You have to keep your eyes open and hold them still. If you move them, the laser isn’t aimed at the right spot and you wind up with less than perfect results. (I had trouble with the second eye, didn’t hold perfectly still, and wound up with a little astigmatism on that side – not enough to worry about fixing.) When you’re unconscious, your eye movements can’t be controlled.
Oh, some places will give you a Valium beforehand for the nerves; mine did.
The only pain I had was afterward, once the numbing drops wore off, and it wasn’t even so much pain as just a maddening itching sort of sensation – happily it was gone by the next morning.
Yeah, I don’t think I mentioned this. There is irritation after the numbing drops wear off. If you’re a contact lens wearer, the sensation is similar to having an eyelash trapped under your contact: really itchy and uncomfortable. For most folks that only lasts for the day of the surgery. Once again, it helps to do it early in the morning; you’ll probably still be sleepy, so you can go home afterward and snooze through most of it.
And one other after-effect that should be discussed: until you fully heal, you’ll probably see “halos” around light sources at night, such as when you’re driving and see street lights and oncoming headlights and such. It’s weird and distracting, and it goes on for months, but for most folks it does eventually go away. I’ve heard that it’s caused by light reflecting off the cut surface of the flap, but don’t quote me on that. Took about a year to go away in my case.
At the same time, some people have gotten it because, while it didn’t leave them glasses-free, it did move them out of the “legally blind” range. Some of the other variables to take into account are how stable your vision is, family history of stability/variability (if your parents hadn’t needed glasses until 60, then by 62 both wore glasses, and you’re 59… it probably isn’t a good idea to lasik), etc.
I didn’t have pretty much any irritation, I did take one paracetamol on the first day and that’s it. But I did apply the artificial tears liberally as ordered.
The eyedrops numb you. If You dont feel a thing, just a dull numbed feeling of possibly pain. Nothing you cant ignore. you cant see much either, everything is hazy, especially after the cornea is sliced off and the flap lifted. You’re asked to stare at a blinking pilot LED and wont even notice when the laser hits your eye.
And then you smell it. Sickly burning smell, the smell of burning hair. Its the smell of burning keratin. And then you realize its your eyeball thats burning. And it freaked me out quite a bit.
Good Luck 