Shawna: Hi, my name is Shawna Stocker. I am a nurse here at Commonwealth Surgery Center. I’m here with my friend Stephanie. She has a unique perspective on LASIK as she is a surgery scheduler for LASIK, but she also had LASIK here with us as well. So I’m going to ask her a couple questions and just kind of get the most common questions asked for LASIK.

First off, does it hurt?

Stephanie: I felt absolutely no pain whatsoever. Our staff does a really great job of making sure you’re comfortable before you go into surgery. And then as long as you follow the directions we give you – our our motto is eyes closed, no pain. So the as long as you follow that, and do your drops, you shouldn’t have any problem at all.

Shawna: Awesome. Another question that Stephanie gets a lot is, “what am I do if I’m not a LASIK candidate?”

Stephanie: Well, we have some options. There’s PRK, which gives you the same result in the end. It’s a little bit longer recovery time, but you still end up with that excellent vision. We also have refractive lensectomies, which can be an option for older patients as well.

Shawna: Okay. When can I see?

Stephanie:  With LASIK especially, usually the very next day! I mean, you’re gonna sit up from that surgery table and be able to see better than you could have probably before you laid down. But it’s going to take probably a couple of days before everything really evens out until that 2020 vision…

Shawna: Will I have any restrictions after surgery?

Stephanie: We just want you to be really careful about rubbing your eyes, we’re going to give you some really cute goggles to go home and where you’re going to wear those all day the first day and then you’re going to sleep in those for the first five nights. We want you to be careful about getting things into your eyes: dust, dirt, water directly into the eyes, that kind of thing.

We want you to wait on context sports for about a month. But other than that, there’s no real restrictions as far as lifting or going back to work or anything like that

Shawna: Ok, perfect. Did you feel anything?

Stephanie:  I felt absolutely nothing. I was most worried about the little speculum that holds your eye open versus anything. And I didn’t even know that that had happened. More than anything, my own account as well as patients’ accounts, I hear that it’s more just a weird experience versus any sort of pain or anything like that.

Shawna: Okay, I’m gonna put you on the spot asking you an impromptu question: Is there anything that you could tell our patients that maybe you didn’t know in advance or that you think they should know? Just to kind of ease any concerns that they may have?

Stephanie: Like I said, our staff is great as far as making sure you’re comfortable before you go into surgery. I had no idea just how quick the turnaround was going to be from being able to you know, not see too literally coming out of surgery and being able to see. Like I said, I had very, very little pain or discomfort. And more than anything, I wish I had just done it a lot sooner!

Shawna: That’s a great point. Well, that that concludes our question and answer session.

If you come in for LASIK evaluation, you may see Stephanie and again, she has a great perspective from a patient perspective and from an employee perspective. So thanks, we look forward to seeing you soon!