Detailed Lasek Surgery Journal As It Happens

Idjit

Hi guys,
I just got Lasek eye surgery done on my right eye on Friday just gone. The surgery for my left eye is this Friday coming and I thought while I am in the in-between stages I would do up a breakdown of how it's going for people who are interested in the procedure (and also to pass the time, one thing I'd recommend in advance is to get audio books, I'm typing this with sunglasses on looking mostly at the keyboard!). Any journals or information I found about it myself when I was doing research were often lacking a lot of details so this will run you through it step by step while it's fresh in my memory.

Day One (Right eye, surgery day): The Prep
Scheduled for 3pm and told I had to expect to be in the clinic for approx. two hours. All staff are very friendly and professional. Get the feeling that this procedure is as simple as buttering toast in the morning to them because they've done it so many times. A few minutes after I've checked in,a nurse gives me something to relax me (small dosage of Valium I believe) in pill form.

After another wait (presumably for the vallium to kick in), I am brought in to do some last little checks on the eyes like what you would experience in your opticians. ("Does this lens make it better or worse? Is the green or the red line clearer with this one"?)

Next the nurse puts a few drops in my eyes. The first one is uncomfortable for half a second and she tells me it's because it's going to numb the eye. I don't feel the other two or three drops because my eye was almost instantly numbed by the first one.

Next post: the actual surgery.

Idjit

Day 1, Right Eye: The Actual Surgery.
A lot of the information/personal journals I've come across about this part have been full of 'what's happening' rather than what the person is experiencing. (E.g. 'And then the doctor put the clamp on my eye' rather than 'And then I felt some pressure like this' etc). Since my first surgery was only a couple of days ago I will describe what I saw and felt rather than what the procedure is (which you can google online easily anyway) composed of.

After the numbing drops were put into my eye, I was brought into a surgical room. It was a roughly standard office-room size. There was one machine in the centre of it that I was focused on which was the laser. There was a plastic bed underneath the laser.

Basically I lay down onto this plastic bed, there was a mold for where my head was to rest. I looked up and saw just this red light. Nothing that fit the description 'laser' in my head (I had been imagining this giant cartoonish-like laser beam fit to cut through sheet metal). It just looked like a focused red light, like the little hand held lasers kids play with. A bit of plastic (felt like thick cling wrap) was pulled down onto my eye (presumably to protect my skin and hair).

Now for the discomfort, keep in mind from the moment I walked into the surgical room to the moment I walked out was roughly ten minutes:
There was a good deal more drops administered, something was clasped in place on my eyelids (too numb to feel any pain but human instinct does try to kick in and make you squirm away). A nurse held my hand to one side so I focused on that and keeping myself still (I was advised to grasp the sides of the plastic bed just to hold steady).

More in next comment...

Idjit

Continued..

Next, the doctor splashes what feels like a metric tonne of cold water on my eye. This is a bit of a shock as the eye had been mostly warm and numb for awhile beforehand. He asked me to look directly at the red light (the laser). This is a bit tricky and I turned it into a little game in my head; the water on my eye meant that the image of the laser kept wavering around ahead of me and doubling up on itself so I kept myself distracted trying to look directly at it.

This bit seems to frighten people a bit so I'll explain in depth: more water is splashed on and what feels like a few more drops. I can see something in the doctors hand, some sort of instrument, pushing something around on my eye. I cannot feel any of this and it doesn't even cause me the slightest bit of discomfort. It's like watching something in an aquarium because there's so much water on my eye and I'm still completely numb. The laser is then used. This makes a rather loud electricity sound (think of Frankenstein's monster coming alive kind of electricity noise). I didn't feel anything other than a slight warming sensation on my eye and there's a weird smell. The doctor swishes something around on my eye again (again, numb aquarium watching). The laser does it's thing again, same as before, warm and funny smell.

Then the doctor puts more water/drops on my eye and carefully lowers something clear onto it (I learn later that this was a contact lens which would act as a bandage while my eye heals).

And I'm done! The entire procedure from walking into the surgical room itself and walking out was roughly ten minutes. I'm sat down in a private room separately and given a smorgasbord of different drops and some antibiotics.

Next post: Current recovery of right eye experience.

Idjit

Continued..

After surgery, I go home to begin taking eye drops and medications. I'm given fairly strong sleeping pills too. I take my drops, sleeping pills and go to bed right away after dinner (around 7pm).

The next morning I have to go straight back into the doctor for a checkup. This takes all of two minutes. He looks at my eye up close using one of those little things they use in opticians (non invasive, nothing for me to do except stare into it) and gives me more anesthetic drops in case the pain worsens. He also warns me to use them as little as possible as they may slow healing.

So far I had been struggling mostly with runny eyes (probably because of all the drops!) but apparently runny eyes are better than dry eyes. There had also been this sensation like someone was cutting onions near me all the time. Like I was always on the edge of a sneeze but never did. This morning I got the bandage contact lens removed and that lessened the discomfort quite a bit. My eye is still runny but I can start to see the vision improvement in it already and it has stopped suffering the 'near sneeze' sensation. I'm wearing sunglasses because it is still a bit sensitive to light.

I will be getting my left eye done this Friday. My left eye has astigmatism so I will post here if there is anything different in experience with that.

Otherwise, please feel free to PM me with any questions about the experience you have!

_dublinlad_

Thanks for that Jade. I am getting Lasek this Friday, so its great to hear what you actually experience rather then just what's happening. Keep the updates coming

Idjit

Continued: Left Eye, Surgery Day Differences.
I will continue this thread by saying my right eye has mostly adjusted to the light-sensitivity issue, vision is nearly as good as it would be with my glasses on. Still using the drops as I will continue doing for the next few weeks ("Lubrication is the key" is what the surgeon kept saying, still has me giggling now). I have seen no other negative side effects with my right eye though I haven't really put it to the test yet (been mostly indoors in my own house since getting it done).

Now onto the left eye. My left eye has slight astigmatism. I'm not sure if this is the reason for there being differences between the two processes or not but that's the only difference I could think of.

Firstly: the surgery for the left eye seemed to take longer. I went in fairly confident and at ease that I would be out in about ten minutes and the laser would be zapped about twice and that's it as it had seemed for the right eye. Not so. This time around I seemed to be there for a bit longer and felt a very slight stinging sensation during the procedure. I let the nurse know this but she assured me this is normal. The laser was on for what seemed like a lot longer than before. This might have been my own cockyness from the easy success of the previous surgery or maybe it really was to do with the astigmatism being corrected.

Secondly: The recovery process was far less pleasant. Again, very little pain the first night but the discomfort was distracting enough to make sleep difficult. My eye puffed out quite badly. Let me just say this: they will more than likely give you a tiny tube containing anesthetic drops to bring home with you. Do not use these during the day. Take the painkillers they give you instead during the day and just power through it. Listen to the radio or something. Save those beautiful little life comforting tubes for when it's 5am and you wake up with what feels like itsy bitsy shards of glass under your lids.

This pain didn't occur with my right eye at all so I had several of these little tubes of anesthetic left over. On the second night after my left eye surgery, I woke up with stinging prickling feeling (bad enough to wake me up) There is a slight sting when you use the anesthetic drops first. A good rule of thumb is: if the sting from the drops is more than the stinging in your eyes, you shouldn't be using the drops. The anesthetic drops are given in teeny tubes for a reason; they should only be for emergency pain relief as they numb your eye and I think that slows down the healing process.

I held off from using them as much as possible even though I had plenty available because of this. The three days of healing were quite bad compared to the easy go of it I had with the right eye. Again, I couldn't say if it was the astigmatism or if there was some other aspect, maybe to my own immune system/hormones that was just different this week that caused the difference.

This morning I got the bandage contact lens taken off my left eye (drops put in to numb it first, lens slips off easily and painlessly like an ordinary soft lens). The relief of having it off was immediately felt. The swelling in that eye has visibly gone down further since, in only the few hours since I have been home from getting the bandage contact lens out. My right eye is functioning as normal and my left is gaining on it each hour (the only issue is the swelling is making it warm and feels like it wants to close but that will subside).

I have an absolute arsenal of different types of eye drops to take, both antibiotic and plain soothing drops, for the next few weeks. All in all, looking at my surroundings now glasses and contact lenses-free; I would 100% recommend it to anyone who relies on them to get the procedure done.

For my own prescription beforehand, I was completely helpless without the aid of glasses or contacts. I couldn't even shave my legs in the shower properly because I couldn't see the hairs (and I have black hair)! Maybe if you only have a slight prescription or you are still quite young (under 23),leave it for now and wait a little longer before getting it done. I am 23 years old and was told this is quite a young age to get it done due to shifting eyesight throughout youth. A mild prescription may not be worth the hassle of the procedure (i.e. if you only need to wear glasses for the cinema or looking at far-away billboards).

That's my experience anyway. If anything untoward or strange happens in the following weeks I will of course return and document it here, but feel free to PM me any questions or concerns (not from a medical standpoint of course, I mean from personal fears or questions about my own experience as a patient) you may have in the meantime!

popperinthere

Thanks for this journal, looking forward to the next entry. I've suddenly gotten a lump sum and Lasek sounds like a possibility. I've just turned 26 mind. glasses at 15. prescription change at 19 (-1.25L, -1.50R) and no change since so will see.

Question: have you omitted the name of the clinic for any reason? I've heard stories about employees of clinics advertising their own workplaces but timeline and credibility says you're legit so would love to know where it was done looking forward to the next post!

Idjit

popperinthere wrote: »

Question: have you omitted the name of the clinic for any reason? I've heard stories about employees of clinics advertising their own workplaces but timeline and credibility says you're legit so would love to know where it was done looking forward to the next post!

I've left the name of the clinic out of the post as I wasn't sure if moderators would approve of it being mentioned. The post was more to discuss the personal experiences of the surgery itself rather than commenting on what kind of job of it a particular surgeon/clinic did.

However, I can PM you with contact details and you can arrange a consultation with them and see what you think of them yourself.

Idjit

Update: First Post-Op, Post-Healing Checkup

This morning I had my first check-up since the main healing period has finished. This is usually supposed to be done a week after surgery. The checkups generally go: 24 hours after surgery, 1 week after surgery, 3 months after, 1 year after. I unfortunately couldn't get work booked off beforehand so it's more like 2 weeks after surgery at this point.

Very short discussion with the surgeon. He got out the ol' letter board (a quick search tells me this is called a 'Snellen chart', neat) and asked me how far down I could see. I was able to read the fourth line from the bottom fairly easily and make out most of the third line from the bottom alright as well (a bit blurry however). Then he had a look at my eyes through one of those microscope-looking devices that has a light shining directly onto your pupils (non invasive, but my eyes water a bit more easily now so it can be a bit of a struggle to keep from blinking).

I was told that the results look very promising, and that due to the extensive work done on my eyes (especially my astigmatism-ridden left one) it wasn't expected for them to be fully healed yet. Apparently they are due to get even clearer over the next few weeks. This is great news for me because even as they are, it's a crazy improvement on wearing glasses.

Side effects I currently notice since the main healing stage has passed:
-Things with back-lights, such as laptops or phones, can cause my eyes to water up if they are too bright. This is not extreme and is easily amended by changing brightness settings. I assume this is also part of the extended healing process as some days this problem is non-existent.
-Streetlights at night can (rarely) have slight 'starburst' kind of effects to them. Like the orange of the light is streaking outwards more from the light than I know it looks normally. Again, this varies from day to day. I think how lubricated my eyes are kept has an effect on this. I was given more drops to use today and will be ensuring my eyes are pampered to try to rectify this issue.

These side effects are not causing any real problems or disruptions with my day-to-day routine, they are just little things I've noticed. As I said, I have a feeling it's still early days yet and that these issues will fade as my eyes heal. I have to keep reminding myself I got laser-beamed right in the eyes and just because I'm not uncomfortable, that does not mean I'm not still healing. :cool:

There probably wont be further updates on this journal unless something untoward happens in the next few months. However, feel free to PM me should you have any questions (as before, I'm not a doctor so I can only tell you my own experiences as a patient) about the procedure and after-care.

I definitely consider it worth the small hassle of healing and am delighted I went through with it. I still grasp for my glasses in the morning before realising I don't wear them anymore.

-Jade182