Hindsight is Always 20/20

After spending over a week indoors wearing PJs and sunglasses, I feel a like a vampire emerging from the caves to see sunlight for the first time without pain.

Everything went well and I see very clearly during the day with some halos and starbursts at night, which should fade over time. I got laser vision correction or custom wavefront LASEK to be exact. I figured I should share my experience with you…but keep in my mind that it is not typical since all eyes and healing processes are different.

So first off, here’s a bit about my vision history.

Nearsightedness runs in my family. I got my first pair of glasses in 3rd grade and the prescription was about -1.25 in both eyes. Since then, I wore glasses until 8th grade when I switched over to contacts. My eyes didn’t stabilize for a long time and continued to get worse up to -9.75 in the right eye and -8.25 in the left eye. I had slight astigmatism but my nearsightedness overpowered the effects of astigmatism.

Every time since I got my contacts at my annual eye checkup, I had to get my eyes dilated to check for the possibility of micro-tears near my optic nerve since there was a lot of stress on it due my horrible eyesight.

I knew that laser eye surgery was in my future and after my parents both got it, I thought it was time to check it out. I visited the doctor my parents recommended and had some visual tests done to check my prescription, eye health, and other things to determine my candidacy. LASIK is the most common procedure for about 90-95% of patients. Basically a flap (with 20% depth) is created in the cornea, flipped open, a laser removes the cells in the cornea to reshape it, and the flap is moved back in place to let the eye heal and adjust. Usually the recovery time takes about a day or two before you can see clearly and be able to drive.

It turns out that my corneas were too thin to obtain perfect vision through LASIK, so I had two other options, LASEK or an interocular lens implant.

For LASEK, only the surface layer of the cornea is cut, much shallower than than the LASIK flap. The laser reshapes the cornea and the surface layer is moved back into place with a bandage contact lens for protection over the next four days. Afterwards, the contact is removed and the total recovery process takes about 3-7 days to obtain driving vision.

The interocular lens implant is a more involved, reversible surgery procedure where they insert a contact lens over the eye’s actual lens for vision correction. The recovery time is short, about the same as LASIK. But this a very expensive option since it costs twice as much as LASIK or LASEK.

I went with LASEK. For two weeks, I had to wear glasses and take 1000 mg of Vitamin C to boost the immune system. On the day of the procedure, I had a driver, wore comfy clothes with no pullover, no makeup, and took the prescribed 5 mg of Valium 1 hour before surgery to relax my body. Once I arrived at the medical center, I was given numbing eye drops and other medicated drops. The actual process took about 10 minutes or so and I was awake, but the only sensation I could feel was icy cold eye drops.

Immediately after, I could see better than I when I entered the operating room, even though things were still fuzzy. I could only make out the second or third line of the eye chart and I went home with directions for the medicated eye drops, some Vicodin, and eye shields. I wasn’t in any pain, my eyes didn’t hurt, and there was only the occasion dryness, heavy feeling on my eyelids, and light sensitivity. The day after LASEK, I had a post-op and I could see 20/50…and he was surprised about the lack of pain and said I was healing pretty well. For the next few days, I just ate, slept, drank tons of water, and put in my eye drops…the more rest the better, right?

Outfit Details: Artizia sweater (borrowed) – S, Theory Kissan pant – 00, Peggy Li feather ring, Colehaan satchel, Aldo pumps

Four days later, I had a check-up to remove the bandage contact lens. By then, I could read 20/25 and my doctor said it was way ahead of schedule since most people get those results after a month. However, my eyes were too delicate without the contact lens, so I wore another pair for two more days. After that, once the contact lens is removed, I had to use lubricating eye drops every 30 mins or so to keep them moist.

My next check up in two weeks so I’ll see how everything is healing by then and my eyes should stabilize in a few months. So far, there is improvement everyday and my eyes are adjusting to little things like detailed edges, textures, depth perception, and light sensitivity. As of today, I can drive during the day and I think I’m seeing close to 20/20. My night vision is fairly clear, but there are some fuzzy halos, starbursts, and light sensitivities that still takes some adjusting so I try not to drive at night for now.

It is a bit unsettling to wake up with clear sight after so many years of blurry mornings that sometimes I think I fell asleep with my contacts on or I still reach out for my glasses on the side table. This was a worthy investment and it’s something that worked out well for me…no more glasses!

Now, when I look back, everything looks crystal clear.

Tagged as: business, casual, lasek, laser eye surgery, smart casual, striped sweater, tapered pants, work summer outfit