LASIK Eye Surgery – What It’s Really Like.
Laser Beam To The Eye.
by Alyssa Ramos
Being the super awesome tiny kid that I was, I started off sporting contacts rather of glasses in fifth grade. Seventeen many years later, it occurred to me that I had invested $25,000 on contacts and I projected that I’d invest, oh, about $$one hundred,000 much more if I planned on sporting them for the rest of my daily life. I voted no.
Although at very first I imagined I observed an amazing deal when I noticed the Groupon for Lasik, my mother believed otherwise. And so did I when I recognized that “traditional Lasik” for $2k, meant the variety where they still sliced your eyeball open with a blade. No thank you.
Right after exhibiting my mom my past expenditures on contacts and long term projections, it wasn’t long just before I was sitting in the office of the finest Lasik surgical procedure center in Palm Beach. The consultation went well…so did the pre-op…and all was fine and dandy on surgery day until finally OH WAIT, the third health care provider to look at my eyes prior to the surgical treatment discovered the freaking scar on my freaking cornea from when I burned my eyeball in university. Don’t allow your thoughts wander. This was practically a freak accident that you would only go through about on Buzzfeed or something.
It happened when I was sitting by the pool of my household in Tallahassee, reading my (vivid white-paged) Biology text book like a great pupil, sporting my (thick prescription) glasses like a ordinary blind human, on an very sunny Florida day. Ever heard of frying an ant with a magnifying glass? Yeah, that occurred to my eyeball. The sun reflected off of the white pages of the guide, back through my thick lenses and fried a freaking hole in my eyeball. It sucked…a lot…however I did get out of a good deal of sorority rush pursuits, which was properly worth it.
However it was not well worth it 10 minutes prior to my scheduled Lasik surgical procedure when that third medical doctor saw the scar (on my eyeball) and stated, “Oh no, we can’t cut open her eyeball with a laser, that would be a disaster–” …………..um, WHAT?!
So as I’m sitting there, in that stupid irritating optometrist chair, pouting and about to cry simply because I’ve been counting down the days to be able to see, my mom is questioning the shit out of these two eyeball surgeons. They were attempting to clarify that the laser beam wouldn’t be in a position to chop open my eye with such a deep abrasion on the surface, and that I would have to have a distinctive sort of surgical procedure referred to as PRK on it, which, in essence, shaves the surface of your eyeball down to the proper form so that you can see. So that was exciting. Always pleasurable finding out moments just before surgical procedure that you essentially have to get a unique surgical treatment. The surgeon that located it was neat though…upon understanding that I live in West Hollywood, he went on and on about the Beverly Hills surgeons he understands there and gave me the solution to get it accomplished there……..meanwhile….NO…shoot the laser in my damn eyes and correct this shit!
If you’ve ever asked anyone who’s had Lasik how it was and they stated, “Oh it’s incredible, you hardly really feel a thing!” ….No. Screw you. Not only did I practically vomit, but I was so terrified that I didn’t even move at all the complete time mainly because I was so centered on convincing myself not to puke on the laser or pass out. At least my surgeon imagined I was 1 of the most effective sufferers ever…
So let’s go in depth about the actual surgical system, shall we? They explained it all prior to hand, of course, nonetheless lucky me and my more than-pondering brain, I considered about, and imagined, what my eyeball looked like the Total time. And it’s not just like zip-zap, Ok you can see, bye! No, no.
Initial, they lay you down on the creepy leather health-related bed, inside of the freezing cold area with huge robot machines all over the place and individuals in scrubs and health care masks. As considerably as I didn’t want to admit that I wished a blankey, I accepted when a single of the techs supplied. 1 that I hadn’t met prior to letting participate in my eyeball surgery…I felt like an alien test subject.
Next, is the insertion of the spectrum. As 1 of the surgeons explained in my pre-op, “Just like your lady health care provider tells you you’ll come to feel pressure when they inert the spectrum, you’ll really feel the same stress on your eye.” Initial of all, what the fuck?! Second of all, that is a big difference! The eyeball spectrum created my eye come to feel like it was popping out of its socket, and that’s exactly what it was executing. No joke, I have photo evidence simply because I manufactured my mother movie the entire factor. Such a great mom I have.
THEN, they numbed my eyeball with drops and created my vision go away, so though most individuals would be calming and contemplating, “Oh ya Okay, it’ll be over quickly”, I’m thinking…”Holy shit! I can’t feel my eyeball! And it’s popping out of my encounter! And now a laser beam is going to reduce it open!” This is all around the time that I just about threw up. Like I was basically convincing myself to breath, and singing “I can see plainly now the rain is gone” in my head.
“Keep looking at the red light, good job, you’re executing good.” The surgeon kept sayin, whilst all I could freaking see is red lights — oh, and the within of the lens of my eye. As in, picture seeing the colour and swirls of your eye…from behind it. Yup. That happened. But it wasn’t above right after they popped my eyeball out and zapped it. Oh no. That was just the first phase of the laser beam slicing my cornea open. Then I had to wait a different hour (probably a complete of ten seconds in actual time) for the subsequent large laser beam to come down and start off laser-chopping the shit out of the inside of my eyeball. As in, underneath the flap of my eye. Yeah. Consider about that a single.
Right after the 2nd laser finished, the health care provider proceeded to squirt cold liquid in my eyeball though gently smoothing the lens of my eye back down with a tiny spatula. This was all-around the time the place my vision started off coming back, so I received to watch the little spatula rub my freshly sliced eyeball, and nearly passed out.
The 2nd eye with the PRK surgery was a great deal significantly less terrible. Even though my mom informed me it took longer than the initially eye, it felt a great deal shorter, employed a significantly less painful spectrum, and only utilised a single laser as an alternative of two. I did, nevertheless, have to dress in a protective “bandage” lens more than that eye for about a week, and didn’t have fully clear vision for a month, but now each are great and I couldn’t be happier.
Aside from my dramatic interpretation of LASIK and PRK, I would remarkably propose it to everyone suffering from undesirable vision. I was -4.00 in each eyes with astigmatism (aka blind) and now I wake up every single morning with fantastic vision.
Oh, and one particular final thing…yes, you can smell your eyeball burning all through the surgery. 😉
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