Thursday, July 25, 2013

My Laser Eye Surgery Experience - Part 2

In Part 1, we left off where I had just booked my big day!

From the time I booked the appointment to the the time my "surgery" date was, was about 2 months. I freaked the heck out for 2 months wondering why on earth I was going to let Dr. Wallerstein mess with my eyes. I also have a bad habit of you tubing pending medical procedures (ie. wisdom teeth, removal of cysts - you name it, I google it). Bad news. Never ever google laser eye surgery. Ever.

The date of my "surgery" arrives and my dad comes from out of town to help me out since, you know, he is all experienced. Cue NERVES. When I arrived the lovely nurse (I don't think it was a nurse, but we will just call her that) asked if I wanted to take a pill for anxiety and I declined. I had read that some patients actually thought that this made them feel ill afterwards, so I decided to pass and was thankful I did in the end!

My name was called and I suited up and went back to the room where I met Dr. Wallerstein. I was instructed to lay down on a table and they gave me a stress ball to play with, which, at the time I was thinking that it was a stupid idea, but later realized how much it helped me.

My friends, if you are considering laser eye surgery, please take this one piece of info away - IT WAS EASIER THAN GOING TO THE DENTIST.

He put eyedrops in my eyes which froze my eyes. Didn't hurt one bit and couldn't even tell you my eyeballs were frozen. I could still see and nothing was out of the ordinary. I'm not going to go into details as I don't know all the medical things he was doing but throughout the procedure, all I had to do was stare at a blinking light. I couldn't feel a thing and it actually felt like I was just laying down hanging out. They walk me through the process and continued to tell me how we were almost done. Everyone kept telling me how amazing I was doing and as lame as that sounds, it really helped.

The actual procedure took about 3-5 minutes per eye. That's it. I was done. I sat up from the table and although my vision was blurry, I could freakin' see (20 minutes ago I could not see well without my glasses)!!!!! I had to sit in a little waiting room area with my special sexy sunglasses for about an hour. In this hour, my eyes were watering quite a bit and there was some discomfort but nothing painful.

Funny story - the waiting room where patients wait after the procedure is also the same room where patients wait for their consultation. I was sitting there with my eyes watering and my special, sexy glasses on and I hear this voice say "Did you just get it done?"  I couldn't see whether this person was talking to me (since my eyes were watering) so I responded with "Are you talking to me?" Turns out this was a guy waiting for his consultation and after seeing me looking like I was in a state of misery, he said "Oh man, I don't know if I should do this now." HA! I reassured him that I was in no pain. I hope I didn't freak him out.

My dad took me home about an hour later where I camped out for the next 2 days with my special sunglasses on.

Recovery was next to nothing. I basically hung out at home for 2 days trying to avoid the computer and tv to let my eyes heal. It was really non eventful and more just boring. At my 24 hour check up, I had 20/20 vision - WOOT.

After day 3, it was the weekend and I was back to normal life. I went back to work on the Monday and life went on as usual. I experienced some dryness of the eyes for a few months which is normal but was easily remedied by over the counter eye drops.

I continue to have 20/20 vision and would do it again in a heart beat. I always say that I would seriously pay twice the cost of what I paid. It is life changing. Going out and not having to think about my contacts drying out, going wonky, falling asleep with them in, glasses fogging up etc is so amazing.

I speak so so highly of the procedure and although it isn't for everyone, I really do recommend looking into it!

Long gone are the days of glasses and contacts. I now have a lifetime warranty on my eyes (seriously), haha.

If you have any questions, feel free to ask away. I love talking about my experience!

2 comments:

  1. Ah! I would love to have this done, great advice.

    ReplyDelete
  2. This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

    ReplyDelete