Lasik

[ghini]

Here's exactly what happened at lasik yesterday. I've put it behind a cut for people who are easily grossed out.



I went in two weeks ago for the initial exam. Not bad. It was a lot like the eye doctor. I realized I wasn't too scared after the corneal pressure and thickness test. They put some numbing drops in my eyes, then poked my eyeball with a little electrode that went BEEP!

poke. Beep! poke. Beep! poke. Beep! poke. Beep! poke. Beep!

Instead of freaking out because I had someone poking my eye, I just sat there and thought how wierd this seemed.

I made the appointment for Thursday, 11:15am. They said I should show up at 11:15am. Since you can't drive after, I asked my aunt to drive me. It's about 20 minutes from my house to the doctors, so I told her to show up at 10:45am. When does she show up? 9:15am. I demanded we go to breakfast. I finally got to the doctor only half an hour early.

Here's how I know that I went to the right place. Before the surgery, I had a quick checkup to make sure the perscription thery got last week was the right one. They check my eyes. One is blurry as hell at the setting they have. The tech checks it again, and gets a different number than they got last week. So, to make sure, he checks it again, then has someone else check it, then has a big machine check it, then has the surgeon check it. When all five of these match up, he decides it's ok.

Off I go to the operating room. I lie down on a reasonably uncomfortable table, and get positioned. They put four kinds of drops in my eyes, each colder than the last. They push me under the laser machine. Now comes the fun part...

First, they attach clips to my eyelids to keep them open, like in A Clockwork Orange. Next, they tapped it with a little thingy that as far as I can tell, was putting a bullseye on my eyeball.

Now the wierd thing. They put this thingy over my entire eyeball. As far as I can tell, it was a doughnut shaped suction cup. It sucked my entire eyeball down tight. This was the closest to painful I got. This thing was pushing up against the eye socket part of the skull. Not agonizing, but uncomfortable as hell.

Now the doctor comes in with a blurry thing and slices my cornea up. No pain. Next he pulls this flap to the side and everything goes blurry.

Now I get to stare at the blinking yellow dot while the laser tracks in on my eye and zaps me.

SNAP SNAP SNAP SNAP SNAP SNAP SNAP SNAP SNAP SNAP SNAP SNAP

Each snap is a blast of laser light, and my nose fills with the smell of burning eyemeats.

Once it's over, he pushes the flap back over my eyeball and starts over on the other one.

Once both are done, he unleashes my eyeballs from their prison and I get to leave.
The grand total time spent in the operating room was about 15 minutes.

Everything was blurry when I left. On the ride home my eyes started to sting, and becme more sensitive to light. I took a demerol and a nap, and woke up much better.

Comments

[phatjoe.livejournal.com]

The details I want to know about are what goes on afterward. Do you have special goggles to sleep in? I am someone who ends up touching my eyes constantly because shit gets in them. I've heard you're not allowed to touch/rub your eyes like that for weeks, until the cornea is healed. Ugh !

/joe

[uglor.livejournal.com]

You are not supposed to touch your eyes for 24 hours after, except to put drops in. They gave me a set of goggles to sleep in so I wouldn't screw my eye up in my sleep.

After the first day, you are not supposed to rub your eyes, but you can do most other things. No swimming or hot tubs or other ways you might get bacteria in them for 3 weeks though.

[phatjoe.livejournal.com]

can you wear the goggles all the time? i'm afraid i'd end up rubbing my eyes !!

/joe

[uglor.livejournal.com]

You could wear goggles all the time if you wanted. You are supposed to put artificial tears in your eyes every 20 minutes, so you are handling them anyway.

Really, after the first 24 hours, rubbing your eyes is not as much of a worry as infection, and that is pretty low.

[girlsonfilm.livejournal.com]

Wow. I've never heard the procedure described with so much detail. I'm not sure I am more eager to have it done, or less.

[uglor.livejournal.com]

The time "in the chair" was about as uncomfortable as a trip to the dentist overall, but shorter.

[lizerati.livejournal.com]

I'm less. Good lord, much less. This squicked me out.

[mathslut.livejournal.com]

I already was pretty averse after reading too many horror stories (though they are less than 1%, that group has some horrifying permanent things going on; I'm glad you seem to be fine, Ghini!) but I completely concur that I have so little desire for anyone to clamp and vacuum any parts of my eyes.

[nicker.livejournal.com]

You lost me on the aroma of burning eye meat. I had a cyst removed under local and did just fine until the cauterizing part. Then it got wormy.

[uglor.livejournal.com]

All I would have needed was a warning to breathe in before the laser started, and out after. The zapping only lasted about 15 seconds.

[xantha.livejournal.com]

damn! that sounds awesome!

[i really wish they would say they could do my eyes. grr. bastards. i grow tired of my -9 rx)

that sounds like some kind of AWESOME

[plantyhamchuk.livejournal.com]

So will your vision be 20/20 now, or is it a sort of wait-and-see kind of process? I looked at their website, but with so many options it sounded pretty confusing.

And expensive. Though, I guess I'd rather pay lots of dough and have it done well, instead of paying less and being blind.

Is there any way to be put to sleep for this thing?

Re: that sounds like some kind of AWESOME

[uglor.livejournal.com]

My eyesight is going to slowly adjust over the next few days. Hopefully it will be 20/20 by next week. I have a followup in mid-October and if it is still not perfect then, they will decide if they need to do a second zap.

They say you can have a sedative if you are the naturally paranoid type.

They also said I can have someone watch the procedure. If I need to go in for a touch up, you are welcome to come along.

Re: that sounds like some kind of AWESOME

[plantyhamchuk.livejournal.com]

YES!!!!

[covenant.livejournal.com]

Well, that's a bit different than mine. The suck and slice on mine actually sucked up the eyeball and there was a very strong pressure in a place where you generally shouldn't feel any pressure; it was very odd. It was even stranger how the vision in that eye faded to complete black as the suction was applied. Then there was a zipping sound as they sliced the cornea, and after that they released the suction and proceeded with twiddling the flap and zapping the eye.

My doctor also only did one eye at a time so I wasn't in full Clockwork Orange mode for the procedure. Even with only one eye clamped it was creepy feeling. Not really bad, but it did sort of itch and felt very strange.

I remember wisps of smoke from the zapping of the eye, but I don't have any memory of the smell of cooking eyeball. I guess the fan on the machine was doing a decent job.

Oh, and did they get you in on time or did you get to sit in the waiting room for an hour or two twidding your thumbs waiting for your turn to get fried?

[uglor.livejournal.com]

The suction cup did make things go black for a minute, but then the light came back before they did the slicing.

Because my aunt was so early, I actually got there 30 minutes early. I was supposed to be in from 11:15 to 1:15pm, but I was out before 1pm, even with the time delay for multiple recheckings of my eyes.