The Lasik Experience from the Perspective of a Patient
I underwent Lasik surgery for my eyes on the 9th of September, 2021. This write-up highlights my first-hand experiences pre, mid and post-surgery. Having decided to undergo Lasik, I was scared, curious and had a thousand questions swirling in my head. For anyone that is in my shoes, I have shared my knowledge on every common question related to Lasik in Layman’s language while being as descriptive as I can.
What is Lasik?
In simple words, Lasik is a medical procedure performed in order to correct your vision. It involves reshaping your cornea to adapt it such that it balances out your eye’s short-sightedness or long-sightedness.
Here’s a notable animated video explaining the origin of Lasik:
Does Lasik mean no more specs FOREVER?
No, but it does mean no more specs for at least the next 20 years. With aging, you will eventually have to wear specs (including reading glasses) again and you will also have to undergo other eye-related medical procedures such as cataracts.
Risks Involved
The million-dollar question is:
Can you go completely blind because of Lasik? (Spoiler Alert: NO!)
Quoting Brinton Vision Website,
to date, there have not been any reported cases of blindness stemming from LASIK. On the other hand, there have been injuries reported from contact lenses
Quoting N Vision Centers Website,
While a LASIK procedure may, in very rare cases, cause a person to lose a few lines of vision on the vision chart, in all likelihood, it is not going to cause legal blindness. According to Consumer Reports, disabling vision loss is an extremely rare complication of LASIK, occurring less than 1 percent of the time. More common side effects from LASIK surgery involve temporary visual disturbances, such as starbursts or halos around lights or decreased night vision.
and there are many more sources that claim the same.
The only side-effects/complications that might occur post-Lasik are:
- Dryness of eyes (Temporary)
- Bright Lights such as headlights of an approaching car or spotlights etc might appear to have a halo surrounding them (Lasts 6 months maximum, can be corrected by glasses). This generally occurs only during night time.
- Feeling pressure in your eyes (Rare)
- Headache (Lasts an hour post Lasik; Could be due to the difference in your vision and your brain taking time to adapt to it)
- Occasional deterioration of your eye’s power to focus at objects that are in varying distances (I experience this very frequently especially in a rainy climate but most of the times it’s not noticeable because it is a very minor change)
Pre-requisites
For humans, our eyesight is involved at every step of our lifestyle and hence it is only fair to be meticulous with any surgery involving it. My doctor first did a Retina check to inspect the presence of any tear (noun. form of torn, NOT the crying tear). They concluded that my left eye had some minor tears which had to be treated by a procedure called ‘Green Laser Photocoagulation’. This was a 5-minute procedure where the doctor projected a green laser into my eye repeatedly to seal the tears. It was slightly uncomfortable but pain-free. I had to wait for 1 week after this to continue with the remaining pre-Lasik tests.
Next, they measured the dimensions of my eye (cornea) to know the width and thickness. This was a 2-minute process where I had to sit on a chair and a machine (Corneal Topographer) spun (or at least appeared to) and collected the measurements.
Fortunately, my eye had the perfect readings and I was concluded to be fit to undergo Lasik.
The Surgery
Warning: In this segment, I’ve documented stuff that I saw and felt during the surgery. Although there aren’t any outlandish depictions, some readers might find it uncomfortable so feel free to jump to the next heading if you do not want to read through this.
When I entered the treatment center, I was first asked to fill a consent form. This required the signature of a relative (as a witness) along with mine. I was asked to remove my specs (It was hopefully a Goodbye forever) and I wore a hair cap.
Next, anesthesia drops were put into my eyes as I waited for the commencement of the surgery. Thereafter I was called into the Operation Theatre where the doctor requested me to lay down on a movable bed. Next, they again put the anesthesia eye drops in my eye. Following that, my head was wrapped in cloth such that it covered one of my eyes. Next, the bed rotated and placed my head under the first machine.
Here, a ring was placed on my eyeball. This ring seemed to be something in the shape of a cup. The role of this ring was to create a vacuum suction force that holds my eye in one place. This is the most uncomfortable part of Lasik (as reported by most patients) due to the suction force and some also feel temporary darkness/blindness in their eyes due to the capped blood pressure. For me, I personally did not feel anything as such and it was pretty normal.
When the ring was placed on my eyes, a femto-second laser was projected to make an incision which will be of help to the surgeon in the next step.
Next, the bed rotated to go under the 2nd machine (refer to the operation theatre image). This was where the surgeon’s manual intervention came into play. They used a blade to lift up the flap created by the first machine’s incision. It felt like someone lifted a curtain from my eye and increased the brightness level of my vision to 110%. Then a continuous beam of UV light was fired on my eye. Being beyond the Human eye’s visible spectrum, this UV light was not visible to me but I felt a slight warm sensation in my eye. The surgeon explained that my cornea was getting reshaped. It smelled like something was burning and this smell stayed in my nose for an hour so that was a bummer.
When this was done, the surgeon poured closed the flap and poured some water on my eye to cool it down. Note that not all surgeons do this step so do not worry if your surgeon doesn't.
This entire process was then repeated for my other eye.
Immediately after the surgery, I felt an improvement in my vision without specs but it was far from perfect. I was asked to wear protective eyewear and they put some drops in my eye and swallow a tablet. Then I was good to go!
A youtube video by The Action Lab describes this entire process really well. They have also captured what happens inside the operation theatre on video.
Post Lasik Precautions
I was advised to do the following:
- Do not wear perfume or touch soap (on the day, prior to Lasik)
- Do not rub your eyes (for at least a month)
- Do not shampoo or take a head bath (for a week)
- Wear dust-protection glasses or sunglasses (for 3 days to a week)
- Limit screen time: I was advised to gradually increase my screen time by following this schedule:
- Day 0 & 1: No screen time
- Day 2: 15 minutes
- Day 3: 30 minutes
- Day 4: 2 hours
- Day 5: 4 hours
and so on …
Post Lasik Recovery Experience
Day 1:
The initial 24 hours demonstrate highly accelerated healing. To put it in an imaginable way, my vision went from being -3.0 to -1.5
Day 2:
The healing persisted. My vision improved to -0.5 which felt nearly perfect.
Day 3 to 7:
My vision was more or less the same, maybe slightly worse as compared to day 2. At the end of the week, I felt like my near-sighted vision was perfect and I could easily read any book or my laptop screen when kept at the usual distance from my eye.
Day 15:
Astonishingly, my far-sighted vision felt like it had slightly deteriorated. A possible explanation could be the extended screen time that I had due to college work.
Day 30:
Overall my vision had improved since Day 15. The doctor checked my eyesight and the results showed that I had just a -0.5 number in my eye which could possibly be corrected if my brain could adapt to it over the next couple of months.
Day 90:
My vision improved slightly at first and then it felt the same. But, I could feel that my brain had notably improved in adapting to it so my eyesight that felt peculiar at first now felt ordinary to me.
My Lasik Results
There is always a chance of over-correction or under-correction when it comes to Lasik. At the time of writing this (3 months post-surgery), My vision has somewhat stabilized and the Doctor concluded that I have had a minor under-correction. My eyesight, which used to be -6.5 and -6.75 has now improved to -0.75 and -0.75. For most of my daily activities, I do not require specs except for situations like attending lectures or watching sports on TV where the scoreboard is in a miniature font.
So, would I recommend anyone to go for Lasik?
YES! Lasik is a painless procedure where the side-effects are minimal, the results are promising and the risks are more improbable than the chances of you getting hit by ⚡️. But, to take a realistic stance, I would warn you that there is always a chance of minor under or over correction so expecting a vision that equals your vision with specs is a fairly improbable scenario but getting a vision that lets you see stuff clearly enough is 100%.
