73% geek, the rest is girly-bits

PEW PEW! – A description of my LASIK experience in six parts:
1 – Before LASIK | 2 – LASIK surgery | 3 – Those LASIK eyes
4 – My LASIK timeline | 5 – LASIK: The Movie | 6 – Life after LASIK

During the LASIK itself I felt absolutely no pain, and it wasn’t scary or icky to have it done. All I had to do was lie on a table and stare at a light for a while. In the months since my procedure was done, particularly the first two, I experienced the discomfort and blurred vision of dry eyes. I still have dry eyes and the problems associated with that, but the dryness seems to lessen every day, and even on the days when my vision is bad I can still see significantly better than before the surgery. It was a watershed event for me. I literally went from being blind without my glasses, to seeing perfectly from the moment I wake up in the morning.

I know LASIK and other procedures of its ilk are not for everybody. After I had my LASIK and experienced dry eyes and blurred vision, I did some on-line research. Although I’d done a lot of reading, both horror stories and glowing testimonials, before deciding to to have the LASIK, I was not aware of dry eyes as a commonly associated problem until afterwards. Depending on who you talk to, dry eyes isn’t seen as a common side-effect. Also, any dryness due to LASIK is supposed to resolve itself within a few months as the eye heals.

Once I had a specific topic to search for, it didn’t take much looking to find couple of forums full of people suffering terribly from dry eyes. Their stories were heartbreaking, and I count myself lucky to have experienced what, in comparison, can only be thought of as minor problems. Bear in mind however, the problems described on these forums were not always due to LASIK, and there can be many other causes of dry eyes.

I found the advice on said forums to be of varying use, as some recommended products simply aren’t available to me. I’ve needed to use a lot of artificial tears, some of which have been more helpful to me than others, but I’ve had to figure that out through trial and error. However the forums did make me aware of punctal plugs, and artificial tear inserts like Lacrisert®.

Although my eyes are almost perfect now, and still improving every day, even if they never got better and I had to deal with dryness and intermittently blurred vision for the rest of my life I would still have chosen to have LASIK. For me the rewards were worth the risks. The only thing I wish I’d done differently is to have done it sooner.

I heartily recommend that anyone considering LASIK should book an appointment with reputable clinic and go talk to them. Learn about your options and get enough information to make a decision based on facts. I’ve been very happy with my choice of clinic, Memira Bergen, throughout. They were all unfailingly kind, patient and helped make the whole process a great experience. My surgeon, Dr. Petter Pettersen, is awesome, and gave me brand-new eyes which seem work great straight out of the box, obviating any need for re-operation. Yay!

After three months my brain is still discombobulated by my lack of glasses. I find myself groping at my face to remove them before going to bed at night, or doing the nerdy push against the space between my eyes in order to adjust my non-existent eye-wear. It’s going to take a while before I’m used to having a naked face, and I’m going to enjoy every minute.

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