My Experience: LASIK surgery and Dilating/Numbing Drops

Three months ago on a bright Sunday morning, I took a deep breath, and stepped into the building that was one of the main centres (which shall remain anonymous) in my area for LASIK (laser-assisted in situ keratomileusis) operations to correct my short-sightedness and astigmatism. I was nervous, but excited that I was finally taking the step towards freedom from spectacles and contact lenses and being blind as a bat first thing every morning.

From then on, it was smooth sailing all the way up to the surgery day...from the initial assessment test which took about 2 hours (the nurse had to wait about 30 to 40 minutes for the pupil dilating drops dripped into my eyes to take effect, then she ran a few tests on my eyes which were standard and painless, and lastly took 3D pictures of my eyes for use during the surgery) to the entire week before the surgery day of wearing ONLY glasses (which was pure agony for me because I HATE wearing glasses, they make my nose run somehow I don't know why...so contact lenses are my best friend) to work and everywhere else.

THEN. Surgery day itself. I was given the numbing pupil dilating drops again and was told that the whole process would take 3 hours. In actual fact, the surgery itself was probably more like, 20 minutes. I was brought to the first room where my corneal flap was lasered and folded back (I know, it sounds gross, but it wasn't painful, trust me, it just felt slightly uncomfortable). The whole first process took less than 5 minutes per eye. The scary part was the loud, popping sound from the laser cutting your corneal flap, and the burning smell. But really, you don't feel any pain at all. I'm a huge baby when it comes to pain threshold so it says a lot if I say it's not painful =P Plus I had this amazing nurse who had initially put a thick warm blanket over me and was by my side the whole time reassuring me not to worry and that everything was going fine.

After my corneal flaps were folded back, I was led into the second room. By then my eyesight was completely blur and I couldn't see solid shapes at all. The doctor came in, reassured me again that everything was fine, and started the laser process of correcting my vision. Again, I didn't feel any pain right up to the end, it was just slightly uncomfortable. THEN. While the doctor was cleaning my corneas with something like a soft cotton bud, I started feeling some slight sensations on my left eye. It became more and more painful as the doctor dabbed at my eye and I began to panic. Throughout the operation, my eyes had teared a lot but the doctor had told me firmly that it was normal. He told me to hang on and bear with the pain for a little while more, and after about 5 minutes, he completed the surgery by folding back my corneal flaps into their original positions. Since it was a full computerised LASIK operation, my corneal flaps did not need any further surgery and as my doctor had informed me, they locked back into place without any further complications.

After the surgery, I was told that because I had teared excessively during the operation, my tears had washed out some of the numbing drops, hence the pain that I felt when the doctor was cleaning my corneas. The only side effects from the surgery that I had was that because the blood vessels in my eyes were more brittle than other people's, they had burst (painless, of course) during the surgery and left both my eyes super red for the next week or so. I also suffered from burning sensations in both eyes for about 6 hours after the surgery but again, I was told that I'm one of the very few that had these symptoms. Unlucky me. =( Although my eyes felt pretty dry for a couple of weeks after the surgery, my vision actually cleared after a day and I was able to drive to work after 3 days without any glasses or contacts!

If you asked me now, I would DEFINITELY recommend you doing the LASIK surgery. It's worth the short period of pain (you'll survive, the pain's bearable) and worth the money I spent (about 2000++ dollars) as I now have perfect vision! And its one of the best feeling in the world to wake up and see everything in clear focus, I swear! =D

a) You may not get perfect vision. Some people still have to wear glasses/contacts after the surgery but they are a small minority.

b) You may see halos of light, or starbursts, or something to that effect, after the surgery. But these will go away with time. Mine cleared after about 2 weeks, and they weren't very bad anyway.

c) I know, you are worried that you may go blind. The doctor himself reassured me that after over 20000 LASIK surgeries, he had yet to see a patient go blind after undergoing LASIK surgery. So don't worry! Your dream of perfect vision CAN come true!

Note: There are many other risks associated with LASIK and I suggest you read/research further before you make any decision to undergo LASIK. Your eye doctor would be glad to provide you with advise, I'm sure. What I've written above is entirely my own experience and may be different from someone else's. Make sure you are completely comfortable with the idea of LASIK before committing yourself to it!