I did Lasik!
Aug. 31st, 2017 07:35 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
sarea
I thought it had been ages since I last really updated, but I'm not that behind, whew. I guess it just feels like it, because it seems that a lot has happened since mid-Aug.
One big thing is that I got Lasik surgery!! YES A LASER CUT MY EYES AND I'M STILL HERE TO TALK ABOUT IT!
I've wanted Lasik for years, probably since it was first A Thing. But back then my contacts (gas permeable, aka hard lenses) didn't bother me much, and I was both afraid that the surgery would make me go blind immediately, and being skeptical that the technology was so new they didn't even have 5-year studies yet. Oh, and of course, cost. Back then it was more costly and I made less money, so all those things combined made Lasik not a desirable option for me.
Fast forward 20 years or so. Over the last couple of years, my contacts had been bothering me more and more. My hard contacts, which had never been an issue for me, suddenly started to make my eyes feel gritty and tired, and for some reason I couldn't seem to keep them clean (after getting a new pair, over time, even though I was diligent about cleaning them every night, it seemed like I was looking through a cloud sometimes). I wasn't concerned that it was my eyes that were the problem, because when I took my contacts out I had no problems at all, and also I see my ophthalmologist regularly, so if I'd had issues with my eyes, I would know. The frustration with my contacts let me to the decision to finally do the surgery.
This despite the fact that I had spoken with a couple of coworkers who had had problems after the surgery... one had been far-sighted, though, while I'm nearsighted; she was convinced that that was why she had continued problems. The other woman, M., had to have another surgery after, kept experiencing problems, and worst of all, had been pushed over into needing readers. My own aunt had had such problems after surgery that she'd had to have multiple procedures afterward, and now has been rendered unable to drive.
However, I also spoke with a couple of coworkers who had really been thrilled with their results. D. had gone to TLC Eye Centers, and sang the praises of the doctors there as well as her experience. M. had gone to Sharpe Vision; last year I went to do a consultation there and I hadn't been impressed with the experience. Their offices were pristine, but in a too-slick way; I felt like the people I spoke with had brushed aside the concerns I brought up and didn't actually care about the patients; they were like a factory that just wanted to get you in so they could make money. After that experience I put off the decision to do Lasik... I didn't like them, and I was also of the impression that I would have to be in glasses for months and months, which I couldn't face because I REALLY HATE WEARING GLASSES.
After talking with D. and her experience at TLC, however, I was willing to do another consultation. I was immediately more at ease in their offices. The offices themselves weren't fancy, but they had top of the line equipment, really seemed to listen to my concerns, and had more honest answers when I brought up concerns. Example: I asked if it was true that I could lose my ability to see close, that the surgery could push me over the edge into having "aging eye" where I would need readers. The response from the doctor was that, while the exact answer was more complicated with regard to the physiology of what happens to the eye during laser surgery, the answer was yes, it was a possibility. As much as that answer disappointed me, and made me hesitate, ultimately I decided to go ahead with Lasik.
So for the last month or so, I've been wearing my glasses nonstop. It was really, really annoying -- every pair of glasses I've ever had slipped down my nose within seconds; I hated having something on my face constantly; they touched my cheeks; I found them hard to keep clean; the list goes on -- and I was resigned to having to wear them for months. The statistic I had heard was that you needed to be in glasses for a week for every year you've worn contacts... I'd been wearing contacts -- hard lenses, which can shape the cornea -- for 23 years! That's like 6 months!
Despite liking TLC for the most part, I had feel a bit skeptical that they'd scheduled me for surgery a month from my first appointment. I figured they did that because they went with the earliest possible date, then would reevaluate/reschedule depending on how my eye exams went. I kept telling family/friends/coworkers that I was skeptical I would actually have the surgery on that day. A week before the surgery, they did a checkup and noted that my cornea had changed -- not unexpectedly. The following week, they checked again, and said my eyes were stable. O.o It wasn't that I thought they were lying... but I also felt like, "Are you sure?" Could a month have already been enough to stabilize my eyes? A couple of days before the surgery, I had my eyes dilated by my usual eye doc; he had to use the super-version of the stuff that dilates your eyes, and it was SO STRONG that it lasted for a day and a half! It was crazy!
And suddenly I was actually getting laser surgery, and I had to re-map my brain to accept this! It was actually happening! I had been so skeptical I didn't even mark it off at work that I would need to take the day off! I hadn't started the eye drops or anything, and had to get the medications filled at the last minute. >.>
On the day of the surgery,adelagia kindly was my designated driver. I expected TLC to check my eyes again before the surgery in terms of the cornea shape; they didn't. At this point, I was like, welp it's happening! My doctor was Michael Belin, who I had secretly preferred when I had first visited TLC, because of the way it was described to me that the surgeons there do the surgeries. Dr. Gillette, who D. had had (though she did PRK), liked to create a flap in both corneas, then do the vision correction in both. Whereas Dr. Belin liked to create the flap in one, do the vision correction in that one, then do the other eye. That seemed like a better process to me... I mean, who wants to lie there with both your corneas opened and vulnerable?! Anyway, part of me had really wanted the surgery to go through, because I knew if I had to reschedule, I probably wouldn't get Dr. Belin since he only does surgery once a month at TLC (the doctors there are like... on rotation or something), while Dr. Gillette was there twice as much.
Anyway... the whole thing, from the time I arrived to the time I left, was about 40 minutes. I think. It's a little fuzzy now. I was prescribed a single Xanax, which I took when they told me to. It didn't really seem to have any effect on me at the time; I felt excited but nervous, and not the least bit loopy or more relaxed than usual... maybe it helped and I just didn't realize it. The most uncomfortable part of the surgery itself was having my eye clamped open; I heard but didn't feel the laser at all, neither the one that cut the flap nor the one that did the correction. During the first part, which was the scariest, one of the technicians sat and held my hand... I can't tell you how comforting that was.
When doing the correction, they have you stare at a blinking green light and not look away. (The laser has a pupil tracker, so that if you get distracted and look away, the laser stops.) There was one very odd moment after my first eye (the right) had undergone correction. When the table lowered me from the laser, the blinking green light, which had previously been fuzzy, was CRYSTAL CLEAR. I was like, seriously? Is that really my eyesight now??? Is it really that fast? Because my other eye, which hadn't had anything done to it yet, was still seeing things as blurry. It's probably my clearest memory of the whole thing, that suddenly-clear blinking green light. After each eye is done, they use what looks like a tiny squeegee to close the flap and smooth it out.
Once both eyes were done, I was helped up ... as expected, everything looked like it was enveloped in a smoky haze. I was given goggles and the instruction to go home and sleep, and when I woke up, to start my eyedrop routine. I remember talking toadelagia and feeling slightly loopy by this point, but was lucid enough... I could also see well enough, even though the haze and the goggles, to walk without help. I was even chatting with her in the car... until I wasn't. Next thing I knew, we were turning down my street. Once home, I zonked out.
That first day, once I woke up from my nap, I felt... okay. I even felt well enough, and saw well enough, to drive! My mom,jade_okelani and I went to Dough Zone. (Jade was in town for work and was at a conference all day.) I immediately noticed that the thing people said about seeing halos around lights, after Lasik, was true. But it was only certain lights... some car lights, maybe on older cars, didn't have that effect at all.
Today is a week since the surgery. It seems like no time at all, and yet also like so much time has passed, lol. I had a one day, a four day, and a week checkup. I was very diligent with following the eye drop schedule, taking the medication when I was supposed to, and doing the artificial tears every hour, because all the doctors kept emphasizing how important it was to keep the eye lubricated.
One day: At my one day checkup, most of the smoky haze had gone. I had some bruising on the white parts of my eyes, which looks really horrible, but didn't feel like much. The eye doc explained that, like bruises, they would fade over time. Other than some slight blurriness, she said things looked good. Maybe even better than, because I was 20/15 in my right eye and 20/20 in my left, which was better than average results at the one-day mark.
Four day: At the four day mark, I was a little concerned, because the right eye, which had previously been the 'better' eye immediately after surgery, had some blurriness that the left eye did not have. It was like wearing contacts all over again, where I couldn't seem to keep that eye clean! Only now I couldn't even pop anything out to try and clean it! I was worried that this would be a permanent thing... even though I was seeing fine, just having that little bit of blurriness was VERY bothersome, when one eye is sharp and the other... isn't. The eye doc said that she expected it to get better with time, that the slight blurriness was probably due to some inflammation with the cornea. At this checkup, my left eye had improved to 20/15 vision, while my right eye had regressed to 20/20. Of course... 20/20 is still a pretty damn good result, lol.
One week: Today I saw my regular eye doc. The bruising has faded and looks a lot better already, but he estimated it would take another 7-10 days before it would be gone completely. He ran the usual tests, and I was happy to confirm that the slight blurriness in my right eye that I had been experiencing had mostly gone away. After a few tests, he was shocked and pleased to see that I'm now 20/15 in both eyes. I did so well that he was like, "I NEVER do this, but I have to know..." and showed me the 20/10 slide. It had 5 letters on it that I was kind of, sort of able to make out, and after I read them out loud, I was like, "Was I close?" And he was like, "WTF... you got 4 out of those 5 correct. This is amazing!" Then he ran other diagnostics and said that in my right eye, I had 0s across the board (no nearsightedness/farsightedness/astigmatism), which is very, very rare, and in my left eye I had -0.25 astigmatism and that was it. He said that this was a case he was going to talk to Debi Patch about (she's the clinical director at TLC), because the stellar results were so unusual.
Oh, and ... perhaps best of all, I haven't lost my ability to read super close. My first fear about Lasik was accidentally going blind; my second fear was being pushed into the "aging eye." I can still read very close, so he says that I have some years to go before aging eye will affect me. FINGERS CROSSED that this is true.
He did caution me, however, not to get too excited about my 20/15 vision. He said that it's only a week, things are still adjusting, I could still regress, and my eyes will likely keep changing. Since I am a naturally pessimistic person, I have no trouble believing that these could be fleeting results. I would love for things to stay great, but I don't want to get my hopes up. I also want certain things to improve, such as seeing halos at night (sensitivity to light in general; typing up this whole post, my eyes are already tired and a little blurry), my eyes feeling tired earlier, and feeling dry at certain points all day (I'm supposed to keep up the drops for another 1-3 months).
All in all, though, I am REALLY pleased with the results, and have no regrets about doing the surgery. Of course, I am in fact regretting that I didn't do it sooner. :)) I still have moments where I think, "Oh, I should go take out my contacts," or reaching for my glasses, or waking up and thinking OMG I slept with my contacts in, lol. It's really, really cool not to need corrective lenses anymore, but in some ways, it's also natural to me to be able to see without 'feeling' anything, because I always wore contacts! And until recently I couldn't really feel them in my eyes! But it is nice in terms of laziness that I now don't have to worry about cleaning them nightly, or have to remember to pack all my contact stuff before going on a trip, or having to put glasses on my face. <3 I think it will feel more magical, too, when (hopefully) the little issues I'm having go away too.
In 6 months, I hope I'm even happier with the results than I am today, and not, you know, regretting having done it. :P
One big thing is that I got Lasik surgery!! YES A LASER CUT MY EYES AND I'M STILL HERE TO TALK ABOUT IT!
I've wanted Lasik for years, probably since it was first A Thing. But back then my contacts (gas permeable, aka hard lenses) didn't bother me much, and I was both afraid that the surgery would make me go blind immediately, and being skeptical that the technology was so new they didn't even have 5-year studies yet. Oh, and of course, cost. Back then it was more costly and I made less money, so all those things combined made Lasik not a desirable option for me.
Fast forward 20 years or so. Over the last couple of years, my contacts had been bothering me more and more. My hard contacts, which had never been an issue for me, suddenly started to make my eyes feel gritty and tired, and for some reason I couldn't seem to keep them clean (after getting a new pair, over time, even though I was diligent about cleaning them every night, it seemed like I was looking through a cloud sometimes). I wasn't concerned that it was my eyes that were the problem, because when I took my contacts out I had no problems at all, and also I see my ophthalmologist regularly, so if I'd had issues with my eyes, I would know. The frustration with my contacts let me to the decision to finally do the surgery.
This despite the fact that I had spoken with a couple of coworkers who had had problems after the surgery... one had been far-sighted, though, while I'm nearsighted; she was convinced that that was why she had continued problems. The other woman, M., had to have another surgery after, kept experiencing problems, and worst of all, had been pushed over into needing readers. My own aunt had had such problems after surgery that she'd had to have multiple procedures afterward, and now has been rendered unable to drive.
However, I also spoke with a couple of coworkers who had really been thrilled with their results. D. had gone to TLC Eye Centers, and sang the praises of the doctors there as well as her experience. M. had gone to Sharpe Vision; last year I went to do a consultation there and I hadn't been impressed with the experience. Their offices were pristine, but in a too-slick way; I felt like the people I spoke with had brushed aside the concerns I brought up and didn't actually care about the patients; they were like a factory that just wanted to get you in so they could make money. After that experience I put off the decision to do Lasik... I didn't like them, and I was also of the impression that I would have to be in glasses for months and months, which I couldn't face because I REALLY HATE WEARING GLASSES.
After talking with D. and her experience at TLC, however, I was willing to do another consultation. I was immediately more at ease in their offices. The offices themselves weren't fancy, but they had top of the line equipment, really seemed to listen to my concerns, and had more honest answers when I brought up concerns. Example: I asked if it was true that I could lose my ability to see close, that the surgery could push me over the edge into having "aging eye" where I would need readers. The response from the doctor was that, while the exact answer was more complicated with regard to the physiology of what happens to the eye during laser surgery, the answer was yes, it was a possibility. As much as that answer disappointed me, and made me hesitate, ultimately I decided to go ahead with Lasik.
So for the last month or so, I've been wearing my glasses nonstop. It was really, really annoying -- every pair of glasses I've ever had slipped down my nose within seconds; I hated having something on my face constantly; they touched my cheeks; I found them hard to keep clean; the list goes on -- and I was resigned to having to wear them for months. The statistic I had heard was that you needed to be in glasses for a week for every year you've worn contacts... I'd been wearing contacts -- hard lenses, which can shape the cornea -- for 23 years! That's like 6 months!
Despite liking TLC for the most part, I had feel a bit skeptical that they'd scheduled me for surgery a month from my first appointment. I figured they did that because they went with the earliest possible date, then would reevaluate/reschedule depending on how my eye exams went. I kept telling family/friends/coworkers that I was skeptical I would actually have the surgery on that day. A week before the surgery, they did a checkup and noted that my cornea had changed -- not unexpectedly. The following week, they checked again, and said my eyes were stable. O.o It wasn't that I thought they were lying... but I also felt like, "Are you sure?" Could a month have already been enough to stabilize my eyes? A couple of days before the surgery, I had my eyes dilated by my usual eye doc; he had to use the super-version of the stuff that dilates your eyes, and it was SO STRONG that it lasted for a day and a half! It was crazy!
And suddenly I was actually getting laser surgery, and I had to re-map my brain to accept this! It was actually happening! I had been so skeptical I didn't even mark it off at work that I would need to take the day off! I hadn't started the eye drops or anything, and had to get the medications filled at the last minute. >.>
On the day of the surgery,
adelagia kindly was my designated driver. I expected TLC to check my eyes again before the surgery in terms of the cornea shape; they didn't. At this point, I was like, welp it's happening! My doctor was Michael Belin, who I had secretly preferred when I had first visited TLC, because of the way it was described to me that the surgeons there do the surgeries. Dr. Gillette, who D. had had (though she did PRK), liked to create a flap in both corneas, then do the vision correction in both. Whereas Dr. Belin liked to create the flap in one, do the vision correction in that one, then do the other eye. That seemed like a better process to me... I mean, who wants to lie there with both your corneas opened and vulnerable?! Anyway, part of me had really wanted the surgery to go through, because I knew if I had to reschedule, I probably wouldn't get Dr. Belin since he only does surgery once a month at TLC (the doctors there are like... on rotation or something), while Dr. Gillette was there twice as much.Anyway... the whole thing, from the time I arrived to the time I left, was about 40 minutes. I think. It's a little fuzzy now. I was prescribed a single Xanax, which I took when they told me to. It didn't really seem to have any effect on me at the time; I felt excited but nervous, and not the least bit loopy or more relaxed than usual... maybe it helped and I just didn't realize it. The most uncomfortable part of the surgery itself was having my eye clamped open; I heard but didn't feel the laser at all, neither the one that cut the flap nor the one that did the correction. During the first part, which was the scariest, one of the technicians sat and held my hand... I can't tell you how comforting that was.
When doing the correction, they have you stare at a blinking green light and not look away. (The laser has a pupil tracker, so that if you get distracted and look away, the laser stops.) There was one very odd moment after my first eye (the right) had undergone correction. When the table lowered me from the laser, the blinking green light, which had previously been fuzzy, was CRYSTAL CLEAR. I was like, seriously? Is that really my eyesight now??? Is it really that fast? Because my other eye, which hadn't had anything done to it yet, was still seeing things as blurry. It's probably my clearest memory of the whole thing, that suddenly-clear blinking green light. After each eye is done, they use what looks like a tiny squeegee to close the flap and smooth it out.
Once both eyes were done, I was helped up ... as expected, everything looked like it was enveloped in a smoky haze. I was given goggles and the instruction to go home and sleep, and when I woke up, to start my eyedrop routine. I remember talking to
adelagia and feeling slightly loopy by this point, but was lucid enough... I could also see well enough, even though the haze and the goggles, to walk without help. I was even chatting with her in the car... until I wasn't. Next thing I knew, we were turning down my street. Once home, I zonked out.That first day, once I woke up from my nap, I felt... okay. I even felt well enough, and saw well enough, to drive! My mom,
jade_okelani and I went to Dough Zone. (Jade was in town for work and was at a conference all day.) I immediately noticed that the thing people said about seeing halos around lights, after Lasik, was true. But it was only certain lights... some car lights, maybe on older cars, didn't have that effect at all.Today is a week since the surgery. It seems like no time at all, and yet also like so much time has passed, lol. I had a one day, a four day, and a week checkup. I was very diligent with following the eye drop schedule, taking the medication when I was supposed to, and doing the artificial tears every hour, because all the doctors kept emphasizing how important it was to keep the eye lubricated.
One day: At my one day checkup, most of the smoky haze had gone. I had some bruising on the white parts of my eyes, which looks really horrible, but didn't feel like much. The eye doc explained that, like bruises, they would fade over time. Other than some slight blurriness, she said things looked good. Maybe even better than, because I was 20/15 in my right eye and 20/20 in my left, which was better than average results at the one-day mark.
Four day: At the four day mark, I was a little concerned, because the right eye, which had previously been the 'better' eye immediately after surgery, had some blurriness that the left eye did not have. It was like wearing contacts all over again, where I couldn't seem to keep that eye clean! Only now I couldn't even pop anything out to try and clean it! I was worried that this would be a permanent thing... even though I was seeing fine, just having that little bit of blurriness was VERY bothersome, when one eye is sharp and the other... isn't. The eye doc said that she expected it to get better with time, that the slight blurriness was probably due to some inflammation with the cornea. At this checkup, my left eye had improved to 20/15 vision, while my right eye had regressed to 20/20. Of course... 20/20 is still a pretty damn good result, lol.
One week: Today I saw my regular eye doc. The bruising has faded and looks a lot better already, but he estimated it would take another 7-10 days before it would be gone completely. He ran the usual tests, and I was happy to confirm that the slight blurriness in my right eye that I had been experiencing had mostly gone away. After a few tests, he was shocked and pleased to see that I'm now 20/15 in both eyes. I did so well that he was like, "I NEVER do this, but I have to know..." and showed me the 20/10 slide. It had 5 letters on it that I was kind of, sort of able to make out, and after I read them out loud, I was like, "Was I close?" And he was like, "WTF... you got 4 out of those 5 correct. This is amazing!" Then he ran other diagnostics and said that in my right eye, I had 0s across the board (no nearsightedness/farsightedness/astigmatism), which is very, very rare, and in my left eye I had -0.25 astigmatism and that was it. He said that this was a case he was going to talk to Debi Patch about (she's the clinical director at TLC), because the stellar results were so unusual.
Oh, and ... perhaps best of all, I haven't lost my ability to read super close. My first fear about Lasik was accidentally going blind; my second fear was being pushed into the "aging eye." I can still read very close, so he says that I have some years to go before aging eye will affect me. FINGERS CROSSED that this is true.
He did caution me, however, not to get too excited about my 20/15 vision. He said that it's only a week, things are still adjusting, I could still regress, and my eyes will likely keep changing. Since I am a naturally pessimistic person, I have no trouble believing that these could be fleeting results. I would love for things to stay great, but I don't want to get my hopes up. I also want certain things to improve, such as seeing halos at night (sensitivity to light in general; typing up this whole post, my eyes are already tired and a little blurry), my eyes feeling tired earlier, and feeling dry at certain points all day (I'm supposed to keep up the drops for another 1-3 months).
All in all, though, I am REALLY pleased with the results, and have no regrets about doing the surgery. Of course, I am in fact regretting that I didn't do it sooner. :)) I still have moments where I think, "Oh, I should go take out my contacts," or reaching for my glasses, or waking up and thinking OMG I slept with my contacts in, lol. It's really, really cool not to need corrective lenses anymore, but in some ways, it's also natural to me to be able to see without 'feeling' anything, because I always wore contacts! And until recently I couldn't really feel them in my eyes! But it is nice in terms of laziness that I now don't have to worry about cleaning them nightly, or have to remember to pack all my contact stuff before going on a trip, or having to put glasses on my face. <3 I think it will feel more magical, too, when (hopefully) the little issues I'm having go away too.
In 6 months, I hope I'm even happier with the results than I am today, and not, you know, regretting having done it. :P
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