JCC Laser vision correction surgery

At the office about to go in for surgery so... Wish me luck

 

good luck!

 

All the luck belongs to you, Rachel!

 

Well, I had my operation on a Friday morning. Got back home, went to bed, slept until about 9 pm and then joined my parents in the living room for a moment. I could look at the TV, but not for a long period of time (and I had to wear sunglasses). I did get on the computer a couple of times during that weekend (I posted here, as evidenced the thread I linked ), but it was always for a short time, as I was conscious not to strain my eyes too much (my doctor did recommend taking it easy on TV/computer). I was able to return to work on the following Tuesday (although I did wear sunglasses as it was very sunny and bright at that time).

Good luck!

 

My mother had LASIK years ago. One of the best decisions of her life.

Granted, she had really terrible vision -- I've never tried on another person's glasses that came anywhere close to the instant pain and nausea those inflicted -- so YMMV.

 

Well even though my vision is foggy and I had to go into the basement, lower the TV and computer brightness, and also wear sunglasses.... My vision is already better. I can read text on the TV I wouldn't have been able to at all.

The mission I've been given this evening by my doctor is to not sleep, blink as much as possible, and use my tears anywhere from every 5-30 minutes, whenever they feel a little dry.

They do burn and I wish I could close them more, but I've been told keeping them well lubricated early on will help prevent eye dryness long term.

It was pretty freaky but I remained calm... No stuffed animals to hold but a nurse gave me her hand. I think the worst thing was actually when they took the cornea flap back and I couldn't see.

 

See, I want this, but I'm too scared. It's totally irrational, but most fears are.

So Rachel, you have to blink to tears often? Is there a lot of pain now a few hours later? Do you get numbing drops for pain management or anything of the sort? I'm guessing you had someone drive you to and from? Were they not allowed in?

 

Great to hear that the procedure was a success, with no complications.

 

That last part sounds hideous, but it sounds like it worked out well. Glad to hear .

 

I don't have to blink to the point of tears, though blinking helps. I just have to put in a lot of artificial tears.

There's not really any pain, just some stinging/burning and a sensation sort of like having in a contact for too long.

I have antibiotic and steroid drops to use 4x a day for a week. Hoping that when I get to put the steroids in later that helps the inflamed burning thing some. But it's already getting better.

I had to have someone drive me and they have to take me to a follow-up appointment in the morning before I'll be legally cleared to drive.

I was allowed to have someone with me in the operating room, but my dad was my driver and he's the worst person with medical stuff ever. He definitely would have passed out.

 

Basically. They do put those on your eyes to hold them open.

 

Thanks for info, very useful.

When you say you went blind during it, was it both at the same time, and how long for? I know you weren't watching a clock, but an estimate would be useful.

I'm glad you can have someone in there. Id have Christy, who is also terrible at medical stuff. But I've seen her have three c-sections so she owes me

 

This ****ed me up.... eek. I've had several surgical procedures done, but this sentence made me cringe. My eyes are crazy sensitive... just seeing somebody put in contacts or rub their eye ****s me up.

Still, though... I have terrible eyesight, and will likely have this procedure done, when I can afford to.

 

Glad to hear the procedure went well.

 

Inappropriate.

 

It was a very short amount of time. Here's the sequence of events:

1) First laser used on right eye. Things go black. 10 seconds. Then I could see lights but no shapes. They had me close that eye.

2) First laser used on left eye. 10 more seconds, same deal.

3) Open right eye for about 15-20 seconds while they did... Something with some sort of instrument on my eye. I could kind of see.

4) Second laser on right eye for only about 5 seconds. There was a really mild smell. Then they put in more drops.

5) Repeat step 3 on left eye.

6) Repeat step 4 on right eye.

The entire process from going in, sitting down, getting in position all the way to exiting the room was about 10 minutes. The section where I couldn't really see was only about 30 seconds - a minute for each eye. And frankly I don't think I'd have wanted to be able to see.

Right after they put in so many drops things were really cloudy for an hour or so. But now that we are 4 hours out, there's little bluriness. There's light sensitivity but that's getting better too. I would guess my vision is at about 20/30 already. They told me my sight would get about 10% better every hour or so. I'm keeping my sunglasses on while watching TV but it's not actually that bad.

Actually one of the worst parts of this is that I have to leave at like 8:30am tomorrow for my follow up, and I hate mornings

I am a little concerned about keeping water out of my eyes. I may just take baths for a few days. Also really not looking forward to trying to sleep with the eye guards on. They said I needed to do that for two nights to be safe.

 

While I appreciate that detailed post, I'm skurred.

 

I've been wearing glasses for about 11 years and my past several exams have shown my eyesight isn't changing much anymore. I saw Dr. Winthrop years ago when I first discovered I'm near-sighted--he actually worked with the developers of the first excimer laser for vision correction back in 1991, so I trust he knows his stuff. I'm not sure they offer a procedure that uses the femtosecond laser instead of a microkeratome blade, but you've inspired me to consider making an appointment. It definitely would be nice to be glasses free and I never bothered with contacts (I think I play too many games and watch too many things combined with eyes that are already a bit dry for contacts).

 

The mere thought of having freaking laser beams shot into my eyes or something slicing my cornea away so that freaking laser beams are shot into my eyes scares the living bejesus out of me. And yet, I'm kinda sick of wearing glasses at this point. I'd hate to be dependant on the things for another 25 years. I hope the technology improves to make the procedure faster and less scary. Failing that, I'd rather get wasted out of my mind prior to the procedure.

 

Don't blink Rachel. Don't even blink.

 

It took me over a week or two to get back to full "can stare at the computer for 6+ hours". The first few days was a slow progression for only being able to do about 20 minutes at a time. But again, my correction was much more drastic, so your recovery time hopefully won't take as long.

 

I was going to post that if no one else had. Instead, I will post this.