Thoughts on Intralase and custom LASIK

Yes Ladies and Gentleman, I survived eye surgery.

To be honest, it was a lot easier than I had anticipated. Though that 5 mg of Valium didn't hurt either.

The surgeon was excellent and talked me through the entire procedure. If you know anything about it, he made both of my corneal flaps first, then did the actual lasik procedure. The most uncomfortable part was the stretching apart of my eyelids and the suction/pressure needed to make my flaps. It felt like someone was pulling out my eyes ever so slightly and sitting on them at the same time (that sounds really drastic, but it wasn't bad). Also, with the pressure, your vision is completely black-- so you cannot see what they are doing during this time (was a concern of mine before I started doing research on it).

Focusing on the laser (which incidentally enough sounds like a bunch of bottle rockets going off) with no lens is a hard order. It just looks like a swirly orange dot. It was funny, as I kept thinking to myself that I have to keep looking at that dratted dot. It was also a very curious sensation to have them smooth on my flaps again with what looked to me like a mini squeegee. Even better- my father (who drove me) got to watch my entire procedure. The scientist in him found it fascinating, though I think he was a bit concerned because it was me. Per him, he said it looked amazing, with military like precision.

Went for my POD 1 check-up yesterday and I can see 20/15. Things are still a little blurry, and I have to take breaks after about 5 minutes of focusing on something. One eye is slightly better than the other, as it was before surgery. Though as the weeks go on, it will begin to even out as they heal.

I would highly recommend this to anyone-- despite my initial freaked out ness, I wasn't panicked at all. I felt totally at ease, and the surgeon (Perraut) was fantastic. If you ever have questions, ask me! And I'll let you know how I progress at my week 1 check up (next Friday), month, 6 month and year.

And let me say... it makes you want to cry when you sit up from the table and, though it feels like you are looking through frosted glass, you can read a sign down at the end of the hall. Or casually read things from across the room without a thought. So fantastic that something can make such a change in ones life.

I'm off for my drops regimen- anti-inflammatory every 2 hours for the first 48 hours, and antibiotic drops 4 times daily, with tears in between. :) Have a great week all!