Laser Eye Surgery - anyone's experiences?

So Carly, how did your consult go?

It actually went really well and I went ahead and put for the money to be deposited into my pre-tax expense account for next fiscal year (Jul-10 - Jun-11), so anytime after July, I can get it done!! Problem is, the place makes you pay a $500 non-refundable/non-transferable deposit on the time slot, so I can't make the appt until I know what's going on in July. But I am SO looking forward to it!!

 

Thanks for following up!

Carly, that's fantastic. You will love it. I am very excited for you.

Just wondering, how long is recovery time? I'm reading a bunch of different things online and I forget what they told me during my consult. If I got it done on Tuesday, would I be out of work the whole week or just that day?

I had Laser surgery done (no flap cut) and I used to work at a Laser Eye Clinic. I was someone who loved wearing my glasses but b/c I worked there got the procedure for free. It's probably the best thing I've ever done. My eyes were healed in 3 days, and I haven't had any issues with halos or trouble with night vision. I do find that living in my condo the air is dryer, and I do wake up with sore eyes from time to time. If I used eye drops more often than I do (which is never) I probably wouldn't experience that. I even had a corneal abrasion to my one eye 6 weeks after surgery and no problems what so ever! I highly recommend it!

i believe with Lasik, the recovery is much quicker than laser. I think you would need to have a follow up the day after surgery and should be good to go back to work the day after that. With the Laser surgery you need to be prepared to be off for the week!

My fiance had Lasik and he was back on his feet within a couple of days. It was just a lot of series of eyedrops! He had no significant side effects.

So I had my Lasik on Tuesday!

 

I was getting so nervous in the waiting room that I was feeling nauseous. Not enough that I really thought I would get sick, but still. The weirdest part about the whole thing was def the suctioning of my eye. It was...intense? But also very fast. Then the laser part was nothing. It was also weird to remove the suction and then of course ripping the tape off that was keeping my eyes open wasn't comfortable. But all in all, I was scared and nauseous for nothing.

 

The only bad thing for me is that I didn't take an ibuprophren before the pain kicked in on the way home (we lived about 1.5 hours away from the place) and that was a big mistake. They said to stay ahead of the pain, but I thought the numbing drops would last longer and I could take medicine at home. It hurt SO bad and there was nothing I could do. I kept wanting to press on my eyes to relieve the pressure, but you can't touch your eyes. I ended up taking like 14 ibuprophrens before I was able to fall asleep. I slept for like 14 hours and woke up every 4 hours or so to pee and take another ibu (by then I was just taking a normal dose). Yesterday morning I was a little hazy and my eyes wouldn't open up all the way, but by the end of the day yesterday I felt completely normal! I'm back to work today and my computer is a little hazy, but that's normal for now, so all in all, I'm wondering why I waited to freaking long!

Carly that is fantastic! Congratulations!! Trust me, you are going to love having no glasses. In fact, soon you will hardly even remember that you wore them. I'm so happy for you. Lasik was seriously the best thing I ever did (oops other than meeting J of course)!

Ladies I managed an optometric practice for 7 years and was a certified paraoptometric. Personally I would never have lasik done. Once you get older, 40+ you will still need reading assistance and contacts are not an option after lasik. So again you are stuck with glasses. If you currently have trouble wearing contacts and are stuck in glasses anyhow, then maybe lasik isn't such a bad idea. However I have seen very bad results and people with a lifetime of damage. Extremely dry eyes, inability to read due to halos, etc. I actually knew a college professor that had it done and it impacted her job greatly because the results were so horrible. She had to start getting all her curriculum on audio.

 

If you do do it, I wish you the best. But please do it in the US, regardless of what country you are from. US doctors are a bit more modern and up to date on medical techniques. And follow up regularly with an OD, I strongly recommend someone from a private practice.