LASIK (Day 1) - First (free) post-op review

Image from http://eyemakeart.wordpress.com/2009/07/04/printable-snellen-eye-chart/

One day AFTER LASIK.

The moment I woke up, other than that layer of gossamer mist masking over things, I can see sharply! Like really sharply LOLX. I tested out with the books on my bookshelf, probably at a distance of a few metres. And I could see the "Biochemistry" words in one of the textbook spines and the "MONOPOLY" words on the board games on the shelf in the living room, without any aid. Cool! Last time, due to my astigmatism, I would have to squint my eyes so hard to catch a few letters and everything else was a blur. This is like wearing lenses, but only this time, the lenses are not peripheral aids =)

So I was really excited. Appointment was in the afternoon. I wore sunglasses out from then on.

Ophthalmologist said my eyesight was already 6/6 after one day!! That was satisfying and doctor said they were healing pretty well. And I should keep up with the eye drop regime, using the lubricant drops as regular as possible and eye shields for another 4 days.

Apart from getting the desired results, I had also extreme paranoia haha. Always worrying when I accidentally touched my eyes etc etc... That aside, the real tangible side-effects I experienced were dry eyes and night halo.

Dry eyes was expected, since almost everybody got that post-op. But mine was slightly alarming given that my right eye actually felt a slight pang of pain whenever I apply eye drops. But the doctor says it's due to dryness and will subside as the days go by (and it REALLY did). I found the goggles extremely good in easing this as well. Because it is covered, the goggles actually reduces the discomfort as compared to when you leave the eyes exposed to the air. My shades, being the stick-to-face kind, also served that purpose pretty nicely.

Night vision was also expectantly with night halos. Incandescent lights were fine. The problem came with fluorescence. Probably because of the wide spectrum of wavelengths (and lights) emitted, I would see halos around these lights.

Finally, tried not to stare at lights directly during this stage. Because, without a doubt, the lights appeared brighter (and hence more uncomfortable looking at them) than they are supposed to be.