8:03 am