My Lasik Recovery

When people ask me about my lasik eye surgery, one of the questions I get most often is about the recovery period. What was it like after your surgery? People mostly want to know three things: if there was any pain, if I could see better right away and if there were any unpleasant side effects. I will describe what it was like for me following the lasik procedure.

Immediately after the procedure I would say I noticed some improvement in my vision. My eyesight was still blurred, but the blurriness was not as bad as it was without my glasses prior to surgery. It was not like I had 20/20 vision right after surgery as some advertisements would have you believe. A good friend of mine drove me home after my surgery. In the car on the way home, I experienced more discomfort than I would have liked. My eyes were burning and filled with tears the whole 20 minute drive home. My eyes also were more sensitive to light as the sunshine made the discomfort worse. As soon as I got inside my apartment, I took a couple of aspirin and laid down in my bed with the lights off and the curtains drawn tight. I had a hard time falling asleep because of the burning sensation but I did manage to get a couple of hours of nap time in. After my nap, the burning subsided a great deal and the tears weren’t constant any more. My eyesight was still blurry, but again not as bad as without my glasses pre lasik. Physically I didn’t feel like doing anything. I spent the remainder of the day relaxing, listening to music and wearing the clear protective eye shields they gave me. As the day wore on, the burn and tears went away. My eyes started feeling a little dry and gritty, but my vision while still blurred seemed to improve slightly as the hours passed. Went to bed early with the shields on. I was feeling pretty wiped out and slept without issue.

The day after surgery, I woke up and noticed that my vision had noticeably improved. Not as sharp as with glasses, but I remember thinking I had to be close to if not at 20/20 vision. The doctor had given me some eye drops to use regularly throughout the day and cautioned me about things like getting soap in my eyes, making sure to wear sunglasses outdoors, things like that. I also had to go back to the doc for a routine post op appointment. At my appointment, they made sure I was healing properly, checked my vision and we talked more about side effects. I was seeing at 20/25 so I was really pleased about that especially because my doctor said I could expect my vision to improve as I continued to heal. In terms of side effects on the day after, that burning feeling came back a couple of times during the day, but it was not as intense and didn’t last very long. The dry eyes feeling was there as well, but it wasn’t severe and the drops helped.

In the first week to ten days, I did experience the lasik side effects my doctor and I had discussed. Seeing glares at night, having trouble reading things close up, continued minor discomfort from dry eye and vision fluctuations. I had another appointment in that time frame where my vision was measured at 20/20 with both eyes. I also felt confident after talking to my doctor that the side effects I was experiencing would go away and my vision would settle in the upcoming months. It was in this time period, I allowed myself to feel pleased with and cautiously optimistic about my outcome after having been so fearful and nervous.

After about one month, the night vision had improved a good bit and I was able to read close up without difficulty. Dry eye was minimal and no longer a concern. I had another appointment where I was measured at 20/20 in both eyes. This is the point at which I was ready to declare my outcome a total success. For another patient’s take, check out RT’s blog post on lasik eye surgery.