With regards to an upcoming surgery, i’m actually more excited than i am scared. Even though my only previous surgery was to have all 4 of my wisdom teeth yanked, it was scary enough. Quite some time ago i posted a thread about writing the largest check in my account’s history to pay off my student loan–$4800. On Thursday, i’ll be able to break that record with a $5000 check. I wanted to pay in cash, actually. It would have been neat to show up with a metal briefcase handcuffed to my wrist that was chock full of Jacksons, but my mom won’t drive me if i do that. “Too much of a risk” or something like that. I just wanted to do it since the doctor says it has never been done at his office before.
For those wondering who my surgeon is, he is Dr. Kameen and his office is in Towson, MD, so his office is quite close to me. I’m also rather glad to be going to him since he is one of the only ones capable of doing the procedure without using a blade to slice my eye open. His methord uses a laser to cut a slit in the cornea in leiu of the blade technique. I don’t think any amount of sedatives would make my evolunary reflexes calm down when i see a blade only centimeters away from my eyeball.
Good luck! I had this done about two years ago, and I don’t regret it at all. What a change!
I have two pieces of advice, one for the surgery and one for post-surgery. First, don’t freak out during surgery when he tells you to “look directly at the light.” I honestly thought that if I looked away even for a split second a large hole would be burned into my head and I would die. (I was a bit over-dramatic. Some would argue I still am.) You’ll find that your focus slips a little bit during the surgery, but don’t worry about it.
Also, post-surgery, they’ll give you tons of drops to use. Do the drops while you are lying down. That means that more of them will stay in your eyes (rather than run down the back of your throat, leaving a nasty taste behind).
Make sure to come back afterward and let us know how it goes!
Good luck! I had the surgery in 98. One piece of advice. When you get home and go to sleep - be sure to sleep on your back. It’s not a good idea to sleep face down and put pressure on your eyes.
I’m envious. I’ve wanted to have the surgery for quite some time but I haven’t either had or been willing to part with that much moola.
The laser “slicer” is the newest of machines and from what I’ve read, has been very successful. The “clean” cut allows the correction to be made faster and easier than ever before.
It’s Thursday and just now i’m starting to feel nervous about the surgery. I have everything ready to go, the drops, check, consent form, sunglasses, my own sheet of questions to ask. I’m totally prepared, but i suppose there are butterflies in my stomach just b/c of the nature of the experiment. Showtime isn’t until 1:30pm so i have some time to kill.
I’m sure everything will go well. I also had LASIK about three years ago. It was some of the best money ever spent. I had horrible vision, and am now 20/20 and 20/25. It’s great!
What a coincidence. I had eye surgery this morning. I’m not supposed to be on the computer yet so I’m turning away from the monitor as I type.
It was a pretty bizarre experience. Was considering not taking the valium, but glad I did. I kept forcing my left eye shut and my surgeon had to sweet talk me into opening it. It didn’t hurt, exactly, it was just uncomfortable with all those lights. My laser lasted 21 seconds. My husband’s, on the other hand, lasted over a minute. His recovery time was almost a month in terms of seeing close up. I can already see clearly both distances and close up.
I took a short nap afterward but woke up after my eyes starting weeping uncontrollably. I could actually feel the flaps healing where they cut into my cornea. Once again, it wasn’t unbearable pain but rather like a toothache of the eye. The weeping lasted an hour and a half and then suddenly it was over. It’s amazing how quickly your eyes heal. In fact, they’re not even red. Bizarre.
Total cost, after the insurance kicked in $500 was $2500. $2000 was put away in
a medical flexible spending account.
I’m looking forward to going to the beach and being able to see when I get into the ocean. I’d like to see the shark before it chomps into my leg.
Good luck! My boyfriend had it done last summer. He had no problems and was 20/15 the next day. I was scheduled to have it done in December, but I chickened out.
There’s been several great threads about Lasik (I read through them myself before having the procedure last December). Reading about other’s procedures helped answer a lot of questions for me.
I’m currently at 20/10 in my left eye and 20/25 in my right. Considering that I was 20/400 prior to the surgery, I’d say that’s pretty remarkable.
The ONLY thing I’m having trouble with is dryness. Very annoying, especially in the late evening/night time. There have been a few times it was bad enough for me to momentarily regret having Lasik done. I’ve been doing my regular follow-up visits with my doctor and for now, she’s wanting me to continue with the drops, as needed, and give my eyes a few more months to stabilize (hopefully!). If that doesn’t work, she’ll try putting in some temporary plugs (can’t remember what they’re called, sorry) so my tears won’t drain.
Aside from that issue, it’s been fantastic. Good luck!
It is now 2 days after the procedure and things are great.
I was at the center for about 2 hours the day of the surgery going over the paper works and financial business. They asked where i worked and i said at a hospital. Nurses and doctors get 10% off, so i lied and said i was a nurse. When offered Valium, the lady basically said “. . .and since you’re a nurse i don’t have to explain to you what Valium does. Do you think you want 5 or 10 mg?” At the time i had no idea what Valium was and wasn’t about to forfeit my nurse charade so i said “Better make it 10 to be safe.” 10 was too much, i was totally tripping on that stuff and i felt gooooooood.
So the first room i went into was the Intralase room. One eye at a time a ring was placed around my eye (while i was laying down looking up at a circle pattern of bright lights. Then the ring began applying suction pressure to my eye and everything went black–my eye was wide open but i couldn’t see a damn thing including the lights i had been staring at. That is when the Intralase laser started to open up my corneal flap. That took about 30 seconds each. Pressure released and i closed that eye and they repeated the same for the left eye. I sat up and instead of seeing all darkness like before, all i saw was the cloudiest white. Nothing came in clear at all. I could see light sources but couldn’t make up any details, couldn’t even see my hands in front of my face except for faint silhouettes.
They led me to a chair to relax my eyes for about 10 minutes before they took me into the LASIK room. Rather than a ring to keep my eyelids from blinking a simple wire was used. One eye at a time, i had to follow a green light around which was surrounded by large array of red light that basically looked like someone shining a laser pointer in my face. When that laser started reshaping my numbed eye i could smell it. It may not been the laser, but something like burnt hair was fouling the air–all normal and happens everytime apparently. After the laser had done its thing i saw Dr. Kameen doing something to my eye with what looked like a pen. I asked what hit was and said he was squeegying my flap closed. He prefers the squeegy procedure b/c he creates a slight vacuumed to keep my corneal flap from lifting. My eyes were numb so i didn’t feel any of this, but i couldn’t faintly see it.
So that was the procedure. I sat in a recliner in the dark after that for 15 minutes. Everything went great. My mother drove me home and i took a nap for a few hours. I woke around 8pm and my eyes were in a lot of discomfort to the point i coudln’t open them–i had to pry them open with my fingers to get my drops in. I went to bed for the night with very teary eyes but woke up the next day and felt great. I walked to the living room and looked out the window and i could read the license plates on all of our 9 cars in the driveway. When administering the morning drops i noticed my eyes had blood rings around them from the pressure ring of the Intralase machine. It looked pretty cool but now the blood is dispersing so there are only some blotches scattered around my eyes.
He had lasik with the alegretto laser. I don’t know if that makes a difference or not. He watched TV that night and experienced no bluriness. Thinking back on it, he probably should have stayed in bed and slept. The next morning on our way to the doctors office, he was reading off street signs left and right. I was so jealous. They checked his eyes and he was 20/15. I guess everybody is different.
My procedure was slightly different from Slick’s. First I got 5 mg of valium. After 15-20 minutes, they came and took me into the procedure area. I lay down on a table and scooted up until my head was in a little molded bowl. They put some local anesthesic drops into my eyes, and honestly that was the hardest part of the whole procedure because when they put the drops in my left eye, I couldn’t help but squeeze my eyes shut. The nurse told me to quit squeezing and relax as they were the numbing drops and I wanted them to stay in my eyes. When they tried to open my left eye, my eye was having none of it. After a minute I finally convinced it to open and they put those godawful drops in it. After that I was able to close them for awhile, which was nice because I found the bright lights to be uncomfortable.
After a few minutes they brought the contraption down to my right eye. They asked me to stare at the red light. I did. I could hear, but not see, the circular cut on my corneal flap. When my vision went black, as they told me it would, I just kept looking for that red light again. After removing the two flaps, they began to laser. Once again, I smelled it but could not feel anything. The laser tech kept counting backward so I knew how long it would last. That helped. Then he closed the flaps and put some cool eye drops in, which I assume had some sort of antibiotic in it. I never felt a vacuum sensation at all.
Then they repeated the procedure with the left eye. Once again, I found the left eye was more obstinate the right eye. He had to remind me to stare at the light. I guess I’m going to have to send my left eye to eye obedience school.
Anywho, went in for my post-op today and I’m seeing 20/20 with both eyes, slightly less separately. My right eye is slightly more blurred than my left but that should clear up within 2 to 4 weeks.
It’s weird not looking for my glasses before I drive or watch t.v. It’s also weird not putting on eye makeup. The eye goggles that I wear at night are very attractive.
