Today is my LASIK anniversary. Three years ago, I gave myself the ultimate early Valentine’s Day gift: the ability to read the label on my shampoo bottle and my alarm clock; the freedom from contacts and saline solution; the gift of sight.
Here’s how it went down.
I remember asking my eye doctor about the possibility of LASIK in my late teens, and he would tell me to wait. My eyes would continue to change, he said. It would be a waste. Thanks Doc, but I had been wearing glasses since the third grade. I was over it.
Still, I waited. Glasses sort of became a part of me, and fortunately they also became more fashionable than the metal frames I first sported in elementary school. I ordered fun plastic frames in different colors, even splurging on some designer frames in my late 20s.
That was the last pair of glasses I’d ever wear. In 2014, inspired by a coworker who had the surgery, I started the process of getting LASIK with Lansing Ophthalmology, now called L.O. Eye Care. I had learned from my coworker Allee that it isn’t recommended to have LASIK surgery shortly after pregnancy, particularly as a nursing mom. This was news to me! Eyesight can adjust while pregnant, so the accuracy of correction with the surgery can be off the mark. It’s also not a great idea to get pregnant shortly after LASIK, because there will be a series of appointments to make sure the eyesight isn’t changing.
Stella was born in March 2013 and I stopped nursing her in the summer of 2014. I had hoped to have another baby one day, so it seemed that it was the perfect time to get surgery before becoming pregnant again and having to wait a couple more years for LASIK.
The entire process from my first phone call to my surgery took about four months. This included several appointments with both an optometrist, Dr. James Budge, and my surgeon, Dr. Kevin Liu.
At the time (and perhaps it is still this way), L.O. Eye conducted LASIK surgeries one day a month. My surgery was scheduled for January 2015, but in a weird twist of fate, the equipment wasn’t working properly that day and my surgery needed to be rescheduled. I was devastated, but when it comes to lasers and eyeballs, it’s better not to take any chances.
Which brought me to February 12, 2015. After more than 20 years of glasses and an extra month of waiting, I was so ready to say peace to my frames:
Here I am with my hair net, patient gown, and marked up eyes:
Let me just say that I did have nightmares about accidentally looking away from the laser and messing everything up. I was a little freaked out. I was also scared about the aftermath. Would I want to claw my eyes out with all of the scratchy, itchiness I was bound to experience?
But really, after so many eye appointments in my life and particularly leading up to the surgery, nothing really fazed me. I was so excited to be able to see that it got me through the uncomfortable and scary parts of the surgery.
It all honestly went so fast. Before I knew it, I was sitting up from the chair and being led to the waiting room to see Zack.
A word about these goggles. They come from the Dry Eye Shop and they’re about 10 bucks. Thanks to Allee’s previous experience with the same process, I knew that only eye shields and medical tape were provided to patients to protect their eyes after surgery. I wasn’t feeling that. I went online and found these goggles, which had a nice foam edge and made me feel protected. I wore them for the first couple days after surgery during the day and every night for a couple of weeks. They were so worth it!
At my first eye appointment the following morning after surgery, I had 20/10 vision. LASIK IS A MIRACLE. I felt like the Terminator.
I will also say that the discomfort from the dryness wasn’t as bad as I expected. This is coming from someone who usually rubs her eyes into oblivion every allergy season. The after care included a series of eye drops and plenty of artificial tears, which really helped me out. I used the artificial tears for weeks after the surgery.
Here’s the scary part. I’m giving you fair warning. During the surgery, a part of the machine that helps keep your eye in place and lined up basically suctions onto your eyeball. This can cause some broken vessels, eye hickeys if you will.
When it came to doing my right eye, the machine lost suction a couple of times, which meant it needed to be “attached” over and over before they could do the laser part. My right eye was pretty gnarly looking for a good week afterward as a result.
Are you ready?
Here’s how my eyes looked a day after surgery:
Despite this less than lovely set of peepers, we ended up going out the following night for a Valentine’s Day dinner:
By Monday when I was back at work, here’s how they looked:
The healing on my right eye really ended up taking a couple of weeks:
Despite looking like this after the surgery, I can’t say enough wonderful things about LASIK. It has truly been a life changer, and I’m thankful I had the opportunity to get it done. Sometimes I can’t believe there was a time I couldn’t see when I woke up in the morning.
If you’re a candidate for LASIK and on the fence, all I can say is DO IT. A few hours and weeks of discomfort is so worth it for the gift of sight.
Happy anniversary, eyes!