My Epi-Lasik Eye Surgery

As I was packing for my business trip last night, I was able to leave behind items that I have had to pack in the last 25 years of my life: contact case, solution, back-up lens and glasses.

I had an Epi-lasik procedure done around three weeks ago to correct my nearsightedness. Prior to the surgery, my myopia clocked in at around 20/300, meaning that I was beyond legally blind. While I had been able to get by with contact lens and glasses, my dependence on these "artificial eyes" exploded into a full-blown frustration for me during my trip to Cancun last year. I had realized that I forgot to pack my contact case, but naively thought that the resort would carry stuff for the visually-challenged, forgetful lots like me. Turns out they had everything but contact stuff. Want to freshen your breath?—No problem; they have gum, mint, mouth wash, you name it. Want to reap the benefits of minty-fresh breath and a great tan?—They've got you covered with condoms of all formats and sizes. But you forget your contact lens?—You are s*&t out of luck. I ended up having to improvise with a few bottle caps; it’s a wonder that I didn't end up with any form of conjunctivitis.

Despite my absolute glee about no longer having to wear glasses and lenses, the recovery process has been long and challenging. In fact, I have a long way to go, since the words that I type are still somewhat blurry.

To go into why things have been blurry for so long, I probably need to briefly explain the Epi-lasik procedure. It is performed for folks who are not good candidates for the basic Lasik procedure, and unlike its more popular sibling, the Epi-Lasik demands a much longer healing time. The doctor removes the entire top layer of your eyes before lasering them down to the right shape, and afterwards, you have to wait for your eyes to slowly heal. The healing process takes anywhere between a month to six months, and I've had many moments of despair in which I've searched the inter-web to find testimonials, blogs, anything to make me believe that I will have a perfect 20/20 vision in a few months. I thought I would chronicle my own experience as well, so that I can (hopefully) look back on this in the near future and realize that I just needed to be more patient through the healing process.

Days 1 – 3 after the surgery 

My daily routine went something like this:

• Wake up. Eat some food. Take my pain meds, administer three different types of eye drops. 
• Listen to my Dances with Dragons audio book before dozing off. 
• Wake up 20 minutes later to find that I had slept through the last chapter of the book. Rewind, fall back asleep for three hours. 
• Wake up, say hello to family, repeat the cycle.

They made me wear these crazy eye-shields while I slept so that I wouldn't inadvertently scratch my eyes out. EB was completely creep-ed out every time I wore the shields. She thought that the little air-holes made me look like some creepy she-fly.

Look, Mom--I'm a fly

For the most part, I did not feel much pain. The worst was on the morning of day 2, when my light sensitivity was so bad that it felt like someone was shining the power of 300 volt football stadium lights into my eye sockets. The sensation went away 20 minutes after I took my pain meds – nothing a little cocktail of Demerol couldn't fix.

This is how I looked about 15 min after Demerol

Day 4 after the surgery

I felt no more pain, and stopped taking my pain killers altogether. I was to have my first post-op the next morning, and if all went well, I would be able to drive myself back to work. That night, I made the mistake of popping open my laptop to see how well I could see. Holy crap – everything was blurry. I had to enable the visually impaired function and blow up everything to around 20 point font. Discouraged, I closed my laptop and decided to call it a night. 

Day 5 after the surgery

Although I saw doubles of everything, I tested 20/40, and got the green-light to drive myself back to work. In the bright outdoors, everything looked crystal-clear but once I entered the office, it was almost as if the office was slightly fogged over. Starring at laptop for any period of time was a challenge, and I found myself reaching for my rewetting drops once every two minutes, making me look like I was constantly dripping tears -- not a good look at all.

Weeks 2-3 after the surgery

While my visions have gotten better over time, I am still seeing overlaps of letters. I have gotten used to working with super-sized fonts, to my co-workers’ continued bemusement. At the end of the third week, I went back to my eye doctor, and was bummed to learn that my vision had not improved since he last saw me. He told me that the four-times-a-day steroid drops were causing negative effects on my vision, so he made me half the number of dosage. He assured me that I would see a huge difference in a week (pun intended). But, I still felt pretty disheartened. I drove myself back to the office after the appointment and resumed work on my super-sized font laptop.

Week 4 - Current week

After further regressing on the day that I cut down my steroid solution, my vision all of a sudden took a turn for the better. I would say that this week, my vision is at 80%. My left eye is blurrier than my right eye, but for the most part, words seem crisper. I am feeling more optimistic, and we shall see how things go in a couple of weeks when I go back to my ophthalmologist.

Over and out for now.