Lasiks

JTP’s experience

A few weeks ago, I had Lasik surgery. Although I can’t see 100%, I’m glad I did it. This is mostly because I could hardly see without my glasses before. (TSP writes - The doctor told JTP that he would probably have to still wear reading glasses on his first visit but that was a better option than not seeing anything without glasses.) The surgery was pioneered in Colombia, and my doctor is eminently qualified. He went to a top medical school here, did a residency at Emory and interned at Massachusetts General Hospital.

The surgery itself is quite easy. The only weird things are that they put a suction cup thing on your eye and that at one point you smell burning flesh. The next few days you have to wear sunglasses and after that you put a lot of drops in your eyes.

I have been three weeks without glasses. Things are not perfect, but it’s going well.


TSP’s experience

I have now been almost a week without glasses. Last Friday, I had Lasiks as well. I thought it was an incredible waste of money, at first, but then I started to figure the long-term costs of glasses and decided it was worth it. Lasik is about a quarter of the price here in Colombia. I also felt much more comfortable when I heard the doctor’s qualifications and saw the hospital where we had the surgery. I have a rather bad astigmatism in both eyes so I thought I would not be able to have the surgery. It turns out that it is really the health of the cornea that determines whether or not one can have the surgery. If the cornea is too thin or brittle, then surgery is not possible. My cornea was great and my astigmatism was “fixable”.

I will have to admit, I was a little scared. I could not imagine having worse eyesight and just prayed it would turn out well. Everything did turn out fine. The day after the surgery, I went to the doctor’s office for a check-up. At that point, I had 20/20 vision, albeit a little blurry. I am not sure if the blurry came from bad vision or the copious amounts of drops he had just put in my eyes. My vision continues to improve with moments of blurriness, especially while I am in my Portuguese classes and have to focus on the board. Now without glasses, I can see myself clearly in the mirror.

I did not like the surgery at all. It is strange to actually watch a surgery as it is happening. The instruments all came right at my eye. I am not sure why that surprised me. I should have counted on instruments piercing my eyes since I was having eye surgery! I really did not like the eye suction that JTP mentioned. That is mainly because the suction is the part where they cut either the sclera or the conjunctiva (I am not really sure which – if my anatomy knowledge of the eye is lacking in English, it is even worse in Spanish). This flap allows the surgeon to operate on the cornea. The laser part was the easiest. I smelt no burning flesh. I only saw a small light and done. I spent six hours with band aids on my eyes, then a weekend of wearing sunglasses and now only sunglasses outside. I feel like my eyesight improves everyday. I am glad I went ahead with it!