First, let me tell you that it’s pretty great to be able to wake up and read your alarm clock or see the world for that matter in one clear image as opposed to a big blurry blob. I am really happy with the fact that I have 20/15 vision according to the optometrist and I have no regrets about the surgery.
Now with that said, I will say that the surgery itself at least for me caused me to get pretty tense. By the end of the surgery, I was gripping those grip balls they gave you prior to the surgery as if I was holding on for dear life and this is after they gave me a sedative to relax a little. Let me elaborate a little… there’s no pain during the surgery as they numb your eyes with a bunch of drops and the surgery is actually really quick, I’d say less than 10 minutes in total. I was doing fine even when my vision went literally “white” when they cut the cornea or whatever they do with the laser. It was only after they put the cornea back or whatever the second part of the surgery is for one eye that I started to get tense. The reason for this is after my vision goes white and they “roll” me to the other side to do something to my eye and then “roll” me back to the original place, I can make out some little things and I notice they are touching my eye with something. I then see a bunch of red spiraly looking things in my vision and I think that’s blood and that got me to tense up.
As they do one eye at a time (the right eye first), the second time around I was definitely holding on to the grip balls fairly tightly since I was clearly agitated but I knew I couldn’t move. When the operation was done and I’m placed back in the waiting room, I’m just spaced out since you can’t really see very well (everything is fuzzy), your eyes are still numb from the drops and the memory of the operation is still very clear in your head. Oh and your eyes are pretty painful later that night after the surgery but feel a lot better the next day.
Now 5-days later, my eyes are still recovering and they are pretty dry (it feels like when your contact goes behind your eye or if you have a little hair or something in your eye/contact). I have to do eye drops every 30 minutes so it’s definitely interesting living my life in 30 minute increments and the feeling of a “fresh artificial tear” is quite nice, it’s kind of like the feeling you get when you put on a fresh pair of contacts. During the night, I definitely get “Halos” around lights when I am driving and when I go to bars that are pretty dimly lit, everything is pretty “fuzzy” (not as “fuzzy” as after the surgery, but it’s like there is a slight haze around everything).
Overall, definitely worth the money (a little under $4,000) and I would highly recommend anyone to get it if they’ve been thinking about it.