This is a blog post made by one of our LASIK customers. Stephanie gave us a walk-through write-up of her LASIK experience at Commonwealth Eye Surgery and we wanted to share her experience with you….
My LASIK was 11 days ago, and I think I’ve finally gotten used to waking up in the morning and no longer reaching for my glasses on the nightstand! Old habits die hard!
I want to explain a bit more about the actual surgical procedure. In a previous post, I talked about the process of prepping the eyes for surgery with drops and the eye spreaders (AKA speculum). Once the eye was numb and I was lying comfortably on the surgical bed, Dr. Ferguson slid me under a bright light and allowed my eye to adjust. Keep in mind that during the first eye’s procedure, the second eye is completely shielded. Once I was used to this bright light, Dr. Ferguson had me focus my sight on a red dot, which looked like a blurry stoplight. I focused on that light as he placed the Ziemer laser onto my eye to begin cutting the flap. In this step, a device is placed right onto the eye and a laser cuts a precise flap so the LASIK laser may reach the treatment zone. This can also be done with a blade instead of a laser, and they are both very safe, but I opted for the latest laser technology! During this 30 second process, I completely lost vision—this is slightly scary but Dr. Ferguson talked to me the entire time and made me feel very comfortable! As soon as the flap was cut and the laser was removed from the surface of my eye, I regained vision in a matter of seconds and was again asked to focus on the red light. The cutting of the flap is the only uncomfortable part of the surgery, and it lasts but a few seconds. There is no pain, only pressure. To get a good picture of the level of discomfort experienced, close your eyes and carefully press on your eye with your fingertip until you begin to see stars… Enough pressure to make you feel the force, but not enough to be painful. If you can handle this, then LASIK should be a breeze!
The next step is the actual LASIK process, which I will get to in my next post!
View all of Stephanie’s Lasik Evaluation posts as they are published – HERE
