I haven't read anyone else's comments, but I've posted this before for others and I'll post again. I had laser eye surgery done about 3 years ago now. Wrote up my experience for a friend who asked every question under the sun, and found it helped her. So hopefully you find it informative:
**2009**
June 5th 10:30am - Appointment time
-They ran over my post op instructions:
1) no windy, smoky, or dusty situations for 2-3 weeks (basically no riding for 4 weeks to be safe)
2) no sweating in your eyes, if you work out make sure you have a sweat band on your forehead
3) no water/soap in eyes
4) follow the eye drop schedule (you get about 4 different types of drops)
5) first 2 days are CRITICAL
6) you will wear the "goggles" (they give you these tinted swimming goggles to sleep in) when you leave the centre
7) wear the sunglasses when outside, goggles when you sleep or when indoors
8) first 2 days, try to minimize any reading, or computer/tv usage (basically you can socialize...and that's it)
9) some other stuff i can't remember
-by the time i got into the surgery room, took them about 5-10 min. to prep me
Prepping involved:
-cleaning around my eyes with some sort of iodine or something
-placing gauze on the sides of my eyes, close to my ears, to catch all the liquid
-testing the machine while i'm in the chair to make sure it runs properly, and that i get used to the sound and smell of the laser. There is a cover over the laser while they are running it through the test
-a stream of freezing drops are dropped into your eye
*felt like i was lying in an alien chair waiting for a friggin' anal probe...
Actual procedure starts about 10 minutes in.
First part: Creating the flap (approx. 5 min/eye)
-to keep your lid open during the procedure, they insert something to keep your lid open (a circular plastic thing)
-then they lock a "suction cup" into the plastic ring and swing you under one laser (there are two, one to create the flap, another to laser a part of the cornea) or at least it felt like two
-you feel some pressure on your eye for about 60 seconds, this is when the "flap" is being created...(feels like someone pushing a thumb into your eye socket)...uncomfortable and odd, but certainly not painful
-they swing you back to centre, where the surgeon use's this little tool the size of a lead pencil tip to "open the flap" (the laser cuts a through the top part of your cornea, sorta like creating a door that hasn't been opened)
*again not painful, but freaky as **** as you're staring right at this thing coming at your eye...can't feel a thing, but i think i shat myself a little
-the surgeon opens the flap (opening a door) then sways you under the other laser
Laser Cornea Part: (approx 20 sec/eye)
-the laser takes approx. 20 seconds to "shave down" your cornea into it's correct shape
-all the while you are focusing on the blinking orange light, you feel nothing, this is the least scarry part of the whole process
-the laser makes a loud clicking noise, and smells like it's burning hair, but if you're as scared as i was, you barely notice this.
Closing of the flap Part: (approx 2-3 min/eye)
-back to the surgeon to close and seal the flap.
-the surgeon very carefully with the pick looking thing flips the flap back over the eye, then takes a thing that looks like a spongy paintbrush but extremely small and runs over your eye several times to smooth out the flap and close it. There's some surgical glue that is sealing the flap back down.
-there's also some cold liquid that gets poured into your eye. Feels like cold water being poured over
They repeat this for the other eye, and you always have one eye covered.
From the moment I stepped into the surgery room to the min i stepped out...the whole thing took 30 min...prep and all...it was super quick
Prep is about 10 min
The laser and flap part are 16 min. in total
then the clean up for you to get up out of the chair and check is about 4 min.
Immediately after the surgery:
You leave feeling like someone smeared vaseline all over your glasses. Everything is extremely blurry, and bright. They help you put the goggles on.
Within 10 min. the freezing drops where off, and you feel like someone kicked sand in your eye, it feels itchy and scratchy, but not painful.
I was so exausted from it all that the second I got home, my bf helped me start my drop schedule, and I did what they told me to do, SLEEP. It's the best thing for your recovery, after all it is surgery.
**please note, you WILL need someone to a) care for you for at least the first night, your vision is incredibly blurred and your eye lids are swollen from the pulling and forced opening b) need someone to drive you home
Next day:
-go for post op first thing in the morning
-woke up with dry eyes, used the drops no issues
-wore sunglasses, still a little hazy around bright lights
20/20 vision though even with the haziness, tested 20/20 with partial 20/15
-focusing on near objects and far objects was a little fuzzy for me, but could still piece it all together
**the above was pretty much what I experienced for about 3 days
1week goes by:
-still 20/20, the hazziness around lights is starting to dissipate
-still on the drop schedule
-still following 'what to avoid'
-found that my focus on the laptop would be difficult at times. (ie. looking at the laptop for 3/4 hours then looking at something far and looking near again, felt like someone shook my screen until the letters stopped shaking and came back together)
2-3 weeks go by:
-my vision is completely perfect...partial 20/15 vision...so better than 20/20...
3-4 weeks:
-hazziness is completely gone. everything is sharp, night vision is PERFECT
I went to Yonge Eglinton Eye care centre:
http://www.yongeeglintonlaser.com/
It cost me $4,500 for both eyes
I saw Dr. Kumar (he is a part of their fellowship program, and the cheapest, but Dr. Rootman overlooks his work)
The amount depends on the doctor you go with, they are all opthomologists as well as surgeons, so they are all equally qualified. They usually range from $4500 to $6000 depending on your eyes (severity in prescription, corneal thickness etc)
The amount paid includes, lifetime warranty, drops, emergency on call surgeon, 4 post ops, extra appointments if anything is of concern, both sets of glasses.
If you're going to check out a few places for consults the top three are TLC, Herzing and Yonge Eg. I personally wouldn't recommend Lazik MD. Any consult you go to, should take at least an hour and a half. It should seem like a typical optometrist appointment with a few extra checks. If you're not comfortable with the staff, don't even consider going to the institution. This is a procedure where bedside manner is crucially important. You are awake during the procedure, your eyes are numb, but there is still room for panic if given a reason for one. you want to have staff by your side who will be calm, cool, have a relaxing nature, and most of all keep you in the loop with what is going on at all times. Everything from your point of view lying in that chair looks huge, and terrifying. These are your eyes, make sure you trust the person in charge of pointing a laser at them.
Sorry it's long winded, but I hope it helped
