Roses The Lasik Experience: Monday Morning
February 11, 2013

Roses The Lasik Experience: Monday Morning

So now that I have decided to follow through with having the lasik procedure, I have to be evaluated to see if I am even a candidate. This Friday, February 15th, I’m going to have my evaluation by Dr. Chris and I will post every detail of what goes on and what he tells me for you read. It is going to be so neat and different to be on the patient side of the evaluation! Working at Northeastern Eye Institiute, I do some of the topographic mapping and checking visual aquities but what the technicians and doctors do afterward is somewhat of a mystery to me!

I do know that one important factor when determining if someone is a lasik candidate is the thickness of their cornea. Generally in the past if a patient had thin corneas, they would not be able to have the procedure done. The average cornea is 550 microns thick. When lasik is performed, the surface layer of the cornea is lifted, which ophthalmologists call the flap. The inner layer is then treated with the laser. I do not know why the thickness however is so important, but I will find out and post the answer in my next post, which will also inform you on the advances in technology over the recent years that now provides several options to those looking to have refractive surgery!

Anyone coming in for a lasik evaluation who is a contact lens wearer must have their contact lenses out of their eyes for a complete 2 weeks prior to their evaluation. The reason for this is because each eye is unique to an individual like a fingerprint. When you wear a contact lens, it is a piece of plastic which sits directly on your eye day after day. It can cause warping or alterations to the unique imperfections on the surface of your cornea. The warping is not permanent; with discontinued contact lens wear your cornea cells rapidly grow and renew returning your eye to its normal condition. This normal state allows for the most accurate and precise measurements to be taken at your evaluation. If you wear hard contact lenses, you may need to have them out longer than 2 weeks.

I have been farsighted all my life with my current prescription a -4.25 sphere in both eyes. I do believe a carry a small amount of astigmatism, but it is so minute that I don’t have it incorporated into my eye glasses. I have had my contact lenses out for 10 days so far. Let me tell you it has been quite an experience. Beforehand I wore my contact lenses everyday. They were daily lenses which I would put in first thing in the morning and throw away right before I went to sleep. Being restricted to wearing glasses everyday is really showing me how much I was taking my vision for granted and how precious and valuable my eye site is to me. So many everyday activities would be unimaginable without my glasses and so many are made more difficult now that I am wearing my glasses as opposed to contact lenses.

For example, my Monday morning started off with an unintended game of hidden object, I Spy, or Where’s Waldo; I’m sure you have played one of those games sometime in your lifetime. Anyway I was making my breakfast and I had let Caesar, my little white Maltese-poodle mix outside to run around a bit. Well I finished my cheerios and went to let him in, and not to my surprise he was still running around the yard! He’s very playful and tends to play this “hide and seek/chase me” game every morning. It’s cute, and he gets his exercise, but I usually have to catch him in order to get him to come back inside; not an easy task when you can’t even see the BIG E on the snellen chart! At least Waldo wore that red and white striped shirt and OMG nerdy glasses! haha I’m totally kidding but searching for my white puppy hiding in the white snow was quite a feat! I can’t wait to have this procedure and be free from glasses and contacts!