Dawned On Me

Is Lasik surgery worth it?  Um,  heck ya!!  But before I go any further, let me preface this by saying my experience with vision correction surgery is simply that.   I’m not doling out medical advice here but rather sharing my journey from beginning to end in hopes of helping those who might be in the same situation I was and wondering if tossing their reading glasses for good is a sensible option or not.

The Beginning:  Turning 40!

I was a person who never thought my eyes would go bad!  My vision was crazy good!  I could see everything!  I mean EVERYTHING!!  When I was dating my husband it would drive him crazy because if I found a hair in my food, I was DONE!  So gross right? Well, he would tell me it was my fault that I could see a tiny eyelash because my vision was just too good!  He said I’d enjoy dining out experiences a lot more if I couldn’t see as well.  Good point and that time came sooner than later!  Ok, so forward to the Big 4-0!!  I felt like my vision went bad literally overnight!  I woke up one morning and was reading the newspaper and I was struggling!  It was manageable at first.  Then I went and bought a pair 1.00 readers and that helped.. A LOT!!  Then I started wearing the readers ALL the time!  Everyone told me that was messed up.  The fact that I liked having the readers on all the time even when I wasn’t reading pointed to another problem;  My distance vision was also going south!

So, I finally made the appointment to get glasses!  Ugh!  In addition to having presbyopia (a fancy term for you’re getting old and your eyes can’t focus like they used to) I was also having trouble with my distance vision.  I had to get progressive lenses.  The top is for distance and the lower part is for reading.  Progressive lenses look better than bi-focals that have that crisp line of distinction.  The progressives provide a graduated range of vision but they are also sometimes a bit trickier to get used to.  Like with everything in life, I eventually got used to it after some time.

So everything became a little (or a lot) more difficult having to wear glasses.  Putting on make up was a total pain. Try mascara when you can’t see!  I had to make sure I knew right where my glasses were before bed in case there was an emergency.  I couldn’t see the numbers on the phone!  And ANOTHER bummer…sunglasses!  I am a huge sunnies junkie!  I LOVE my sunglasses and they are also so good for protecting your eyes.  (Always make sure your kiddos wear them starting out as early as possible!)  No longer could I buy just any pair of sunglasses.  I had to spend more $$$ and buy prescription sunnies.  They were expensive and most of the time I didn’t LOVE the frames but had not choice.

So, in order to wear the sunglasses I really wanted to wear, I had to think about contacts.  Another big UGH!  I am extremely squeamish!  Anything that has to do with the eye had always freaked me out!  A bug flew in to my husband’s eye once and he asked me to look for it and I couldn’t do it!  He was so mad!  Imagine then, attempting to put contacts in!  I was SO FED UP with my glasses I was going to get contacts come hell or high water!  It was the BIGGEST struggle for me!  I could not get them in myself at the office and they would not let me leave with them until I did.  So I put my glasses back on and left without my contacts.  I went home and searched You tube and actually found some SUPER helpful videos.  I finally figured it out and graduated to contacts.  That was a HUGE achievement for me and I could now go back to wearing regular sunglasses!

My contentment was short lived however.  So I started researching Lasik vision correction surgery

Finding the right doctor:

The first thing I did was asked my friends on Facebook if they had Lasik and about their experience.  The response was huge!  I don’t think there was one person who said not to do it.  In fact, most said their only regret was not doing it sooner!  Many recommended doctors in my area.  There was one in particular who is very well known in our area that had the most recommendations.  I live near the University of Notre Dame and this particular ophthalmologist has performed a lot of Lasik surgeries on well known coaches and athletes who often graced billboards touting their happiness with the procedure.

I made an appointment.  It was a 3 step process.  First, I met with a lady in the office who thoroughly explained Lasik to me.  She demonstrated the procedure with a model of an eye, she also took me into the operating room to show me the lasers and exactly what they do.  We also talked about cost.  (I’ll get to the cost in a bit)   She then tested my eyes to see if I was even a candidate.  Some people are not.  When she determined I was, we scheduled an appointment for the surgery.  2 days prior to surgery I had another appointment that lasted about 3 hours.  My eyes were tested, more questions were asked and answered and my instructions for surgery day were clearly spelled out.  Then, I met with the surgeon.  He too, thoroughly examined my eyes and then we talked about the type of corrective surgery I’d be having.  I was a candidate for monovision.  It sounds scary!  One eye (my dominate eye which in my case, is my right eye) is corrected for distance.  The other eye is corrected for reading.  YIKES right!?  The surgeon himself has monovision.  I remember him really explaining it to me and somewhat questioning me on whether I was going to be able to adjust to it.  He said it could take patients up to about 6 months to really get used to it. Amazingly, the brain compensates for the differences and ultimately, it’s not noticeable.  I was going for it.  I really didn’t fear it being a problem.  If I could wear progressive lenses and get contacts in, I could do anything at this point.

Surgery Day:

My appointment was early on Friday, May 13, 2016.  Yep, Friday the 13th of all days! I arrived and waited my turn.  There were about 6 of us having it done that morning.  When it was my turn, I was given a pill to relax in an exam room and then the surgeon came in to again examine my eyes.  It was odd.  He was looking into the machine and looking and looking for what seemed like forever.  I could sense something was wrong.  I saw several of the nurses leave the room and chattering among themselves.  The doctor seemed disappointed and called my husband in to the room.  Upon final examination, he could see that my cornea is not completely smooth.  Instead, he described my cornea somewhat like the skin of an orange.  It is totally normal.  HOWEVER, when he creates the flap in order to perform the surgery, his fear in putting the flap back down is that it may not lay smoothly like he needs it to.  He likened it to putting one of those clear coverings over the screen of an ipad and it bubbles sometimes.  So, he recommended I have PRK performed instead of Lasik.  What’s the difference?  Recovery!  In PRK what they do is use a solution to dissolve the top cells of the cornea.  Those cells then grow back.  While they are growing back, it causes a lot of blurriness.  So unlike Lasik where your vision is near perfect immediately following surgery, PRK is a longer process before your vision is where you want it to be.  I had a light week ahead and my husband was home so it didn’t matter that much to me.

The procedure lasted about 10 minutes tops. (Same as Lasik)  It was super easy and not scary at all.  The surgeon was incredibly helpful.  He explained every single thing he was doing and what helped me most is that he told me exactly what I would be seeing as he was performing the correction.  I saw various colored lines and it was exactly what he said I should be seeing.  That was comforting to know I wasn’t going blind.

I got up, went back into the exam room and the surgeon checked everything out and said it looked good.

Before leaving the house that morning I looked on the back of the toothpaste tube and I could not read the small print.  When I got home I went straight to that tube an I could read it!!  ABSOLUTELY AMAZING!  It was a bit blurry but I knew that would be the case.  I had one pain pill to take and was instructed to go straight to sleep.  The pain was pretty intense (that’s with PRK) but as soon as I took that pill I was fine and able to sleep.  I just slept in the basement the rest of the day.  The next morning I returned to see the doctor again and everything looked good!  My recovery took a couple of weeks with the first week being quite blurry due to those cells growing back.  It didn’t bother me at all.  Even with the blurriness, my vision was still a lot better than before.

Cost and side effects:

If I remember correctly, the cost for Lasik was $4,200 if paid in cash. (Not a payment plan)  But turns out, PRK is cheaper because he doesn’t have to use the laser that creates the flap.  The plus side is my cost dropped about a thousand dollars!  The way I justified it is by adding up what I was paying for prescription glasses and sunglasses.  It was EXPENSIVE!  Over time, the procedure pays for itself.

As most of my friends told me on Facebook, the biggest drawback is dry eyes.  It certainly is the case.  I use drops nightly. I put them in before bed and I usually need them again in the middle of the night when I get up to use the bathroom.  I had a few experiences where the eye got so dry that my cornea caught my lid in my sleep and when that happens it HURTS!!!  It goes away after a couple of minutes but I was told a few of the cells are actually pulled off due to the dryness and that is what’s so painful.  The cells are constantly renewing and it’s nothing serious I’m told.  I feel it’s a small price to pay for having my vision back.

In terms of adjusting to monovision.  I never skipped a beat!!  It was NEVER an issue for me.  I got used to it immediately!  I might be lucky or it might not be all that hard for the brain to adjust.  I can close one eye and notice a big difference.  I can’t read with my right eye alone, for example.  That’s my distance eye.  Overall, I think monovision is the way to go if you have aging eyes (presbyopia) plus another vision problem like I did.

It is so nice to not have to rely on glasses any longer.  For me, it was one of the best decisions I’ve ever made.

Biggest Tip:

Find the right doctor!!  After having the procedure I read an article  that pointed to a FB group that formed because of the awful experience they had with vision correction surgery.  I joined it out of curiosity.  What I found was that some people had some really horrible stories about their procedure.  I fear for many, they hadn’t found a reputable doctor.  My surgeon has performed over 20-thousand Lasik procedures!  Don’t fall for sales or deals either!  I heard on the radio an advertisement for buy one eye, get one eye done or $250.00 an eye ) Remember, I paid over 3-thousand!  This is not a cheap procedure if done by the right surgeon with the right equipment.  Do your research and remember you get what you pay for.  It’s your eyes after all!

I hope this information gives you a good idea what to expect if you are thinking about have vision correction surgery.  It’s certainly not something to take lightly.  It was one of the best decisions I’ve made.  You forget so quickly what a pain it was getting your glasses on or putting your contacts in each morning.  The only drawback though is the risk of spotting a hair in my food 🙂 There’s a trade off with everything.

If you have any questions, please leave them in the comments section.  I’m happy to answer anything.  Also if you are interested in knowing more about my surgeon, message me.

  Isn’t this sweater cute?  You can get it here