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My Lasik BlogIf you are considering lasik, be sure to read this whole blog, so you know that not everyone wakes up the day after lasik with 20/20 vision, ready to get back to their life. It took me 5 months and an enhancement surgery to feel normal again and get on with my life!My original prescription was -7 diopters , with a little astigmatism (1.25-1.5) in each eye. Without glasses, I could not even read the big "E" on an eye chart. Click here to go to the bottom of my blog, and read upwards if you want to read it chronologically. May, 2006  Overall I'm pretty happy and don't think about my lasik experience hardly ever. I went on a road trip where I did lots of driving this month. I did notice that my vision is not crisp while driving at night. Also, I think I don't blink as often when driving, so the dry eyes are a bit worse. I bought this product at the drug store that is an aerosol can eye spray mist. It is called Nature's Tears Eye Mist, and I found it near the natural tears eye drops. I kept it in my car and sprayed it at my eyes whenever they felt dry. I was able to do this while driving. It was hard to force myself to keep my eyes open while spraying something at them...so I practiced it before driving! It's probably not a good idea to use this product all the time, because it may train your eyes not to blink when something is coming at them. But for my road trip, it was great, and I plan to use this product next time I do alot of driving.
March, 2006 I had a checkup with my optomotrist. He said my left eye is 20/20 and my right eye is 20/25. He said there was some minor evidence of dryness in one of my eyes, and that I should continue using the eye drops, and if it gets worse to come see him. He said that untreated dry eyes can lead to regression of vision. Jan 6, 2006 I've been truly enjoying my vision now. I am teetering on the edge of wanting to say it was worth all the difficulty. Recently, I saw a guy out running the in rain. I thought to myself "Man, am I glad I don't wear glasses any more.". I had that same thought recently when I saw my mother reaching into a hot dishwasher, and her glasses fogged up. It took me a year to heal and adapt to my lasik eyes. I've concluded that the reason I had so much problems with lasik is 1) I had dry eyes to begin with, and made my eyes heal slowly; 2) My left eye ended up a bit weaker than my right eye. That is common in lasik, as they can't predict exactly what vision you will end up with. I am very picky about my vision (I always cleaned my glasses several times a day), which made it hard for me to adapt to this slight difference; and 3) My dominant eye switched from right to left. That was really hard for me to get used to. I am due for an annual eye exam. I will post to my blog again when I do that. Nov 9, 2005 Things are pretty good. I still have some dry eyes at night, but it's bearable. I am enjoying not wearing glasses, even tho my vision is not perfect...it is pretty darn good. I did notice one thing recently. I have been taking 3 flax oil pills on a regular basis (3000 mg) for a couple of years, for heart health and dry skin. Last year, my optometrist told me to increase my daily dosage of flax oil to 6000mg to help my dry eyes. I never did up my dosage and forgot about his advice. A couple weeks ago, I ran out of flax pills, and it took me a week to get to the store and buy more. Near the end of the week, I noticed my eyes were extremely dry again. So, I went out and bought more flax oil, and I now make it a point to take 6 per day instead of 3! August 9, 2005 No change since last post. March 22, 2005 My vision has been really good the last couple of weeks, and I am enjoying my vision. My right eye is still a little off and a little dry. And sometimes it still feels a bit strained. (I know I am picky, but hell, there are my eyes!!!) Overall, things have been great. I still want to go get a second opinion on my outcome. I've just been too busy lately. I think a 2nd opinion on lasik outcome (for anybody) is a good idea because if there is something that needs correcting, it's best to do it within the first year or two. During that time frame, the surgeon can still lift the old flap up to do a laser retreatment. After that timeframe, the old flap is so well healed that it cannot be lifted, so a new flap would need to be cut. The surgical risk is much higher for cutting a new flap over an old flap. (For this reason, I think lifetime lasik guarantees are useless!) Feb 21, 2005 Some days my vision is great, other days my right eye is blurry and I get eye strain and my right eye aches by the end of the day. I had an appointment with my lasik surgeon 2 weeks ago. My left eye measured 20/20, but it was a bit of a struggle reading the 20/20 line. I couldn't read the 20/20 line with my right eye at all, so that eye is probably 20/40, tho they didn't say. The doctor just said "You have 20/20 vision with both eyes", and "it doesn't get any better than this". I asked him if there was any astigmatism in my eyes, and he said no. I asked him what my refractive error was (prescription), and he said zero refractive error. I am planning to get a 2nd opinion from another lasik doctor, because franky, I don't believe that I have no astigmatism and no refractive error. My right eye is okay, but not great. I think the eye strain I get in that eye is due to it trying to focus and "keep up with" the left eye, if that makes any sense. Not that I want to go thru with another enhancement, but I want to know what my outcome is, and if it could be better, or if I am just too picky and I should be happy with it. At this point I still cannot say "Yes, wow , I'm so glad I did this!" PS: If you are in the Durham, North Carolina (NC) area, email me and I will tell you who my surgeon was. I don't recommend him. I always feel like he's rushing me out the door (and onto the next paying customer). Jan 19, 2005 Eye strain went away and I'm back to normail again. I think I was doing too much computer work without wearing the reading glasses. I will have to remember to put them on whenever sitting at my computer. (Sheesh - being over 40 sucks sometimes!) Jan 15, 2005 I was doing great for two months, forgetting about my eyes and enjoying my vision and moving on with my life. (which is why I haven't posted in a while!) I think my vision is regressing. My left eye is no longer crystal clear like it was. It's still very good, but not perfect any more. My right is is sometimes quite blurry. I'm pretty sure there is astigmatism in that eye, because looking at a printed page, the text looks "smeared". Sometimes I wake up in the morning, and my right eye is very dry and the vision is cloudy in that eye. My eyestrain has come back, too. By 10pm, I am just plain tired of "seeing", if that makes sense. Nov 11, 2004 Minimal eyestrain now. Still having dry eye problems at night, but it's diminshing and I feel confident my eyes are healing well. I was riding my bike in the rain today, and it was sure nice not to have glasses on then! :-) Nov 4, 2004 This week my eye strain has been minimal. I'm actually feeling normal again! I had an appt w/ lasik doctor today. My farsightedness is gone. My left eye is 20/20 and my right eye is 20/25. I am happy with the result. Would I do it again? I can't yet say that I would. The memory of how difficult it was is still too fresh in my mind!! Oct 30, 2004 My eye strain was better for a while, now has come back :-( I still feel like lasik was a bad choice. My dry eyes are getting better. I am not waking up with my eyelids stuck to my eyeball any more. I do still wake up a few times to put drops in, tho. Oct 18, 2004 Still a little eye strain and headaches. Lasik is like having a new pair of contacts fused to your eyes, that aren't quite right, but you have to live with it. My distance vision is crystal clear, but I still feel my eyes working hard at focusing. My near vision is about what I expected it to be... I do need reading glasses for tasks such as: reading, looking at my computer, sewing, putting on my eye makeup, etc. I still can't yet say that I am happy I did it. If the eye strain goes away completely, then I may change my mind...will post another entry if/when that happens! Oct 17 Despite trying out all sorts of eye products for nightime dry eye relief (Celluvisc, Genteel, Theratears, Tears Naturalle PM ointment) I still sometimes wake up with my eyelids stuck to my eyeballs. I think this happens when I sleep for several hours uninterrupted. If I wake up soon enough (within 2 hours), then I put drops in and go back to sleep. Basically, I haven't had a good night's sleep since June 18th. Oct 13, 2004 I'm doing better today, and actually am enjoying my vision a little. I decided to try and just use the reading glasses when on my computer or reading, but not just walking around the house doing stuff like dishes and laundry. I have a little eye strain, but it's manageable. I think my brain has figured out how these new eyes work, and now knows when to try to focus, and when not to. Oct 12, 2004 I had been wearing my +1 reading glasses around all day to avoid eye strain. Then for a couple days I tried just wearing them around the house, but not when I went outside for a walk or to drive. The strain is okay so far! Oct 9, 2004 I found this site today: Enhancement Rate / Success Rate. Reading the last paragraph onthat page makes me think that perhaps lasik is just a crap shoot. The thing that scares me is that I did not regress over time with my first surgery. I was undercorrected from the day after, and actually, my vision improved over time. So, if I start out farsighted this time, won't I become more farsighted as time goes on? Perhaps most people win this crap shoot, as I know many people that have had great results with lasik. I don't think I am going to win, and all I can say is CRAP! Oct 8, 2004 I called my doctor this morning and told them about my horrible eye strain and headaches, so they squeezed me in. The doc said I am overcorrected now, at +1.0 diopter, and that is what is causing the eye strain. Of course, he says "be patient, time to heal, blah blah blah". He recommended I get some +1 reading glasses to wear to reduce the strain. This is just so frustrating! PS: a friend told me about Ask Lasik Doctors. I submitted my question and got a reply within the hour... (cool!) Question:
Oct 8, 2004 Still terrible eye strain. I have trouble relaxing at night / getting to sleep. This really sucks! Last night, in order to relax my eyes, I put a damp washcloth over them. I slept that way all night, and didn't wake up with the feeling that my eyeballs were sticking to my eyelids - yeah! Oct 6, 2004 Vision in my right eye fluctuates. Mostly, I'm still having lots of eye strain, so much that it keeps me from concentrating at anything for very long. It's not just reading, either. When will I be able to get on with my life? If only I could turn back the hands of time and get my old eyes back!!! Glasses were heaven compared to this. Oct 4, 2004 Still having quite a lot of eye strain :-( I think it's getting a little better each day, tho. I hope! Also, my right eye seems to be getting clearer. Oct 2, 2004 I am still having eye strain - it's so bad by the end of the day that I can't sleep at night. I feel like my eyes just can't change focus like they used to. It also feels like the two eyes don't want to work together, or that one eye is crossed. I'm not talking about trying to focus on things that are up close. I mean doing the dishes, walking across the room, every day normal stuff. I look around and my eyes just don't smoothly change focus from one object to the next. I found this tidbit of info by search Google Groups...I'm not sure what it means, but it sounds like my problem. "A final optical ramification of Lasik that is poorly understood by most ophthalmologists is that following Lasik the eyes must focus and converge entirely unaided. However, after years of adaptation to the prismatic effect of myopia-correcting glasses, many eyes will have difficulty working together unaided. This problem of visual fusion can be compounded if either eye experiences even a slight decrease in vision due to a post-Lasik complication. If the eyes are unable to adapt after Lasik, the post-refractive patient will have difficulty reading and will experience constant eye strain." Oct 1, 2004 I've discovered a cure for slouching. It's called presbyopia. Sept 30, 2004 I had my 1 week follow-up appointment (post lasik enhancement). The doctor said my corneas looked clear, so that's good news. My left eye is still perfect at 20/20. My right is now 20/30. I have been having a lot of eye strain. The doctor said that I should wear reading glasses more often. He said that even if I can focus on the text, my eyes are straining to focus up close, so reading glasses will relieve the eye strain. I have been wearing reading glasses all day today looking at my computer screen and working, and I do have less eye strain today. While it's nice to have good distance vision without glasses, I don't think it's a good tradeoff to have to now be dependent on reading glasses. I think it was actually easier to just lift my regular eyeglasses (or take them off) to read. I should have tried monovision contacts before doing the lasik, because then I would not have gone thru with it. The monovision idea was the whole reason I thought lasik was a good idea at my age. Oh well, hindsight is 20/20! Maybe once I adjust to my new eyes I will feel differently. I do enjoy wearing my Bolle sunglasses! I have one other thought for today's blur blog: maybe my eye strain is due in part to my right eye being slightly off. I think it's trying hard to make a clear picture and be in synch with my perfect left eye. Maybe once my brain realizes that it's not gonna happen, the strain will go away. Add to this the fact that my brain is used to my right eye being dominant for distance. It now has to switch to using the left eye as the dominant eye. I am hoping once my eyes and brain figure this out, I will feel less eye strain. Sept 29, 2004 My eyes are pretty good still (1 week after lasik enhancement). The left eye is still excellent, but the right eye got a little worse. I think there must be some astigmatism in the right eye, because I see a faint ghost/double image with it. I'm getting alot of eye strain too - not sure if that's from the right eye problem, or from looking at my computer screen too much. I have my 1 week check-up tomorrow. At this point, I'd have to say lasik is not worth it...definitely not a cakewalk! Sept 27, 2004 - 4 days after lasik enhancement My vision is still awesome! The Saran Wrap idea was too uncomfortable, so I ditched it after an hour of laying awake. I just put in some Celluvisc drops and went to sleep. I woke up every couple of hours and had to add more drops, but no sticky eye feeling. I think the reason I woke up in the morning with my eyes feeling stuck to my eyelids before was that I had taken some Tylenol PM those nights. That made me sleep all the way thru the night. So, I guess it's better that I wake up from the dry eye feeling and reapply drops several times thru the night, rather than get a full nights sleep. Sept 26, 2004 - 3 days after lasik enhancement My vision remains excellent...it is really marvelous. However, I am having some bad dry eye problems at night. When I woke up yesterday and today, it felt like my eyelid was sticking to my eyeball. It's scary, because I am worried about the flap coming undone. What I do is keep my eyes closed, grope for my artificial tears (on my bedside table), and put a ton of drops into the corner of my eye and gently tug at the corners of my lids and try to roll my eyeball slightly around until it feels lubricated. Then I open my eye. It doesn't feel like my flap is loose or anything, but I am still worried about it! I searched the internet and found several web sites that suggest putting ointment in the eye and then covering it with a 4 inch square piece of saran wrap to form a moisture barrier. I am going to try that tonight to see if it helps. LInk: Saran Wrap Moisture Barrier Sept 24, 2004 - 1 day after lasik enhancement OMG!!! I can see better than I ever have been able to see in my whole life.I went for my 1 day post lasik followup, and have 20/20 in both eyes. It is so amazing. I can even read most print...no need to wear reading glasses yet! I do need reading glasses for things like threading a needle and reading in dim light...but I expected some need for reading glasses, so I'm okay with it. Sept 22, 2004 Had my pre-op appointment. They did the wavescan. They re-checked my vision the old fashioned way (better, worse, same? I hate that!). They also measured my corneal thickness. Everything looks good and stable, so I am set for surgery tomorrow. I hope this time I wake up 20/20. I'm not counting on it, tho. I expect very blurry vision for a few days and slow healing again this time. I just hope the final result will be good this time! Sept 3, 2004 Had my 10 week followup appointment. They did corneal mapping and wavescans. The doctor said my eyes were stable enough to go ahead and schedule the enhancement surgery. I told him about trying monovision contacts and that I wanted to get both eyes corrected to 20/20. I also asked about wavefront (now my eyes are within the range for wavefront). He said that I could get wavefront. I do have to pay the extra $250 per eye for wavefront. My original surgery cost $1600 per eye, FYI. Week 8-10: Since my lasik experience was so bad, I only want to go thru it one more time for the enhancement. Whatever I end up with there will be it for me. So, I went to my optometrist (who I always got glasses from before). I wanted to try various contacts so that I would know what the best thing to do is for my lasik enhancement. Do I really want Monovision, or not? For two weeks I wore monovision contacts. I really couldnt get used it monovision. If I was outdoors in bright light, I was fine. But reading, looking at my computer, shopping in stores with lots of contrast, just never got comfortable. Monovision is like when one contact lens or eyeglass lense falls out - it's disorienting! So, now (since yesterday) I am wearing contacts that correct both eyes to 20/20 vision. Wow - I haven't seen 20/20 since June 18th, before lasik. My reading isn't bad. Even tho I know it will get bad, I am going to get both eyes corrected to 20/20 for the enhancement, but also tell the lasik surgeon that I don't want to end up overcorrected, i.e., with 20/15 vision. That would make the reading thing worse, and I'd rather actually be slightly undercorrected than slightly overcorrected. I have an appointment with the surgeon on Sept 3rd, and I think then I will be able to schedule the enhancement. PS: Note that I have not mentioned the name of my lasik surgeon. That's because I am still reserving judgement about him. PSS: I did ask my optometrist if my flaps looked good, and he said they looked good. He did say there was some minor occlusion (scarring?) in the right flap, but that it was not within the visual field, so he didn't think it was any problem. He also said that there was some minor swelling in the left eye, which is probably due to my dry eyes. He said I probably sleep with my eyes slightly opened, and that I should try taping them shut with surgical tape. (I tried this and -ACK! didn't like it). He also said to try Celluvisc drops for night time, which helped me a lot. I still wake up once or twice, but it's better than 3 or 4 times! Week 5: I had a followup lasik appointment. My left eye was -2.75 diopters, and I couldn't see anything on the eye chart except the big E. My right eye was 20/30 and -1.25 diopters. The eye doctor said that both eyes would need to be enhanced, but that it's best to wait until 3 months post op to do enhancements, as my eyes could still be changing. I showed him the contact lens I had found and he said it was okay if I wore that (cool!). Wearing the contact makes me think that maybe once I get the enhancements, it will be worth it after all. So far, it's not! Week 4: Still no noticible change in my vision. It's very weird to have my eyes have such drastically different visual strenghts. When I got home from my vacation, I was cleaning out my daughter's closet and found an old contact lens (still sealed in it's original package). The prescription was the same as the glasses I'd been wearing, so I tried it on in my left eye. It felt good and It also gave me good vision in that eye. The best thing was that wearing just the one contact in my left eye made both eyes be about equal, at about 20/40. It was really nice having the two eyes working together again. (wearing my daughter's old glasses made my right eye about 20/25 and my left eye about 20/40, so it was basically monovision. Weeks 2 & 3: I was on vacation these two weeks and it was marvelous having those glasses! We went to the beach, and I have to say that was a mistake going to the beach after lasik surgery. My eyes felt kind of scratchy anyway, and adding the sandy feeling that always comes with a stay at the beach didn't feel good. Walking on the beach one evening (without my daughter's glasses), I saw two crescent moons. It was quite freaky! Week 2: I was packing for vacation, and rather stressed out because here I couldn't see very well. My teenage daughter found her first pair of glasses and brought them to me. (We had looked for those last week). Voila - I could see again! It wasn't perfect, but it was great being able to see again. That's pretty sad that after lasik, I put on glasses and was happy with my vision...sigh! Day 6 post-op: Had a doctor visit. My right eye measured at 20/50. My left eye still can't read any lines on the eye chart except the big E...however I can read up close with my left eye, so that part is working. I told him that I go aroudn all day closing one eye or the other because the right eye works okay for distance and the left eye works okay for close up. He said that once my right eye comes into clear focus, that my brain should be able to automatically adjust between far and near. Right now, with my right eye not being clear, my brain is trying to use both eyes for distance, and it's having difficulty. The doc said my corneas are clear and healing well, and that some people just take longer for their vision to settle out. It's not easy, but I am trying to be patient. I still can't yet say I'm glad I got lasik. I am still thinking - oh crud what have I done?! Day 5 post-op: My vision seems to be ever so slightly improving, but is still basically crappy. I wish I wouldn't have gotten lasik. Not only did it mess up my vision, but it cost me an arm and a leg, too. Day 3 post-op: Still crappy vision. I printed out this eye chart, and I can read the 20/40 line on an eye chart with my right eye, though it is not a crisp image. So I am doing a little driving. I notice double vision at stop lights (I'll see two green lights when there is really only one). Day 2 post-op: Today my vision is a little better, but still a far cry from 20/20. I am feeling hopeful that at least it's moving the right direction! Maybe I am just a slow healer! I'm feeling like an old lady because, in order to see things on my computer monitor, I have to set my text size to be really really big! Day 1 post-op: The day after my lasik, I did NOT wake up with 20/20 vision. So much for all the hype about how great lasik is. Everything was very blurry. I was devastated and thought maybe they had botched my eyes. At my one day post-op visit, the doctor said my flaps were perfectly in place, and things were healing well, and to be patient and give my vision time to adjust. I opted to get monovision, which is where the correct one eye for distance, and leave one eye slightly nearsighted for reading. My right eye, which was the distance eye was 20/100. It's hard to be patient when you can't see anything! 
June 18, 2004 I'm getting lasik today at 3pm. I'm scared they'll botch it and I'll be one of the rare people who get halos or double vision from lasik, I know that's extremely unlikely...but still I'm scared. I never minded wearing glasses until I started to exercise. Now they bother me alot...they bounce around while I am jogging; I can't see while I am swimming; plus, I have no peripheral vision, which means I can't see the ground while I am walking or jogging. (It makes me be kinda clutzy.) I will post how it went tomorrow! Wish me luck (if anyone is even reading this boring blog)! Blog entry for: 2004-06-18 09:37:13 Home Page / Diet Info | Blog Directory |
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