Anyone underwent femto-LASIK (laser eye surgery)?

[esaj]

On 6/2/2018 at 1:00 AM, Rehab1 said:

Congratulations buddy!  I’m sure your glad the procedure is over. 

Like NASA getting ready for a launch? Wonder if any patients ever aborted at the 10 second mark. ?

If they had gave me a "panic button", I might have pressed it somewhere around there on the first eye    I actually took the Diapam (Valium for you yankees) they offered before the surgery, but was still pretty nervous when it started. On the second eye, I was much more relaxed, although the pressure on your eye (at the back of the eye, the front is numb) during the flap cutting still doesn't feel "nice" even when you know to expect what it feels like.

 

Quote

Your doing excellent! The scary part is over. 

Yeah, now it's just applying eye drops every couple of hours when awake and mostly being amazed at how things look when you actually have your whole field of vision clear. I've never even tried contacts, and have worn glasses all the time for about 20 years, so it's pretty weird. Guess it takes time for the brain to "re-learn" analyzing the visual information from a more detailed and larger field of view. Also seeing yourself in the mirror without glasses was very odd at the start.

So far, not that much to report. I see pretty well, better than with glasses at times, but right after applying drops and sometimes when it seems my eyes have dried out a bit too much, things become more blurry... but in a different way than having nearsightedness and not wearing glasses. I've mostly rode around wearing the protective goggles they gave me, look about like this:

Can't wear them with the full-face helmet, so I've rode around just with a normal bike helmet... not too sure how much it would help should I crash.

I've at least once woken with the goggles off, slightly rubbing my eye, don't know if they came off by themselves or if I pushed them off while asleep. And once rubbed it by accident while wide awake, which caused some throbbing ache for a few minutes... so far I haven't dislodged anything, but have to be more careful    Went to get some more "runny" eye drops today, while it doesn't keep my eyes moist as long as the gel-stuff, it seems to help wash away the crud accumulating in my eyelashes and around the eyes.

Other than that, things seem to progress well, although it's still only the 5th 4th day. My hair's really dirty though, as I'm scared of washing it, they told me not to let even water run over my face in shower for at least a week 

 

Congrats on breaking +10000 in votes, btw 

[Rehab1]

20 minutes ago, esaj said:

If they had gave me a "panic button", I might have pressed it somewhere around there on the first eye    I actually took the Diapam (Valium for you yankees) they offered before the surgery, but was still pretty nervous when it started. On the second eye, I was much more relaxed, although the pressure on your eye (at the back of the eye, the front is numb) still doesn't feel "nice"

I don’t fully understand the countdown but it might be their way of alerting the team. It certainly would make me more anxious! You should ask them during your F/U appt. Just mention some idiot named rehab1 wants to know. 

20 minutes ago, esaj said:

I've mostly rode around wearing the protective goggles they gave me, look about like this:

They are stylish.....?

20 minutes ago, esaj said:

Other than that, things seem to progress well, although it's still only the 5th day. My hair's really dirty though, as I'm scared of washing it, they told me not to let even water run over my face in shower for at least a week  

That sucks! There are goggles the swimmers wear that prevent water from getting into your eyes. I would think they would want to eliminate any chance of bacteria around your eyes which means washing the surrounding areas.

20 minutes ago, esaj said:

Congrats on breaking +10000 in votes, btw 

Thanks!  Not a big deal. It’s just fun conversing with everyone. I’m planning on selling my practice so if I work for the other company my time will be much more limited. 

[esaj]

4 minutes ago, Rehab1 said:

I don’t fully understand the countdown but it might be their way of alerting the team. It certainly would make me more anxious! You should ask them during your F/U appt. Just mention some idiot named rehab1 wants to know. 

Maybe I explained it badly, the countdown starts when the laser is cutting the flap, ie. how long it takes to make the flap. Likely the software directing the laser shows the remaining time and the nurse counts it down (every 5 seconds like "Femto... 25... 20... 15...").

 

4 minutes ago, Rehab1 said:

They are stylish.....?

Could be worse, many clinics use goggles like these:

Or

 

 

4 minutes ago, Rehab1 said:

That sucks! There are goggles the swimmers wear that prevent water from getting into your eyes. I would think they would want to eliminate any chance of bacteria around your eyes which means washing the surrounding areas.

I guess, also the trace amounts of chlorine and fluoride etc. in tap water would probably irritate the eyes, not to mention getting something like shampoo in them. The flaps take a while to grow shut, so also they might be worried that it might move them, although considering I've already rubbed my eyes, but not too heavily, at least a couple of times, it seems unlikely. There's some horror stories about the flap moving or even opening later on in life for some, but I was assured that it would take something like a really hard blow to the eye (once it's healed, that is).

 

4 minutes ago, Rehab1 said:

Thanks!  Not a big deal. It’s just fun conversing with everyone. I’m planning on selling my practice so if I work for the other company my time will be much more limited. 

Maybe you should consider becoming a doctor for an EUC-racing team... although probably no such exist (yet ).

[Rehab1]

39 minutes ago, esaj said:

Could be worse, many clinics use goggles like these:

Some people just look naturally beautiful no matter what they wear. 

 

43 minutes ago, esaj said:

There's some horror stories about the flap moving or even opening later on in life for some,

I would probably be one that falls into those poor outcomes. 

 

46 minutes ago, esaj said:

Maybe you should consider becoming a doctor for an EUC-racing team... although probably no such exist (yet ).

I’m good.

My employees have no idea. When the accountants come in to perform their due diligence it will definitely be an eye opener for them. My contract would definitely have a clause that all my current employees will remain with the team. 

[esaj]

Small update on this: I went to the first post-op check on Wednesday, 20/20 + 20/almost 16 (1.0 / 1.25, couldn't see everything on the 1.25 -size, which is smaller than 1.0) -vision on the "letter-tests" (whatsitcalled, the boards with different sized letters / E's / numbers), other eye might have slightly gone to "plus" (ie. farsightedness), less than +0.25, but the doctor said it should correct by itself once the healing finishes (takes about 4-6 months total, thus the final check is done 6 months or more after). I can't see as near as before, which was to be expected, ie. I could place a small (like 1.25 x 2mm 0805) component a couple of cm away from my eye and read the fine lettering (1mm high or so), now that don't work anymore. I can still read small print on paper etc. just fine, just not as near as before (if it was a few cm before, now it's like 10-15cm, nearer it starts to become blurry). Of course that's to be expected, since I wanted +-0, and a small price to pay for life without glasses. And of course I didn't read with a book few cm away from my eyes even before  

I still see slight "ghosting" around very bright objects against dark background (my testing grounds is some white flag-poles in bright sunlight about 50-100m away with dark green trees behind them near our office) on the other eye, but I don't notice it unless I really start looking for it. The doctor said it's not unusual during the healing, but if it doesn't go away before the final check, they'll see if any resurgery is necessary. Unless it becomes worse, I don't think it's worth "opening up" my eye again 

After the first two weeks, I stopped the antibiotic drops, as instructed, and the need for using eye drops fell rapidly after that. On most days, I put them on once or not at all, or if I get something in my eye, I use the drops to rinse it out.

So yeah, at least in my case things went just fine, and I'm happy with the result (at least so far ).

 

Edit: this probably makes the vision values clearer:

 

[Hunka Hunka Burning Love]

We call that an "eye chart" in the biz.     Did the laser go in too deep? 

 

Okay let me check your vision.  Read this:

 

Does this chart seem clear to you?  

[esaj]

15 hours ago, Hunka Hunka Burning Love said:

We call that an "eye chart" in the biz.     Did the laser go in too deep? 

 

Okay let me check your vision.  Read this:

Easy, it says "Hunka likes tits". Full points! ❤️ 

 

15 hours ago, Hunka Hunka Burning Love said:

 

Does this chart seem clear to you?  

Of course, my laser-vision will remove all the blur from the image and make it as clear as day. I also see through walls and peoples' clothes now.

Nah, in reality, once the "plus" wears off after healing, I'll likely "just" have a normal 20/20 on both eyes, likely the slightly better vision farther now is caused precisely because the other eye can't see as near    There's a tradeoff there on how much the eye muscles can focus near/far... you actually start to see slightly better far when you age and the farsightedness sets in, that's why it's usually suggested that people above 40-45 going under the laser take "mono-vision", where they leave some minus on one eye to compensate for the coming "age vision".

 

 

[Hunka Hunka Burning Love]

 Everybody’s an opthamologist now I guess.  And where did you get your opthamologyology degree?  Let’s leave the eyeball science talk to the experts like me.    I even got a certificate, remember?  M.D. = me doctor.  

Ever find it weird that they say don’t stare at the laser beams directly, and then they shoot them right into your eyes?  Yeah exactly.  Something isn’t quite right there.  Don’t stare at the sun, but now let’s shine some direct sun energy into your eyeballs.  That totally makes no sense on more than one level.  Now I’m babbling.  Anyways glad to see that you aren’t blind and that you’re as smart as ever.  That’s a good thing.