Lasik Eye Surgery … the time has come!
The time has finally come!! YA GIRL CAN SEE! I went to my eye doctor for an appointment a few weeks ago and found out I was finally a candidate for Lasik Surgery! So, of course I immediately went for my lasik consultation to their partnered eye surgeon Coastal Vision, to get everything planned and scheduled. After a few pre op appointments, the day had finally come!! I SCHEDULED MY APPOINTMENT TO GET LASIK! I have been wearing contact lenses since i was in the 8th grade so about 13/14 years old so I have been dying to get Lasik Surgery for as long as I can remember.
If you have vision problems and wear glasses or contact lenses as a result and you’re tired of them this is something to consider! You are probably wondering “what makes you a candidate for Lasik?” Well, there are a few things! The first being age. They typically look for lasik candidates at least 25 years or older. Second, was the prescription itself. For me my prescription was -3.75 in my right eye and -4.0 in my left. My vision has gotten slightly worse over the last few years, but I finally had a year with a consistent prescription with no changes in my vision. Lastly, they look to see the thickness of you cornea, the health of your corneal tissue and overall eye heath, to ensure there are no holes or tears! Since they are cutting into the cornea to create a corneal flap, they make sure you have enough layers and strong enough corneal tissue that won’t cause any damage to your eye! Those with thin corneas or other health conditions may not be a good candidate or may opt for another procedure method.
I was crazy busy the week leading up to the Lasik Eye Surgery, so I didn’t think about it much until the night before. Then it HIT ME, I was nervous, anxious and excited all at the same time! I never thought the day would come that I would get lasik and never have to wear glasses or contact lenses again!! I would have perfect vision FOREVER!
Then the day was finally here! My appointment wasn’t until the afternoon, so I had all morning to do my normal activities; run errands and go to the gym for one last hard workout for a few days! They advise not getting sweat in your eyes following surgery to avoid infection, so my workouts a few days after the procedure have to be low impact! It just so happened to be LEG DAY!! We attempted to go hard, however, it wasn’t the best workout. I was feeling a little blahhh due to other factors of life, LOL, BUTTTT we still went and got a good little booty pump! Better than nothing at all
After the gym, I ran some errands and ate breakfast, just going about my normal day! I was only given a few pre op instructions the most important being no eye makeup the day of surgery. Also I was advised to take 2000MG of Fish Oil daily a week to 2 weeks leading up to the Lasik Eye Surgery. What the fish oil does is help increase the oil production in the glands located on your eyelash line to keep the eye lubricated and moisturized! Being someone that wore glasses or contact lenses , this was already part of my daily supplements that I took to keep my eyes nice and healthy!
The time came to drive out to the office to get my procedure done! When I got to the office, they told us we were allowed to record for our VLOG inside the actual procedure room. We were SO EXCITED about this!!!! I went into the room for some small pre-op procedures, then the eye doctor came in and checked my eyes one last time, and then the nurse ran me through a few processes and procedures as well. She discussed post op care with me and what to expect during the healing process. I then got the run down of the schedule I needed to stick to for my eye drops. She prepped my eyes for surgery with numbing eye drops and antibiotic eye drops. She did a small evaluation to get my approval on taking medicine, in my case Xanax, and determining the dosage based on my weight! This was to help calm me down during surgery and mitigate any anxiousness. Once that was done, I put booties on over my shoes and a cap to over my hair and I was all ready for the surgery room.
Laser Eye Surgery Time!
IT WAS FINALLY SURGERY TIME!! I used the restroom one last time and then headed into the surgery room. The medicine had kicked in and I was nice and relaxed, all of my worries and nerves were gone and I was just ready to get the surgical procedure over with! I laid down on the bed and they handed me a cute little emotional support cow to hold and squeeze if needed which they ensured me most patients use!!
The Lasik eye surgery is performed in two steps. The first step being locking onto the cornea and using the laser to cut the circle in the cornea. They did that first to the right eye and then the left eye. During this part of the Lasik procedure, they use an instrument to hold your eye open which slips under your eyelids holding them open. Then they place a lens on your eye to lock on to the cornea for cutting. The only thing I felt at that point was a little eye pressure, which wasn’t painful at all. Once locked on, the laser hones in on the location and begins the cutting process. During this time, the laser is now cutting a circle to create a corneal flap. This is the only point in the procedure that was the most uncomfortable. It was almost as if there was a sharp pinch occurring. That only lasted about 5 seconds, so overall not bad at all!
Once that part of the procedure was complete, the bed shifted to the right and it was time for the laser corrective portion. For this portion of the Lasik procedure, the doctor taped open my top and bottom eye lashes and used the eye-opening instrument again to ensure my eyes did not move at all. During both procedures, artificial tears and numbing eye drops were put in my eyes to ensure I did not get dry eyes and the eyes stayed nice and moisturized and numb so I couldn’t feel anything.
At this point in the procedure, the doctor is peeling back the corneal flap which is basically a very thin flap smaller than a strand of hair that was previously cut from the first laser. This allows my cornea to be exposed to the second layer for it to then remove the imperfections in my eye that are causing me to have bad vision. The doctor is using some type of tweezer and water pick to lift the cornea flap up and then I was instructed to stare at the green light and focus on that. When focusing on the green light, it is common to lose vision completely and not see the green light. The doctor advised me to stay still and not tense my eyebrows during this time. Once the laser zaps the imperfections, the flap is placed back on my eye and the doctor uses something similar to a brush to flatten it out and ensure proper placement. During this part of the Lasik procedure I didn’t feel much of anything, I just focused my attention to the green light and tried to stay still and keep my face relaxed!
The procedure, as a whole, lasted about 20 minutes, including the small prep in the beginning and the “down time” to adjust the bed and equipment between each laser machine. So, the process is actually very fast! Once the procedure was over, I got off of the bed and could already see, that I had clear vision, however, it was a bit foggy. The doctor mentioned it is about 50/50 for patients to experience vision changes when getting out of the bed, not everyone has clear vision right away but most patients still have slightly blurry vision . I was also very, very stuffy throughout the procedure and after, but this is very normal because of the amount of artificial tears and drops that they put in my eyes to avoid dry eyes during the surgery. This did made it hard to breathe properly throughout my procedure, so I just had to be more conscious to mouth breathe!
Once the surgery was done and I got up, I walked over to the exam table and the eye surgeon took a closer look at my eyes and told me everything looked great! The nurse came in and took me out to the waiting area to go through the outpatient procedure. She gave me a little care package with sunglasses, bedtime goggles, to eliminate risk of touching or rubbing my eyes while sleeping, and medicine for the car ride home. She taped plastic shields over my eyes and told me that I had to keep them on for the first night. As for the medicine, it was to be taken 20 minutes after leaving the office. I was told the first few hours after surgery are the most painful because the numbing eye drops wear off!
Once we left we went to grab food because I was HUNGRRRY. We got Chik Fil A, of course, LOL, my favorite!! This is the part where I made a small mistake, I waited to take my medicine in the hope that I would eat sooner, but we got stuck in traffic. I didn’t want to take the medicine and fall asleep without eating because I had planned on sleeping for the remainder of the night. However, the numbing medicine started wearing off and I was feeling an INSANE amount of discomfort and started crying in the car! I immediately took my medicine when this started to happen and slowly relaxed and fell asleep. I was still able to eat once I got home. After eating, I took a sleeping aid, similar to melatonin, and fell asleep for the rest of the night.
No More Glasses or Contact Lenses!
The overall process and procedure was seamless. The staff at Coastal Vision in Chino was an absolute pleasure to work with! From the beginning they were all so welcoming, helpful and sweet! They made me feel right at home and comfortable every step of the way! I will be posting a part 2 of this video to explain my post op, follow up visits and 48 hour recovery experience after surgery! Keep an eye out for that and feel free to reach out with any questions you may have about lasik!!!
