What It's Like To Get Laser Eye Surgery

 It definitely hurts. Hi, I'm Nayan, and I've been wearing glasses for 8 years and contacts for about three. I was always hesitant about getting LASIK because it's expensive, and the idea of lasers cuttingup my cornea scares me. But recently, my contactshave been getting really uncomfortable,and I just got to a point where I was mentallyand financially prepared to take this next step. Ideally, doing this surgery would mean I could see perfectly clearlywithout glasses or contacts for the rest of my life. And that would be so amazing because I wouldn't haveto deal with dry eyes from wearing contacts all day, spend money on contactsand solution every year (which does add up), and theinconvenience when I travel. But first, I needed tosee if I even qualify for laser eye surgery.

 So, I went to my eye doctorfor a free consultation, and he told me that there were four things that he looks for during the examination: a stabilized prescription, how much treatment is necessary, the curve and thickness of my cornea, and how moist the eye is. The good news is I ameligible for eye surgery. Instead of LASIK, the doctor recommends that I do something called PRK. Dr. Harry Koster: Some patients,instead of having a flap, have the surgery directly on their cornea. That's called PRK surgery. Nayan: Because my eyeswere on the drier side, the doctor recommended thatI do PRK instead of LASIK, because with LASIK, there's an increased chance for me to get chronic dry eyes. So I decided to go with PRK even though it might takeup to a month to get 20/20, while with LASIK it takes only a few days. The next pre-surgery step is dilation, which allows the technician to obtain a more precisemeasurement of my prescription. Finally, surgery day! I just took some Valium, and we're waiting for that to kick in. Sherri, my surgicalcounselor, was telling me how it should feel like I drankthree to four cups of wine, but it's supposed to calmme down and stuff like that. The first thing the techniciandid was sanitize my eyes. 

Then Dr. Koster added a piece of tape to keep my eye open. After that, he applied some medication on the surface of my eye to relax it as well as some drops to moisturize it. Dr. Koster said this was likea little spa for my eyes. While he was doing this,I couldn't feel anything or really see anything. Just colors of the red and green light. After eye prep, it was laser time! I had to focus on thegreen light for 10 seconds. I didn't see any movement of the laser or feel it cut my cornea, but I did smell a little bit of burning. I tried not to thinkabout what was happening while it was happening sothat I wouldn't freak out. And before I knew it,the surgery was done! Dr. Koster added somemedication over my eye to prevent it from healingmore than it should, and he put some medical contacts on my eye to protect the cornea while it heals, with a final touch of eye drops. Once he finished with the left eye, he repeated the sameprocess for the right eye, and that was it! All of this took about 15 minutes. It just happened so fast. 

So now I have to do my part in taking care of this and recovering. So, I just got home. I'm getting a little tired. My left eye is definitelyfeeling a little bit of sting. Currently gonna take someTylenol as well for the pain. But so far, like, not too much pain. So, I ended up falling asleepbefore I took the Tylenol, and that was a big mistake, and I definitely sufferedthe consequences. So, I just woke up from,I don't know, a short nap, and my eyes are beginningto hurt a little bit. It definitely hurts. The pain, on a scale of one to 10, 10 being really painful, it was a solid 11. It felt like someone shaved my eyes, and I couldn't do anything about it. Good morning. It's currently 7 a.m. Man, yesterday night, itwas pretty unbearable.

 I don't know if this is normal, but I also felt, like, hotand cold at the same time. But today it's a lot better. I also had to stick toa very specific schedule of various eye drops: The antibiotic eye drops, the anti-inflammatory eye drops, and the preservative-freeartificial tears. My eyes are still very sensitive to light, so they're kinda closed. Even, like, as I'm talkingright now, they're closed. I ended up eating and sleeping some more. I used Siri to text a friend and continued to put on eye drops. Today's Saturday. Last night, I felt likemy eyes were really dry, so that's why it's goodthat today I get to put in the artificial tears for,like, eight to 10 times a day. I also set a bunch of alarms to remind me when to put in all my eye drops, just in case I forgot or fell asleep. For the rest of the day, I was just listening tostand-up or sleeping. I'm noticing that my left eye can see a little moreclearer than my right. So hopefully within the next few days they'll both be clear, but that's kind of aconcern for me right now. By day three, I was beginningto feel a little restless, because I was stuck in my room all day not being able to do much. But it was really niceto see some progress. It's Sunday, 7 in themorning, just woke up, and I can kind of openmy eyes a little more without needing sunglasses. Not a lot of discomfort anymore. My eyesight has been fluctuating; sometimes, like, blurry, sometimes pretty crystal clear, but, yeah, it's slowlygetting better and better. They look pretty good, right? I really wanted to wakeup today and be like, "Boom, oh, my gosh, I can see 20/20 without glasses or contacts." But that's not the case. It's Tuesday morning. I just showered with these guys on, just to protect myself fromwater going into my eyes. And I'm going into work, but before work, I'm going to go to the doctor's office to get these medical contacts out. First time walking outside. Sun is not too bad. I'm not super sensitive. Michelle: After being backat work for about a week, my eyesight was still fluctuating. During the morning, Iwould see pretty clearly, but then by early afternoon,my vision would be blurry. When I was on the computer, I had to zoom in 175% to see clearly. This continued to happenfor the next few days. Usually, when I come home,I would take off my contacts and then put on my glasses, and I was really tempted to do that today, but it's just so amazing how I don't have to do that anymore. It's officially two weeks since I got my medical contacts off and finally went back to work. My eyesight is still fluctuating, but I think I'm like 98% there. 

It's been kind of frustrating because I wanted my eyesight to be, like, clear by, like, two weeks, but it's taken some time, and I'm just patiently waiting still. Tomorrow will be the last day that I stop putting in my drops. So, yeah, definitely a lot ofcommitment for post-recovery. Hopefully the results will be worth it. It's officially been amonth since my PRK surgery, and I can confidently saythat I can see 100% clear. My right eye has definitelycaught up to my left. No pain, no dryness, nodiscomfort, no redness. It's been awesome! I'm also traveling right now,and it's been so convenient to not need to bring glasses or contacts or solution with me. I think the last thing that's left to do is donate all my contact solution, because I'm not gonna need them anymore. Jade: Thank you! My final thoughts? I'm still amazed that the whole surgery only took about 15 minutes and that I didn't feel any pain during it. Dr. Koster and his teamreally took care of me. Although the idea oflasers cutting up my cornea still scares me, I found thatthinking about other things while the surgery washappening really helped. As for the post-surgery pain, the first night wasdefinitely an 11 out of 10, but that probably could've been avoided if I had taken the Tylenol with codeine before I passed out by accident. Other than that, the first two nights, the pain was bearable, like, four out of 10.

 The most annoying part aboutthis whole process was, for three weeks, my eyesightjust kept fluctuating. Getting my work done wasreally, really difficult. And there were moments whereI felt skeptical and sad that the surgery might not have worked. But I just kept thinkingabout what Dr. Koster said. Dr. Koster: Let the sciencedo the work for you, OK? Michelle: And I justtried to remain patient. If you're thinking about doing PRK, I would be prepared to blockout a month for recovery. I know with LASIK therecovery time is much faster with similar results. But doing PRK was worth themoney and the wait for me, because now I get towake up with clear vision without the need of glasses or contacts. If you're thinking ofdoing laser eye surgery, do your research. Find out which procedure is best for you and which doctors havethe experience and care. And don't forget to follow all of their pre- andpost-surgery instructions for the best results. That's, like, my eyeball! Jade: Yeah, like, youwere not reacting to it. Like, it was so strange.