LASIK Eye Surgery after 2.5 months...

It has been 2.5 months since I had LASIK eye surgery, so I decided to give an update as to how my vision has changed since the surgery. I would say laser eye surgery has to be one of the biggest miracles of modern medicine. Imagine (those of us with bad vision don't need to imagine) being practically blind without glasses or contacts for most of your life. Then you walk into an eye doctor's office and less than 30 minutes later you can see 20/20 or better! Laser vision correction is one of those technologies that can improve the quality of life for millions (billions?) of people in the world.

I can say that my vision continues to improve with time since my surgery. During the day, my vision is spectacular. It is BETTER than what I could see with contacts or glasses. My vision at night has also improved dramatically in the past month. For several weeks, I was seeing large halos at night and that could make it difficult to see sometimes. The halos have gotten dramatically smaller. They are still there, but they are about one quarter to one half the size of what they were a month ago. If you have any problems with your vision, at night is definitely the time you will notice it most.

One thing I noticed after my surgery is that how good your vision is has much more to do than just which line on the eye chart you can read at the doctor's office. That simply measures how MUCH you can see, but it doesn't tell you how WELL you can see. For example, you may have visual aberrations at night in the weeks after your surgery. I saw huge halos. Others have reported star burst patterns or other aberrations. You may be able to read evenly lit, distant street signs, but may have trouble seeing anything in certain situations when these aberrations get in the way.

Besides the halos, here are some other things that I have noticed that may not be as good as before I had my surgery.

• My eyes seem to take longer to adjust to changes in lighting. If I move from a very dark location to a very bright one, my eyes seem to take longer to adjust before I can see again. For example, if I come out of a movie theater in the middle of the day, it seems to be blinding for a longer time than before. Or if I go from a bright room to one that is dark, it seems to take me longer before I can see anything in the dark room.
• I don't seem to see as clearly at night or low light situation. There are times at night where I can't really see anything when I use to be able to. This might be related to my eyes not being able to adjust to light levels as rapidly as before the surgery. The light levels can change rapidly at night, so there are times I can't see anything when it gets dark quickly such as moving from a brightly lit street to one that is unlit. This can be an issue when I ride a bicycle at night and don't have a headlight bright enough to illuminate the road.
• I don't seem to be able to focus as rapidly as before the surgery. I spend long hours in front of the computer. Sometimes, after staring at the computer screen for hours, I have trouble seeing distant objects in one of my eyes and my vision gets unbalanced. It can be disorienting.
• Related to the focusing issues is that sometimes one of my eyes just goes blurry. The solution seems to be to use some artificial tears, close my eyes for a minute or so, and blink a few times. Once again, this seems to happen at night or after long hours in front of the computer.
• There is better clarity in my right eye than my left. I can't see any more, but the clarity is slightly better in the right eye compared with the left.
• I have some issues with dry eyes. It's not bad or uncomfortable, but it is noticeable. I do need to use artificial tears up to 3 times a day. The times it is most notice is when I wake up in the morning and late at night.
• I seem to have more eye strain in front of the computer or reading for long periods of time. I do need to take breaks more frequently than before.

So yes, I am seeing just as well or better after laser eye surgery, but not in all situations especially at night or after long hours in front of a computer. With these caveats in mind, the benefits far outweigh the drawbacks for me. I no longer have to worry about contacts and solution everyday. I don't have to worry about falling asleep in my contacts or finding a sink to wash my hands to remove them. This is a big deal when traveling since there may not always be facilities around. I am seeing better than 20/20 in most situations. I wouldn't say LASIK is perfect and hopefully I won't have any long term issues. But so far, I am impressed!

LASIK Eye Surgery...1 week update...

It has been a little over a week since I had my LASIK surgery. So far, I seem to be recovering pretty well. The doctor said I can stop using the medicated eye drops and just use the artificial tears. I don't seem to be having a problem with dry eyes, but then again, I've been using the drops religiously as directed. I should still be careful not to rub my eyes and no swimming for a month. I don't know how to swim anyway.

I guess the first thing everyone would want to know is how well am I seeing. The short answer is I can easily read the 20/20 line on the eye chart using both eyes! In fact, I can almost read 20/10 using both eyes. These Lasers are really an amazing technology when you think about it.

I can read the 20/20 line using just my right eye. I am not quite able to read the 20/20 line using just my left eye (it's blurry). I can see the eye charts better using both eyes than I do when using just one eye. My left eye seems to be under corrected by a quarter to half a degree when compared with my right eye. Perhaps it's still healing and will improve?

During the day, I can say I am seeing better than I was with contacts or glasses even though my left eye isn't quite at 20/20 (at least not yet). I've always felt my prescription was a little off with both my glasses and contacts no matter which eye doctor I went to. Every eye doctor I've gone to gave me a different prescription and it was one of the concerns I had before doing the surgery. If every eye doctor and optometrist was getting different numbers, how would they know which numbers to plug into the computer? I am seeing better during the day than I've ever seen before with contacts or glasses. Although my left eye seems to be off slightly, the correction I got with LASIK seems to be closer to the right one than I got with glasses or contacts! Pretty amazing stuff.

At night, the results are not as spectacular as during the day. The main issue is that there is a halo around every light source. The brighter and closer I am to the light, the larger the halo around the light is. This normally isn't a problem unless you are looking at a lot of light sources like a bunch of car headlights. Another situation is if you are looking down a street with a lot of bright street lamps. There is a halo around each light and it creates glare and can make it difficult to see.

I've spoken to other people who've had LASIK and some of them still see halos even years after their surgery. Supposedly, the custom wavefront technology is suppose to solve this problem, but as of now, that is the only major problem with my vision. They told me this should improve with time as my eyes are still healing.

My eyes are still bloodshot (especially my left eye), but that seems to be healing slowly by the day. This is caused by the pressure they apply to your eye when they cut the flap. This can break some blood vessels, and I got a really bad case of red eye like this:

It looks ugly and nasty and it was a lot worse in the days right after I had surgery, but it does not affect my vision at all.

LASIK is really a life changing procedure if you had really bad vision like I did. Being able to see without glasses or contacts has really improved the quality of life. I have worn contacts for over 20 years and they have always been a pain. Before disposables, cleaning the lenses was always a chore. I could only wear them for about 14 hours before my eyes dried out and sometimes they would come out of my eye and I would lose them. Disposable contacts were a big leap forward as it did away with the cleaning solutions. But I still had problems when I fell asleep in them (accidentally) and my eyes would easily get irritated. I had many problems when backpacking in Europe for 2 months last summer. Sometimes, I would be on a train, bus, or plane for 10-15 hour with no place to wash my hands to take out my contacts. Halfway through my trip, I broke my glasses so there was no way for me to see unless I had my contacts in. I love traveling and this makes life easier since it's one less major thing I need to worry about when trekking around the globe.

I will post more updates in the next few weeks on the halo situation...

LASIK Eye Surgery at LASIK Plus...

After waiting a LONG time (10+ years), I finally decided to have laser vision correction on November 13th 2009 (Friday the 13th!). Like many people, I was really nervous about having surgery done on my eyes. The technology always seemed to be getting better and my vision always seemed to be getting worse. There were always horror stories and the side effects, long term effects added to the uncertainty. In the last few months, I have met many people who had the procedure done and nearly all of them were extremely happy with the results. It seems that the technology has been perfected in the last few years. The most difficult parts of the procedure is now almost entirely automated by computers and the procedure has become routine and highly standardized.

I decided to have my surgery done at LASIK Plus on 183 and 360, near the Arboretum in Austin. My surgeon was Dr. Whiteside. The center is very pleasant, much like any other doctor's office. The difference is that the operating room has a glass wall, so you can watch patients get their eyes operated on from a waiting area. Watching Dr. Whiteside and his staff work made me much more comfortable in choosing to have my eyes done at LASIK Plus because I could watch how he and his staff work and see the reaction of his patients. They do surgeries every Friday and Saturday. If you are considering getting LASIK, I suggest you stop by and watch how it is done even if you decide to go with another surgeon. It's very educational. I don't know any other LASIK center that is set up to let you watch procedure done on other patients. They don't allow photos or videos (otherwise I would have posted them), but they do allow anyone to come and watch how they operate. I watched Dr. Whiteside operate on 3 different patients and seeing how methodical he and his staff were gave me confidence to have my eyes done here. The price of the procedure was $3,650 and they offering interest free financing for 2 years.

It has been 48 hours since I had my surgery and so far I am very happy! I can finally see without contacts and glasses for the first time over 20 years. I'll post updates as my eyes heal. My eyes are still bloodshot and I see large halos at night (but I was seeing some halos even with glasses or contacts), but according to the doctor, those should go away within a few weeks to a month.

I'll go over the experience so far. They do free evaluations. These are basically a complete eye exam to find out your prescription and if you are a candidate for LASIK. Basically, your cornea has to be thick enough and your eyes free of other diseases. They measure your prescription using a high tech eye scanning machine and also the traditional way. Then you go through several machines that take various measurements of your eye. At the end of the exams, the doctor will tell you if you are a candidate or not for the procedure.

If you decide to get the procedure done, you must stop wearing soft contacts for at least one week, longer if you wear hard contacts. I wore glasses for 3 weeks before having the surgery. Two days before the surgery, they want you to start using these expensive ($60) eye drops (Vigamox). They brought me in again 3 days before the surgery to retake some measurements.

On the day of the surgery, you do a bunch of paper work, they talk to you about what is going to happen, and answer any questions you might have. The main thing they want you to do is relax! The first step is you go on a machine called the Intralase. This is the machine that will cut a flap in both of your cornea. Dr. Whiteside lines you up on a VISX machine, and puts these suction cups into your eyes. From there, he moves you to the Intralase. What this machine does is mate to the suction cup mount in your eye, then you feel pressure. A computer controlled laser then cuts a flap in your cornea. The process is repeated for both eyes.

The next step is the doctor peels back the layer of cornea that the Intralase machine cut. You don't feel any pain at all, but what you see is your vision getting very blurry after the flap is removed. The VISX machine starts to work and you hear a series of very rapid clicking sounds as the laser is not a continuous laser, but a series of rapid pulses for 20-30 seconds that is also controlled by a computer. What I saw was a blurry vision and as the laser fired into my eye everything seemed to go dark starting with the outer edges of vision. There was this orange light and a flashing red dot the doctor wanted me to focus on. I also smelled burning flesh while this was going on. Was that sections of my eye being vaporized? The doctor told me it wasn't, but it sure smelled like it!

The whole procedure lasted about half an hour. When I opened my eyes, everything was extremely hazy. It was like looking through foggy glasses. I could tell my vision was a whole lot sharper, but everything looked hazy or foggy. They gave me a bottle of steroid drops and a couple boxes of artificial tears. I had to continue the Vigamox drops and these steroid drops for 4 times a day for a whole week. They also wanted me to use the artificial tears every hour. You need someone to drive you home after the procedure and they want you to take a nap when you get home. I was told not to rub my eyes, wear goggles when I sleep (to prevent accidentally rubbing my eyes), don't get soap or water into my eyes, and no swimming for a month.

I took a 2 hour nap and then I woke up because my eyes were burning pretty badly as the topical anesthetic wore off. For a couple hours it was quite uncomfortable, but the pain subsided eventually. My vision was quite hazy and did not start to clear up until the evening. I was also very sensitive to bright light. I needed to wear sunglasses during the day and even watching TV, I had to turn the brightness down. At night, I was seeing some very large halos. All the lights at night look like this:

It's a little bit better tonight, but the doctor told me it would be a few weeks or months before those started to go away. My eyes are also bloodshot as they may break some blood vessels when they create suction for the Intralase, but that should heal in a couple weeks.

Overall, I'm thrilled that I can see without glasses or contacts! Waking up and being able to see right away is a new experience! I know the bloodshot eyes will heal and hopefully the halos will go away or subside. They told me it should gradually disappear (a few weeks to a couple months) as the swelling in my eyes go down.