LASIK Eye Surgery in Austin Review

It was back in 1994 when I ran into my friend Laura outside the tower at the University of Texas at Austin. I remember her from high school. She had had thick glasses. Not nearly as thick as her sisters, but thick just the same. She had no glasses on when I met her. We got to talking and she told me she just had her eyes corrected. I don't remember if it was LASIK, but having only hear occasional reports back then, I thought, "Cool! Maybe some day I'll trust laser eye surgery enough to do it myself."

Over thirteen years later, I finally decided to take the plunge. Today, I had LASIK performed on my eyes. And my vision is still improving. I thought it might be nice for others if I shared my experience.

I arrived with my step-mom at 8:00 am this morning for our 8:30 appointment at Eyes of Texas Laser Center over on Spicewood Springs Road. My mom and I had an early start. I'm sure it helped that I was pretty much awake when my parents got up this morning. I couldn't sleep much last night. The bed was uncomfortable. I was cold. And of course, I was thinking a lot about the surgery. I should have done more yoga before I went to sleep like I usually do to sleep better, but I didn't.

So when my dad knocked on the door this morning, it didn't take me much to get out of bed. I got up and put the last three eye drops in each of my eyes. They started me on those two days ago. One was an anti-biotic called Zylet, the other Muro (whatever that is) called Sochlor, and the third, Artificial Tears (Refresh Tears by Allergan). Afterward, my step-mom made me breakfast and we drove to the eye clinic.

After paying the piper, the first thing they did was give me some Valium. Then they took me into the optometrist room. The nurse instructed me on how to take the rest of my eye drops. She put doctors masks on me, covering my mouth, hair and shoes. Then she left me alone to wait. I took a much needed nap. When I awoke a few minutes later, I had trouble standing. The Valium must've kicked in.

The nurse held my arm as she took me into the laser room. She gave me a cough drop which I didn't expect would help keep me, Sir Coughs-A-Lot, from coughing, but it did. I sat down on the bed. Then Doctor L. Shawn Wong came in and he asked me to lie down.

Dr. Wong told me not to move. And I did my best. The left eye went first. The doctor taped back the eye lids and lashes. Then he applied some tool to keep my eyes open. It kinda pinched and hurt a little with insertion. But once it was in place, everything was fine. Meanwhile, the nurse held my hand. I was thankful about that, because I was still a bit nervous.

Then the doctor told me to stare at a green light. As I did that, I think this was when he pulled back the protective covering over the eye. Kinda weird, but it didn't hurt. When he pulled back the covering, things got really blurry. Then most of what I could see was red blobs. That was a bit disconcerting, because they moved some. He told me to stare at the center of the red blob, and I did as best I could. Doctor Wong was very reassuring and kept telling me I was doing great. That definitely helped me to relax a bit.

After maybe a minute, he put the eye covering back, and I *think* he sorta smoothed out the eye covering. Again, it didn't hurt at all. The tough part was to keep staring at the green light.

Next, he taped my left eye shut and did the same with the right eye. This eye had a stigma. So at some point I heard this machine make a zapping sound and smelled ozone. The nurse told me about this before the operation. It was normal. And better yet, I didn't feel a thing.

After that, the doctor went back to the left eye. And I think he was smoothing out the eye covering again. Then he added two or three different drops to my eyes. Once we were done, my eyes felt scratchy, sorta like there was some sleep in my eyes, or maybe as if I had contacts that were a bit messed up. My eyes were still watering so I had trouble seeing, but when I could see, things looked clearer than they used to.

My step-mom helped me back into the waiting room. We took five minutes as the Valium still made it difficult to walk. Then my step-mom guided me out to the car with sunshades on. We got in and drove for the next thirty minutes. I turned on my cell phone alarm and applied eye drops every five minutes of the trip. And I was seeing much better, signs, things around the car, you name it.

We got home. I applied the last required eye drops before I napped. Then I tapped my eyes shut, added some protective coverings, put on my sleep mask, turned on some celtic music and slept for a couple hours.

When I awoke around 1:30, my eyes were REALLY itchy. I drank a huge glass of water and started on the Artificial Tears every five minutes for the next two hours. After about thirty minutes, I started feeling relief. Two hours later, I've taken off my sunshades that I was wearing inside. My eyes are little itchy still but and there's a bit of a haze and halos around things. My dad, who also had Lasik done before I did, said that's normal, even for the next week.

So now I'm sitting at the dining room typing now. There's a mirror on the wall, and I can actually see myself. My eyes still itch, and they are watering so it's not super easy to see. But it's more than I've seen in over twenty-five years. Already things are looking good!

Read Part 2 of this update now.

Labels: scribbles

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posted by Marc Gunn @ Wednesday, March 07, 2007