Laser Eye Surgery (part 3)

I took care of the last pre-op appointment this morning for my TLC/Lasik surgery. It seemed that some of the tests that they did before needed to be re-done to check whether the dryness in my eyes had been resolved.

I had a great little re-visit with the orange/black concentric-circle machine that I mentioned in part 2, as well as some other new machines, one of which for some reason I remember as the “pupillator,” but I’m sure I probably just made that up.

More tests…

All of the machines that TLC uses to test your eyes involved you staring at some crazy-shaped light through eyepieces. Presumably they’re taking some kind of measurements, but the whole thing just looks like a light show to me. The strangest feeling test is where they scan the back of your eyes. You can see a vertical column of light scanning over your eye, and it feels like it’s going right into the back of your brain. It’s not painful at all, but is really an interesting sensation. I have no idea how they go about actually seeing the rear portion of my eye (mirrors?), but the devices they use to do it looks out of this world.

Near the end of the appointment, they presented me with the mighty agreement, which for one, gives me a lifetime “warranty” for any corrections beyond a certain point, and two, reminds me that I’ll still needed reading glasses at 40. That doesn’t bother me whatsoever, since by then I’m sure there will be a new procedure to correct this as well. They also let me know that I may experience some glare at night due to my unusually large pupils. That’s fine… colour me a vampire for a while.

They also let me know that Diazepam, a mild sedative, will be available if I want it. Supposedly most people use it, which I think I’ll go for. I don’t want any chance of a freak-out while they’re peeling away the flap of my eye like an onion.

Complications

I made the mistake of reading up on LASIK on Wikipedia, particularly the complications section.

It is also possible that the patient has a genetic condition that causes the cornea to thin out following surgery. While this is screened for in the pre-op exam, it is possible in rare cases (about 1 in 5,000) for the condition to remain dormant until later in life (the mid-40s). If this occurs, the patient will require a corneal transplant.

They quoted this 1 in 5000 chance today, but didn’t specify the possibility of having to have a corneal transplant shoud this occur. That makes me slightly uneasy, and I’d almost rather go into it being ignorant of some of the more “unfortunate” consequences. I like the odds though, either way. It puts me at ease that the doctor who will be performing the surgery has already done 20,000 procedures just like this.

Dryness

With regards to the dryness of my eyes, it’s not going to cause any complications for the surgery, but if it keeps up, my eyes may irritate me following the procedure for a while until they get back to normal.

This is due to the underlying problem of me still not being able to find a balance between work/home/sleep. I’m spending far too much time in front of an LCD screen every day, and far too little time sleeping. I’ve been on about six hours of sleep a night for the past 2-3 months, and I know it’s not healthy, but I can’t seem to get out of the cycle. As of Monday, I’m going to start going to start coming into work later, and going to bed earlier. I’m sticking to a strict regimen of eye drops as well. More than anything, I’m going to try and reduce the amount of time I’m in front of a computer at home.

I’m still really looking forward to having this done, and can’t wait to be able to see well again. Those of you who don’t have the need for glasses/contacts truly don’t appreciate how lucky you are. Two weeks to go!

November 18, 2005 | Filed Under Uncategorized