LASIK: Perfect Eyesight Unlocked!

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Starting a new thread to answer this question from @Jigme on my challenge: 

 

On 10/8/2017 at 8:13 PM, Jigme said:

I am very interested to hear EVERY SINGLE DETAIL of your LASIK surgery and recovery, as I am considering getting the surgery within the next couple of years.

 

Happy to tell all! 

 

 

First, my relevant candidate info: I'm in my mid-thirties, I'm in the SF Bay Area, my prescription had been pretty stable for 5 years or so (save for minor tweaks), I have a minor astigmatism in one eye, my distance vision was crap but my near vision was fine, and I wore contacts every day.

 

My reasons: I mainly wanted LASIK for the convenience of not needing to think about contacts anymore, especially while traveling. (I travel a lot.) And also because I made a deal with my husband when we got married that I'd get LASIK if he started going to the dentist again. This, strangely, is really what got me to do it.  Cuz I was kinda terrified of it. 

 

Who I worked with: My regular optometrist handled most of the consultation assessments and almost all of the aftercare. Her office partnered with a surgery center (I could choose between UC Berkeley or Stanford, and I went with Berkeley), which handled the final assessments, the surgery, and just one of the aftercare checkups. This office partnership worked really nicely -- they communicated with each other well, and I felt like I got a nice mix of super-experienced experts and a doctor who's taken the time to get to know me.

 

Cost: The whole thing cost me $4,000, which included all consultation and follow-up visits, along with "the twist" mentioned below. The original price tag was $5k, and they gave a $1k discount for the type of vision insurance I had (VSP -- but i think they give it for other types too). Based on a few conversations I've had with others, I understand this to be relatively inexpensive for how reputable the surgeons are at Berkeley. They offered me a 1-year payment plan with no interest. 

 

The schedule: It was a few months between deciding I wanted LASIK and actually getting it. I had to get through a long eye appointment with full dilation, where they checked my prescription for stability (stable is good -- they don't want it to still be changing) and my corneas for thickness (thick is good) to confirm I was a candidate. My optometrist did a first pass at these checks, and the surgery center checked it again later to confirm. Once my optometrist was confident I was probably a candidate, the surgery center gave me two appointments: a consultation and the surgery. Then they scheduled post-op checkups at 24 hours, 5 days, 2 weeks, 6 weeks, 3 months, 6 months, ... and all but the first one was handled by my optometrist. On the actual day of the procedure, I was in and out of the building in less than an hour. It was super quick. 

 

--- GORE ALERT: skip the following section if you don't want surgery details ---  

Spoiler

 

The procedure: They gave me a Valium when I got there, and some eye drops for numbing and anti-inflammation. Then they took me into a cool room (they warned me to bring a sweater), with machines, and had me lay down. There were two machines: one uses a laser to cut a flap into your eye to expose the area they need to modify (note: this is a new method -- previously, this was done with a blade), and the other one is the laser that actually changes your eyeball. Since they were doing both eyes at once, they cut both flaps first, then did the lasers. 

 

The flap-cutting machine was super weird. They taped my eyelids open and then put a suction device on my eyeball. Things went in and out of focus for awhile, there was a weird pressure on my eyeball (but that's all, cuz it was numb) and things went black, and then it was done. I did my best to practice deep breathing and not move. Whole thing was probably 30 seconds to cut each flap. 

 

The actual eyesight-modifying laser was noisy with a loud "CLICK CLICK CLICK sound", but didn't really feel like anything. They had me stare at an orange light that shifted between normal looking and super blurry. If I lost focus on the light, they reminded me to look at it again. During this time, they opened the flap on my eyeball, aimed the laser, and went to town on my eyesight. Again, whole thing was less than 30 seconds per eye. 

 

The procedure room was right next to the waiting room and the whole thing was projected onto a television that everyone could watch, so my husband took video. I'm sure if you search on youtube you can find similar. 

 

--- /GORE ALERT --- 

 

The rest of the day: I was able to use my eyes immediately for walking out of the surgery room, and while everything was still blurry from all the eye drops and activity, I could tell my prescription was way better. They checked me out, put goggles on me, released me, and instructed me to go home and keep my eyes closed for 4-5 hours straight (preferably while taking a nap, but i failed at that and just listened to audiobooks). The first 90 minutes had a lot of stinging, and then it passed, and everything was pretty comfortable after that.  

 

Recovery: I had to apply antibiotic and steroid eye drops 4 times a day for 5 days, and also sleep with goggles for that long, too.  I had to apply artificial tears (just regular sterile eye drops) hourly for the first week to make sure they didn't dry out, and then slowly reduce frequency as my eyes got more comfortable after that. For the first 4 days, I avoided spending any significant time looking at screens (especially my phone) because of the tendency to not blink when you do that.  "No rubbing your eyes for a month" was the hardest rule to adapt to, but the artificial tears become a substitute for rubbing them, and I just got really addicted to putting in eye drops whenever there was any type of discomfort. Also relevant to me: no eye makeup for a week, no hot tub for 2 weeks, no rigorous exercise (sweating) for 2 weeks, no airplanes for a month. Expect some extra glare/starburst on lights at night for a few months (and possibly forever).  And then you totally have laser eyes. 

 

 

THE TWIST! :  Of course there had to be a twist. It couldn't just be as easy as getting my eyes fixed, could it now? Sadly no. 

 

After a few months (during which time eyesight fluctuates a bit and stabilizes), it became clear that they didn't nail the prescription 100%. The biggest issue for me was that street signs were still a bit blurry while driving. They had warned me in advance that the most common complication is that the vision isn't perfect (and by "common", i mean like only 5% of cases -- really, most people are fine), and that it would be possible to get an enhancement procedure if it was off by enough of a margin.  It turned out mine was off by enough, so I went back in 8 months after my procedure for round 2, which was free.  (So that's what I did last week.  The original procedure was in Feb.)  It was basically the exact same assessment, procedure, and recovery, with only one significant difference: 

 

--- GORE ALERT --- 

Spoiler

The enhancement: Everything went the same as before except that they didn't need to cut new flaps. They wedged a small tool into the existing flap and pried it open, and then proceeded as they did before. This is a really, really weird concept: the flap wasn't actually healed during the 7 months that my eyes were feeling totally fine. It was still there, being held shut by "the forces" of eyeballs, and they could just... pop it open. Eep. 

--- /GORE ALERT --- 

 

The outcome: Fortunately, after round 2 I have perfect vision. Better than I ever did with glasses. And I am so. freaking. relieved. Maaaajor life level-up.  (And it's probably worth mentioning that i made them run an extra round of tests on me this time because I was so nervous about them getting it wrong again, and that helped me relax significantly.) 

 

 

And that's it! Any questions? Has anyone done it and had a different experience? I know the whole idea of elective eye surgery can feel super scary to people, so I'm a big fan of sharing details. Let's have it! 

 

[Jigme]

Fantastic, exactly the information I needed.