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Had my one week checkup this morning and everything’s fine. Still got some glare around bright lights and my close focusing isn’t back to normal yet, but these side effects are expected and will wear off in a few weeks.
No more prescription eyedrops, no more goggles, things are looking up! My sight is great and continues to improve as the days go on. All I have to do is keep them lubricated and remember not to rub.
Feeling happier about my decision every day.
It is now two days since I had my laser eye surgery, and so far everything’s going according to plan.
The treatment itself was a strange experience but painless, and although I was in the clinic for two hours the actual op was only 15 minutes from start to finish, with the actual laser correction taking only 15 seconds per eye. Afterwards I donated two pairs of glasses and one pair of prescription sunglasses (they re-deploy them to developing countries), and Karen arrived to take me home in a taxi.
The evening after the op went as per the leaflet said it would. I had some discomfort as the anaesthetic wore off — a dry gritty feeling in my eyes — but a couple of Paracetamol and a lie down made light of that. From the first evening onwards my distance vision has been as good if not better than before with my glasses, and I can now watch TV quite comfortably with the picture looking brighter and sharper than before. It can take from a few days to a few weeks for one’s vision to settle to its new permanent standard after surgery, as the eyes recover from the procedure and the cornea, post-op bruising and protective flap heal. Right now as I said, my distance vision is fine but my close vision is worse than before, and I sometimes find it difficult to focus on anything closer than arm’s length. As I write this the words appear blurred on the screen. I’m told this is normal and part of the recovery process.
Post-op Regime
The flap that gets cut on the front surface and lifted out the way during the op is simply laid back in position and left to hear naturally, so it is not stuck or stitched down. This means that you have to treat your eyes with great care in the first few weeks. For the first week I’m not allowed to touch or rub my eyes, or to get water in them. I therefore have to shower very carefully and they’ve given me special goggles — a bit like swimming goggles but more comfortable — to wear in bed so I don’t rub my eyes in my sleep.
I have three different types of eye drops:
Moisturising: one drop in each eye, six times a day
Antibiotics: one drop in each eye, four times a day
Anti-Inflammatory: one drop in each eye, six times a day.
That’s 32 drops per day in the right combination: not always easy to keep track of! After seven days I’ll be done with the Antibiotics and Anti-Inflammatories and will just have the moisture drops from then on.
Yesterday afternoon I went back for my first post-op check, and was told that my vision one day after the op is as good as it was with glasses previously, and that it will get better as the eyes continue to heal. I have further checks at op + 1 week, 1 month, 3 months, 6 months and 12 months. They also told me that I can drive during daylight but must take extra care if driving at night because I’m getting quite a lot of glare on bright points of light.
This morning (my Birthday btw!) I went out on my bike for a couple of hours. All went well and I had a great glasses-free ride for the first time. Then this afternoon we went up to the school to take Elliot & Abigail out to lunch, and I drove most of the way, again with no problems.
Laser eye surgery has fulfilled on its promise to me, and I’m excited to see how much more my vision will improve. I’m really looking forward to getting used to life without glasses.
This’ll be me tomorrow afternoon. Don’t click Play if you are of a nervous disposition:
The next time I post here I’ll be looking at my computer screen with the naked eye for the first time in ten years.
Wish me luck 
That’s how I see myself in my darkest (sic) moments. Me, lying on the couch with empty smoking sockets where my eyes used to be. A power surge, or badly timed outage, and the laser that was in the middle of reshaping my cornea goes ape, turning my eyeballs to liquid in a split-second.
Either that or the surgeon accidentally knocks the laser with his elbow as he reaches for his coffee cup and I end up with a long thin burn scar down my cheek.
Either that or I blink when I’m not supposed to and end up with a scorched hole in my eyelid.
Either that or the flap they cut in my eye never heals and I have to spend the rest of my days trying to avoid anything… ANYTHING touching my eyes.
Either that or they get my eyes the wrong way round and set the laser to work giving my left eye the right eye’s corrective treatment and vice versa, leaving my sight much worse than it was before and non-repairable.
All these nightmare scenarios — and more — have gone through my head at some point over the last few weeks, but as each one runs its course I remind myself of the maturity of the technology and the reliability of scientific knowledge in general, and I am once again convinced that this procedure is less dangerous than crossing the street.
It’s a bit like flying: You’re doing something that on the face of it seems crazily dangerous. There’s a lot at stake and if things were to go wrong the consequences could be dire. Yet you trust in the technology and the skill of the professionals into whose hands you’ve placed your safety, and like so many people today you just sit back, relax, and enjoy the flight. I know that planes have crashed in the past and when they do it’s pretty horrific, but that doesn’t stop me, or millions of others, from boarding our flights.
It’ll be OK, It’ll be OK, It’ll be OK.
God I’m such a Drama Queen!
T minus three days and I continue to view Friday’s appointment with a mix of excitement and apprehension.
Yesterday I mentioned that there’s a range of treatments available. Let’s take a look at the options:
LASIK Treatment
The first observation (sic) to note is that here, as in so many other parts of modern life, technology has moved on in leaps and bounds since laser eye surgery’s early days. It’s largely thanks to those brave souls who underwent comparatively more primitive earlier treatments that I can look forward to what promises to be a simple, safe, and painless procedure.
The two main variants are LASEK and LASIK: the latter being the better but more expensive option. Both repair eyesight defects by using a cool laser to reshape the outer surface of the cornea. The difference is hinted at by the E and I in the names: E standing for “extra” (or outside) and I standing for “in situ”. In other words LASEK involves removing moving the corneal tissue to be reshaped out before the laser goes to work (I think), and with LASIK it’s all done … well… in situ, with only what they call a protective flap being created to give the laser access to the cornea.
Most treatments today are of the LASIK variety and that’s what I’m having done. On top of that there are two further advances that you can opt for, and naturally I’ve plumped for both of them.
Advanced CustomVue Wavefront makes the treatment even safer and more accurate by… erm… I forget. Tell you what — watch this demo instead:
Click to Play
The final extra “bell & whistle” in my package is called IntraLase. Remember I said that with LASIK the surgeon has to create a protective flap? Well what that really means is that they cut a circle on the surface of the eyeball and move that circular piece of material out of the way — a bit like lifting a manhole cover. The standard way of creating this flap is with a surgical blade, but with IntraLase even that part is done by laser, allowing for even greater accuracy, customised to the individual eye, and granting faster recovery and healing times.
Sounds great doesn’t it! I know it’s safe but there’s a part of me that is letting out a silent scream of panic. More about my irrational fears tomorrow.
