Laser Eye Surgery (part 2)

I had my first appointment with TLC today, the initial consultation. Had a few more tests done on my eyes. The first was a 3D map of the eye and cornea. It consisted of a really trippy looking concave plate with concentric circles in orange and black on it. When they activated it, a strobe light went off that I could see passing from one edge of the eye to the other. For some reason I couldn’t stop blinking during this so they had to redo it about three times.

I then spoke to the optometrist on site who told me that my eyes were unusually dry - I can totally attribute this to spending way too much time on the computer without breaks and a lack of sleep. Probably not good for the rest of my body either - I’ll make this my new year’s resolution. She gave me drops which I’m supposed to use every 2-3 hours for a couple weeks until my second appointment, where they’ll do a few more tests. She also let me know that my pupils are larger than average (0.7 mm versus the typical < 0.6 mm) which was interesting. She said in older forms of Lasik this might have caused starbursts at night after the surgery, but not with this new process.

New process, you ask? I was surprised to hear this as well. Traditionally, in the first step of the surgery where the corneal flap needs to be lifted, this was done with a microkeratome; This is a blade that oscillates over the eye to cut the flap. At the TLC center where I’ll be having the surgery, they’re now using a process called Intralase in which a computer-guided laser does the corneal flap. This is apparently a safer, and more precise procedure, which is all the better for easing my one and only concern about this whole thing. There was always something about a metal blade cutting my eye open that I wasn’t too thrilled with. For some reason, hearing that a laser will be involved eases that concern.

Another aspect of the new process is rather than reshaping the surface of the eye with the laser to basically mimic my prescription in my glasses, they now take up to 200 points on my eye and individually reshape those. This results in less chance of complications after the surgery, as well as minimizing the glare experienced at night.

I’m really excited to have this done. I can’t wait to be free of glasses and be able to see without having a dependency on something. Simple things like being able to see my clock from across the room at night will make all the difference in the world. If anyone has any questions about the process or what I’m having done, I’d be happy to answer them in the comments.

November 11, 2005 | Filed Under Uncategorized