LASIK Experience

About a month and a half ago, I received LASIK surgery by Joseph Lee in the LA area and I wanted to document how the experience was for me for any of you who are considering to get LASIK.

I was extremely nervous about getting the procedure done since obviously, you’re putting your eyes at stake and I didn’t want to risk going blind even if it was a 1% chance. However, after speaking with my doctor Joseph Lee, a lot of my worries and concerns were put to ease.

First and foremost, do your research and go to a reputable doctor. If you’re in the LA area, I highly recommend Dr. Lee, since he’s been doing LASIK surgery for 20+ years on 70,000+ patients and has never had a single case of a patient going blind and has never received a lawsuit for a bad case. Dr. Lee explained to me that LASIK is a very safe procedure and a huge reason why there’s been bad cases of LASIK surgery is due to the fault of the doctor not performing the surgery correctly or because doctors take on patients who should not be getting LASIK. There are eye exams you take during your LASIK consultation and if you are not a viable candidate, LASIK should not be performed on your eyes because it could further compromise the health of your eyes.

The reason I decided to get LASIK was because I wore hard contact lenses for almost 20 years and the last couple years, it was causing one of my eyes to droop due the constant rubbing it did against the skin under my eyelid. I switched to soft lenses about 7-8 months ago, but my eyes are allergic to silicone so there’s only a few select brands of soft lenses that I could wear. The non-silicone soft lenses I wore were pretty drying and after I started working full time at the office, my dry eyes were often unbearable. Some days I would resort to wearing glasses to give my eyes a break, but glasses also make my eyes feel tired. Although some may think that getting LASIK is jeopardizing the health of your eyes, I just want to also bring up the fact that contact lens isn’t so great for the long-term health of your eyes either. Wearing contact lens actually blocks out oxygen into your eyes and I was really starting to struggle with tired, dry eyes.

Come prepared with questions that you’ve researched to your LASIK consultation. In fact, my boyfriend went with me and his biggest concern was that dry eyes was a likely side effect from LASIK. The doctor let me know that those that end up with extremely dry eyes after LASIK is because those patients were not viable candidates for LASIK. During your eye health examination, the doctor tests your cornea thickness, if there are any dry patches in your eyes, and etc. He assured me that my eyes were very healthy and I was a great candidate for LASIK. Initially after LASIK, I had dry eyes due to the cornea healing from the incision made around my pupil, but this is completely normal and the doctor prescribes you with medical eye drops for the first three weeks. I wasn’t allowed to wear eyeshadow and eyeliner for 2 weeks and mascara for 4 weeks and after about a month, the dry eyes has become pretty minor. The dryness is nowhere near compared to how it feels when you’re wearing contact lens and they only feel dry when I wake up and before I go to bed so I rewet them with eyedrops. The doctor assured me that the issue with dry eyes would never clear up 100%, but they will feel minor in comparison to the dryness you get from wearing contact lens and the level of dryness will continue to improve within the following 3-6 months after surgery.

I still experience starbursts and the nurses let me know that this is normal and for the first 3 months following LASIK, my night vision wouldn’t be very good so avoid driving at night if you can. Also, initially the first week after LASIK, I was not 20/20. I was 20/30 and the doctor assured me that my vision would continue to improve in the next following weeks. After week 3, I was 20/25 and after a second check-up 2 weeks later, I was 20/15. Be aware there is a 10% chance that you will need a second LASIK surgery because your vision just isn’t where you would like it to be, but in my case, I can definitely tell my vision is getting better day by day. Depending on the doctor you go to, Dr. Lee performs the 2nd surgery free of charge within the first year.

For those of you interested in knowing more about LASIK, I highly suggest going in for a consultation. If you wear soft lenses, just come in with your glasses for the consultation. I previously wore hard lenses but I’ve stopped wearing them for 6 months prior to the consultation. Hard lenses morph the shape of your cornea, which is why it’s important that your eyes return to its original shape before your consultation. You need to confirm with a doctor how many days/months in advance you should be out of hard lenses prior to your consultation. If you are to get LASIK, you need to wear glasses for 3-7 days prior to surgery.

Let me know if there are any questions you have in the comment section down below and I’ll try my best to answer them. I’ll also do an update post of my LASIK experience further down the road.

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