I just completed LASIK, and it feels like a miracle. I got the procedure done at Jerry Tan Eye Surgery at Camden Medical Centre, and he is a wonderful doctor. His staff is also very attentive, and I feel very well taken care of. They also provide after-clinic-hours care, should the need arise (e.g. pain and discomfort resulting from a folded or wrinkled eye flap that hasn't healed properly).
LASIK sounds a little scary, because it's like, dude people are using a laser to cut your eye open and like you might go BLIND and never recover from the trauma and your eye will get infected and fall out or something, but relax. It's actually really safe, and the technology today is AMAZING.
Basically, there are two steps to LASIK: the flap, and the zap.
The flap is created first. This flap is a thin piece of the cornea, which is cut so as to allow the surgeons to laser the rest of it underneath after opening it like a book in the second half of the procedure (the zap).
After they create the flap, they don't open it yet, but make you sit there, blinking rapidly, to dissolve the bubbles in the eye created by the lasering of the flap. Some clinics have another step in which they rub the bubbles away using a special machine, then head right on to the 'zap' part of LASIK, but Dr Tan's surgery prefers the natural dissipation of bubbles, so as to minimise bruising of the eye caused by a machine rubbing against the surface of it.
After the bubbles have dissipated, the second part of the procedure begins. The flap is opened, much like the cover of a book, and a laser zaps the cornea down to a level thin enough to allow the lens to focus images on the back of one's eye. Short-sightedness results in the elongation of the eyeball, so basically, what LASIK does is to sort of trim down the cornea into a kind of olive-with-the-pit-half-gone shape, so that rays of light can reach the back of the eyeball instead of meeting in the middle of the eyeball. It doesn't change the shape of your eyeball (it will still be elongated, so there will still be a risk of retinal tearing and detachment), but light will be able to be focus onto the back of your eyeball. You can google LASIK or eyeballs, or myopia in order to get a more visual representation.
Then like, VOILA, better eyesight!!
Knowing the risks associated with LASIK (eg infection after surgery, possible blindness, and other complications), why did I still opt to do it?
My eyesight is naturally awful. Like, AWFUL. my base degree for my right eye is 1250, and my left eye's is 1000. Astigmatism for both is about 200-300, so I'm well over 1000 degrees per eye, and am therefore legally blind. This is miserable. I have to read my alarm clock from left to right in the mornings, because I have to put it that close to my face in order to make the numbers out. I can't see further than my nose without my spectacles, and I'm dependent on visual aids to get around. I live in fear of retinal detachment. All in all, life as a legally blind person is terrible. Part of this is genetics (my grandfather had terrible eyesight as well, although my father, the albino, has pretty good eyesight. That's a bit weird, because albinism is usually associated with a myriad of eye problems, but we're not complaining), and part of this is my own fault. I was a chronic reader who never took breaks and used to run from room to room reading. This sounds like every parent's dream for a child, but like, having a severely myopic daughter as a result is really not ideal.
Naturally, the complications associated with LASIK increase with the power per eye. Thankfully, I have an unusually thick cornea (which is actually the best thing that anyone has ever told me about my body, really) and pretty small pupils. Therefore, there is an adequate cornea to be removed, and since my pupils are small, I don't have to remove so much of it around the edges.
Since my right eye is my dominant eye, they decided to operate on my left one, first. Some clinics do both eyes at the same time, but I did both eyes separately, so that Dr Tan could compensate for any over- or under- powered correction in healing after observing how my left eye reacted to the procedure. I did both eyes a week apart.
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I was pretty nervous about it, because like, OMG THEY'RE OPENING UP MY EYE LIKE WTF OMG OMG OMG.
But they are really calm about it, and they talk you through it. The hardest thing that you have to do is focus your gaze for a long time.
Like, a LONG time.
Since my power is so high, it took 31 seconds to shave through my cornea to get the correct thickness (or should I say, thinness). The usual time for most people is about 10-20 seconds.
I did move my eye a little while they were moving the flap up (things get super blurry and disoriented and I lost focus on the guiding light they make you fix your eye on to keep your eye steady during the surgery), so I ended up with some bruising around the whites of my eyes. Mgx says that I have to be honest about this, and post a picture, but be warned: it isn't pretty, and I don't want to frighten you unnecessarily. If you're not into redness and eyes, just scroll really quickly past this section:
That's my left eye, and you can see the bruising from where my eye moved under the clamp they inserted into my eye to inhibit blinking. I learned my lesson and was still as the dead during the procedure for my right eye.
So like, seriously. DO NOT. MOVE. YOUR. EYE. AT ALL.
AT. ALL.
In any case, the bruising just looks ugly. It doesn't hurt, and it will go away in a couple of weeks. It's NOTHING compared to having perfect eyesight. It's much better already, actually, since it's been two weeks since my left eye was done.
I could see much better even immediately after the surgery, but it wasn't until the morning after when I woke up after 15 hours of sleep that I could see perfectly and with minimal discomfort (if at all; there was only a little tearing). This is because the corneal flap that they cut has to heal, and the best way for it to do that is when one is sleeping. If you keep blinking and waking up, then the cells that gather towards trying to merge the cut flap back into the eye will get brushed away. Thus, sleep really is the key.
The cut corneal flap actually kind of feels like the edge of a hard contact lens cutting in to the bottom half of your iris, but it's not painful - just uncomfortable.
Post-op: I just have to be super careful about the healing process for my eyes - no winking, no squeezing my eyes, no rubbing it, and no getting water/soap into it.
Which is super great, because now I actually have an excuse to go to the salon to get my hair washed. I love getting my hair washed.
Also, I have to go everywhere with sunglasses on (or my eye shield). I prefer not to use my eye shield during the day, because it obstructs my vision, which is pretty uncomfortable. Also, people look at me weirdly. Since the idea is to keep dust and stuff from entering my eye, sunglasses do the job.
This is the part where I make an open apology to everyone whom I've made snide remarks about for wearing sunglasses indoors. No, you are not pretentious pricks, you just had LASIK done. Or have pinkeye. Or whatever. You probably do not intend to look affected and pretentious. Sorry.
So like, that's me. Make-up less, because eye make-up is obviously out for the next couple of weeks (not that I use much of it anyways), and I was too lazy to put anything else on. I've been getting lazy in the holidays.
Anyways, I'm not allowed to actually wash my entire face with soap and water for a week after each surgery, in case water or soap gets into my eye. So, I've been using face-wipes from Nivea, and they work pretty well, as long as I keep my face free of make up and stuff (because foundation/blush/etc would be a bit heavier and harder to clean off?).
Tomorrow is my last day that I have to instil post-op anti-inflammatory eyedrops, and then I'll just have to spam Refresh Plus eyedrops (IE fake tears) for a month. They slipped a plug into my tear duct to stop the anti-inflammatory eyedrops from leaking into my nasal passages so they'd work better, but the downside is that I now have super dry eyes.
My eyes are pretty big, and they don't close fully when I sleep, so you can imagine the agony when I wake up and have to crack my eyelids open over a dry surface. To get around this problem, the clinic gave me these little babies:
It's a kind of hard eye shield that you stick on to your face (your eye obviously goes where that bulgy plastic thing is, and the white part is a sticker that you peel off so that the whole contraption..... sticks) to prevent moisture from evaporating into the atmosphere completely. It's great, because it keeps my eye warm and moist and, err, in a humid environment. I just have to be really careful when removing it, because I don't accidentally want to wax my entire eyebrow off. The adhering agent in the sticker bit is very effective.
This was what I found on the inside of it the first morning I woke up and removed it:
ALL OF THAT CONDENSATION CAME FROM MY EYE! ALL OF IT! I showed it to my mother immediately and she was incredibly horrified and suggested that I sleep with goggles on from my on. I vetoed the issue very politely, but I'm still not sure if she's convinced.
In any case, I'm healing beautifully, and I actually have 15/20 vision now, which is slightly better than perfect vision. It will deteriorate, of course, because I go to law school and law school involves a lot of reading and staring at computers for long hours and reading some more, but at least I have a second chance.
I plan to take really good care of them this time, so that means that I'm signing off RIGHT NOW and going to bed.
x
Liz
