A Tale of Two Eyeballs

Day 1

I arrived in the morning. They gave me a bag filled with various drops, pills, eye-shields for sleeping, sunglasses, and an emergency reserve of the liquid they use to freeze your eyes, just in case things went completely off the rails. I was then sent with my lovely wife to wait.

They carry out the actual procedure in a glass-walled room, so my lovely wife could see the procedure. Moreover there are eyeball-view-cameras feeding into decently sized TVs, so she could see the details. I don't know that I would have wanted to see it, myself.

They told me to sit on the operating bed. You can put your glasses over here, the nurse said, and I did. Would you like to say goodbye to them? she asked. I flipped them the bird.

Stage 1 was to put a plastic ring over (into) my eye. The femtosecond laser presumably connects to that ring in some fashion, as its engagement felt like it was a drill press trying to push that ring through the back of my head. This was by far the most uncomfortable part of the operation, but it only lasted 20 seconds per eye. The laser's job is to fire in a grid pattern over the surface of the lens. Each firing creates a small pocket of gas, which seep one into the next to create a big pocket over the entire surface of the lens.

This was uncomfortable, but didn't really look like much; when it was done I couldn't see much of anything beyond blurry shapes and muted colours.

They then swung me over to the second laser.

Stage 2 was for the surgeon to put a device into my eye to hold my eyelids open, cut around the pocket to create a flap, and fold that flap back. Since they'd put drops in my eyes to numb them, I couldn't feel a thing; the nurse explained what they were doing as they did it, but from my perspective it looked like they were working on top of a piece of glass held above my face, as I couldn't feel any of it.

The second laser then fired for about 30 seconds. It would make a cracking, popping sound, and the light would flash, and go into and out of focus. A very loud machine blew air past my face while this was happening and I had a vague sensation of warmth in my eye. This was the only part I could really feel.

The surgeon then closed the flap back and put a contact lens over that eye. They then did the other eye.

Total procedure time was probably about five minutes.

That done, I sat up and looked around. I could see my lovely wife through the glass in the next room. It looked like a pea-souper of a fog had rolled into the operating room, but I could see.

My lovely wife took me home and I went to bed, and slept most of the day. There was a bit of discomfort later in the day but not much.

I was expecting that the eye shields, which you have to tape into place over your eyes, would keep me awake; but in fact they helped me to get to sleep, providing reassurance that I wouldn't accidentally rub my eyes or poke myself while half-asleep, resulting in severe complications.

Day 2

I woke up Friday morning feeling pretty good. My 24-hour followup was early in the morning. My lovely wife gave me my mandatory sunglasses and took me to the shop.

My examination went amazingly well. I was having some sensitivity issues with light and some blurring/haloing around light sources in daylight, but nothing severe; I could more or less see as well as I had with contacts. They told me I had a bit of inflammation, so I should step up one of the 3 eye drops I was taking regularly, but my vision was basically 20/20 and I could drive.

I relaxed most of the day with audio books and radio programs provided by the old man. I had a bit of a headache by the end of the day, probably due to being out in the sunlight.

Days 3-4

I was able to start using a computer for short periods, and watch some TV. My eyes got tired easily but didn't really hurt much most of the time. My vision was amazingly good.

My next follow-up appointment, on day 4, indicated the inflammation was going away and I could return to my usual routine of drops.

Days 5-6

Back to work on day 5. Computer screens wore me out quickly, requiring lots of use of lubricating drops, but I did my best to avoid them, by taking breaks and doing non-computer-screen-dependent tasks.

Day 6 was my one week checkup. Everything looking good. Vision at least 20/20, maybe a little better than that. Light issues are getting better.

Going Forward

My night vision is better than it used to be, believe it or not. I still have pretty bad haloing around light sources, but they look a lot different than they used to, in a way that's a little hard to describe. Not quite as bad, either. I also have a lot less in the way of glare and light-bleed at night. Overall I'm still not as happy driving at night but it's not as bad as it was, which is pretty good since everyone warns you to expect your night vision to suck.

At the one week mark my vision is at least as good as it was with glasses, with the promise of further improvements as the healing process continues. My regimen of eye drops are all but concluded and I can stop wearing the eye shields at night. I am to continue the lubricating drops as required and will keep wearing sunglasses religiously for the foreseeable future.

I am amazed at how quickly and completely my vision has been reconstructed. I don't find myself reaching for my glasses when I get up in the morning or trying to adjust them on my face, although I did that all the time when I had contacts. I do, oddly enough, sometimes expect my glasses to be there when I get out of the shower. The brain is a funny thing.

Getting this surgery has worked better than I could possibly have hoped. It's easily the second best decision I've ever made.