LASIK Update: Six Months Later

Yesterday I had my six month checkup after having LASIK eye surgery done back in December. Everything checked out very well, and I am very happy with the results. My eyesight is slightly better than 20/20, and I am totally enjoying the freedom of not having to wear and worry about glasses.

There are a couple of small side effects that I am dealing with. I find that my eyes get dry sometimes, and I’m a bit more sensitive to light than I remember being before the surgery. Dryness is easily remedied with a couple of eye drops. At most, I’ve had to put in eye drops two or three times a day, which is tolerable and not a big deal to me. Most days I don’t have any issues, but if I’m tired or working on the computer for an extended period without taking a break, I notice the dry eyes gets worse.

As for light sensitivity, I’ve noticed sunlight seems excessively bright at times, and I have to squint when I’m outdoors as a result. I wear sunglasses a lot when I’m out on a sunny day, or when driving, but I think it’s a good idea for most people to wear sunglasses anyway, to protect one’s eyes from UV rays. Plus, I got to pick out some stylish sunglasses for the first time in my life, instead of wearing those geeky clip-on shades that go over your regular glasses.

Overall, I’m very happy with the results of my LASIK procedure. If I knew it would be this good, I would have done it years ago.

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.

Getting lasers shot into my eyes

After years of wanting to do it, I’m finally going to get LASIK laser eye surgery. I’ve done tons of research, talked to people who’ve had it done, heard the horror stories and I’m at the point where I’m ready to do it.

I’m scheduled for tomorrow morning at 9:40am at TLC in Toronto. The actual procedure only takes about 15 minutes, but it is a bit scary, since they are going to be cutting and touching my eyes and a big laser is gonna shoot rays at me. Recovery is usually pretty quick, and a lot of people report seeing clearly almost immediately after the surgery. I’ll have to use various eye drops for the first few days, but I should be able to return to most normal activities within a week.

I’m pretty excited and a bit nervous, but I’m really looking forward to life without glasses. Wish me luck!