For as long as I can remember I have said that I would get LASIK one day. My eyes were so bad that I was almost maxed out on the prescriptions that my contact brand carried. I always had this fear of my eyes getting worse and worse until I was basically blind. My thoughts on LAISK were that I was waiting for it to be more affordable and more precise (i.e. less risk). My now husband knew it was a dream of mine and if it wasn't for him it may never have been realized.
It all started with the annual art walk in Longmont. Downtown Longmont became a pedestrian walking area filled with vendors. We stumbled across the Beyer LASIK/ Boulder Eye booth. We asked a few questions about LASIK to the representative and spun a wheel to win a prize; I won $250 off LASIK. Rob noticed the grand prize was one free eye. He asked the guy if we could have the free eye instead. The representative asked, "Would you actually use it?" When we said, "Yes," he wrote it on our card that we won one free eye. To this day when telling the story Rob says, "You don't get what you don't ask for." Thus we start our journey.
After winning a free eye, Rob did some research on the company. (I was worried they were giving away the free eye because they needed the business!) It turned out that Dr. Beyer had been on the first team to develop LASIK and had done Kevin Costner's eyes. I was sold.
The first step was to have a consultation. Not everyone qualifies for LASIK. With a prescription as high as mine was (-8.00 with an astigmatism of axis 170 & 180) I needed to have thick corneas and a particular eye shape. They also need to make sure that your prescription is stable and won't change, but that isn't checked until later on. Needless to say I was nervous because, what if I could never have LASIK? They checked my prescription using the machine where you look at the hot air balloon; did a wave scan of my eye; numbed my eyes and poked my cornea. I was so relieved to hear that I was a perfect candidate for the surgery!
I scheduled the surgery for November 12th, 2015. When you wear soft contacts with a high prescription you need to stop wearing them two weeks before the surgery. This is because wearing contacts naturally makes your eyes swell. (I did not know this in all my years of wearing contacts!) The swelling doesn't hurt your eye, but they need the swelling to be gone for the surgery. The couple of weeks leading up to the surgery were a little rough without contacts. (Running in glasses is not fun!)
The day before surgery they dilated my eyes and rechecked my prescription again. They also checked to make sure that your eyes were done changing prescription. (I am not sure exactly how they did this, but boy was I nervous they'd say they weren't!) When they cleared me for surgery things finally started to sink in! I might never wear glasses again!
The day before the surgery they also put plugs in my eyes. A common side effect of LASIK is dry eyes. These plugs help to keep your eyes moist. He put them in with tweezers into the sides of my eyes. It was super easy and didn't require any special meds or tools. I was surprised that he just put them in!
There are two types of LASIK, I had the PRK surgery. For this type they actually rub a hole in your cornea for the laser to go through. Then they put a bandage contact lens over your eyes. This is basically a contact that stays in your eyes for five days while your cornea grows back. Then it is removed once the cornea has been regrown. (The other version cuts a flap into your cornea instead.)
I had many concerns about the actual logistics of the surgery. The main one was, even if I force my eyes open what if I can't force them to look at the laser? I learned that the wave scan they did on my eye would find 23 connection points on my eye. Essentially they were making the eye's version of a thumbprint. The laser connects to those 23 points on the eye before it begins. When you look away it automatically shuts off and then when it reconnects, it picks up right where it left off. The technology is AMAZING! My concerns were assuaged.
Let me tell you a little bit about the medications involved in the surgery. First of all, if you have a prescription above -3/3, you get a prescription for Percocet. The higher the vision prescription you have, the longer you are under the laser and the more of the cornea that they remove. This means you have a more painful recovery. The pain I found from the surgery was mainly light sensitivity and a feeling of extreme dryness, but more on that later. In addition to the Percocet, I had A LOT of eye drops that I needed. If you don't like putting drops in your eyes, then LASIK is NOT for you. Here was my medication regimen:
Vigamox: Antibiotic;1 drop 4 times a day for 7 days
Prolesna: 1 drop a day for 3 days
Lotemax: Steroid; 1 drop 4 times a day for 7 days, 3 times a day for 3 days, 2 times a day for 2 days, 1 time a day for 1 day
Percocet: 1-2 pills every 4-6 for pain
In addition you buy a TON of artificial tears. For the first five days that you have the bandage lenses in you must use the non-preservative tears which means that they come in individual eye drop dispensers (A little pricey). Here's the kicker, you need to apply them every 5-10 minutes that your eyes are open for five days. Then once the bandage lenses are removed you can use artificial tears with preservatives, which are the bottled ones. Those you apply 6 times a day for 3 months.
For the first week you also bandage plastic coverings over your eyes so that you don't rub or touch your eyes during your sleep. You are also given sunglasses which you wear indoors and outdoors for the first five days. This helps with both light sensitivity and to protect the eyes from getting anything in them. You cannot wear eye make up for a week. You cannot swim for a month either. When you shower you are supposed to avoid direct water contact in your eyes. (Tap water is not sterile!) I put a rag over my eyes when I washed out my hair to protect them.
We ran from pharmacy to pharmacy to try and get the three sets of eye drops and the pain medications for the next day. The drops aren't super common, so they were hard to find!
The night before the surgery I got a little freaked out. They asked me to sign all of the consent forms before going to the office the next day. It turns out there are a lot of potential negative side effects of LASIK; however, these are VERY RARE. The consent form for this office made us write out statements such as,
"I may not obtain the results I hope for."
"I may still need to wear glasses."
"My vision may be made worse."
They make you admit that you may be in that <1% who experience some of these negative side effects. The ones that made me the most nervous were permanent night glare, and having your vision revert to where it was while being unable to correct it to 20/20 even with glasses. I am so thankful that I persisted despite the fear these things started to instill in me.
The morning of the surgery I arrived 45 minutes early. They checked my vision one more time and gave me a Vicodin. This is meant to relax you because you have to be awake during the surgery. It was all feeling rather surreal. They put me in a gown and hair cap. Rob was with me before the surgery and we sat in a waiting room without my glasses. I hated not being able to see in those moments, but I hoped that it would be my last moments of blindness. Rob told me the room was covered in signed frames from athletes and famous people thanking Dr. Beyer for their, "new eyes."
Eagerly waiting, slightly blind for surgery!
Finally it was go time. I laid down on the table and they wheeled me under the laser. He clamped open an eye, which was a little scary feeling. Then we started and he rubbed a hole in my cornea. I did not feel anything, but saw what seemed like a grey blur rubbing on my eye. You are supposed to try to look straight forward, which I found a little difficult because the other eye was covered and the grey covers your vision on the other eye. He told me to open both eyes and try again which helped. As he did this he told me my eyes were very scarred from my contact usage. Thankfully that was all removed during the surgery and now I have newly grown corneas :)
Next it was time for the laser. My best description of this was a colorful light show that I couldn't look away from. At first I could see purple blurs flashing by, but eventually I couldn't distinguish anything. At the point when I thought it was getting to be too much, the laser stopped and we went onto the next eye. (Rob told me after it seemed to be about 3 minutes per eye!) He did the other eye and then I was able to to sit up. I couldn't believe how fast the whole thing was! It was then that I realized there was a window into the operating room and I could see Rob through it. I couldn't believe it!!! Rob had watched the whole thing and said the surgery made him cry. He didn't know if it was nerves for me or seeing me look at him and seeing him from so far away! They say that patients see up to 80% improvement after surgery.
Post surgery with Dr. Beyer
The first 5 days after surgery, the more you keep the eyes closed the better. I spent the next three days sleeping as much as possible. (The Percocet helped with this). I think I was seeing about a 60% improvement right away which was amazing! BUT it was hard to function at this level considering my original prescription and my glasses were now useless. At about 3-4 days the cornea starts growing back over the pupil and your vision drops to about 50%. They prepared me for this but it was still very discouraging!
All taped up for sleep. Eyes are protected!
With my original prescription being so high I was told I had only a 75% chance of getting to 20/20 with the first surgery. They compared it to golf where the second surgery would be the light stroke to get the ball in the hole. The touch up surgery if needed would be free which helps with cost. They won't operate again until after 3 months regardless. The concern would be overcorrecting and then needing reading glasses; they want to make sure the eye is done healing.
One day post op I was seeing 60/20. At one week I was at 40/20 which is legal to drive. I was grateful for this because I wasn't really prepared to not be able to drive for over a week. They took my bandage lenses out and after a couple of hours without them things started improving a bit more. Once the bandage lenses are out you want to keep your eyes open and blink as much as possible!
At one month I had made it to 30/20. I think this is an important thing to emphasize. The surgery is described as a five day healing process. This does not mean that you can see 20/20 after 5 days!! You should be prepared for 2-3 weeks of blurry vision. It was really hard to function at my level of vision during school for my recovery. I made my phone and computer text huge and felt quite old :) At one month they also gave me some temporary contacts. (The lenses were a -1.25 prescription! The contacts felt so light!) I honestly only wore them once. Your eyes vary a lot from day to day. One day I would think I was pretty much 20/20 and then the next day things would be a little blurry. This is normal, but made the contacts less useful.
I am coming up on my 3 month check up. I don't think I'm at 20/20 yet, but it's hard to say because my contacts always corrected me to 20/15. I plan on waiting to decide about another surgery until my 6 month check up since I was told it could take that long to get there. I do feel that I am very close. They say that the eyes are quick to improve until that last bit which can take a while. Here's to hoping!!
A few last notes:
Some funny things I found myself doing post-op were reaching for my glasses in the morning after I woke up; reaching to push up glasses that weren't there and just having that general nagging feeling that I needed to take my contacts out at night.
Some of things I looked forward to and have enjoyed post LASIK are:
Being able to fall asleep outside while seeing the stars!
Swimming without worrying about how it messes up the contacts.
Being able to see the clock at night.
Not worrying about traveling with contact solution or carrying extra contacts!!
This girl no longer needs glasses and that is quite an incredible thing!!! I still can't believe the enormity of it sometimes.
