The surgery and everything went well and it was pretty dang quick. They were really good about telling me exactly what to expect so there were no surprises. It didn’t hurt, but the worst part was when there was something holding my eye open while the suction cup thing was put on my eye. I had to stare at a bright light and it was really uncomfortable because I wanted to look away and blink really badly but I couldn’t. It was over in about a minute though. The actual laser part took 17 seconds for one eye and 20 seconds for the other eye so it was really fast and didn’t hurt.
Afterwards, we went home and I slept on the way home and for about 1 hour when we got home. When I woke up, my eyes were really sensitive to light so I just stared at the wall in the dark for awhile and then put on my sunglasses and watched TV later on. For about 2 days afterward, it felt like I had sand in my eyes but it wasn’t bad at all. And I could see right away! It just got better every day.
Here are the top 10 things that I have noticed and that I love about having Lasik:
10. Wearing headbands. I don’t wear tons of headbands but because of my dumb glasses, I really couldn’t wear headbands. It’s nice to wear the stretchy ones when I’m working out too.
9. I don’t have to deal with glasses and a towel on my head. Wrapping my hair in a towel and then putting on glasses doesn’t really work.
8. I can tell which bottle is shampoo and which is conditioner in the shower. Seeing in the shower in general is awesome. I could never tell which was shampoo and which was conditioner until I held it next to my nose. Being able to see my shampoo, face wash and see to shave my legs is great! We have a glass shower door and it’s also nice to be able to see Dan while he’s getting ready or whatever. He usually is flexing for me and being able to see that totally rocks. Scandalous I know…
7. Camping will be easy. It’s not like we camp every weekend, but we do like to camp and be outside in the summer a lot and not dealing with contacts will be GREAT. I don’t have to worry about having clean hands and a dirty contacts and blah blah…contact stuff.
6. Working out is not as annoying. My glasses would constantly slide down my nose or fall off my face if I was doing push ups or something. They would even fog up sometimes if I was really working hard. Side note: Jillian Michaels 30 day shred is AWESOME. I seriously love it and Dan loves it too! It’s freakishly hard though but a great quick workout.
5. My glasses don’t fog up when I open the oven. This was a surprisingly annoying problem and I cook and bake relatively often so suddenly going blind from fogged glasses when I opened the oven was a small problem that I don’t have anymore.
4. I can rub my eyes. (well soon I can…I’m waiting another month or two before rubbing them just to be safe!) This is such a weirdly wonderful feeling. Rubbing my eyes can be really satisfying in a strange way but it’s awesome to not worry about contacts.
3. I can wear make up. I could wear make up before I got LASIK, but once I started wearing glasses for the past year, I haven’t been able to see well enough to actually do my eye makeup without it taking 30 minutes. It was nearly impossible to put on eyeliner and all that so I would just wear mascara. Now I can do my eyes again and I got a bunch of new makeup from Ulta that I LOVE!
2. No more contacts or glasses. For at least 20 more years until I’m old. For those of you wondering, 45 and up=old. Actually 35 is old too but hopefully I won’t need reading glasses for a long time! So mom and dad-that means you are ultra old.
1. Wake up from sleeping and see. This is the most wonderful, unexplainable part of getting Lasik. This is something I can never remember doing before. I never slept in my contacts and if I napped in them, they would get dry and blurry so this is totally new to me. I was reaching for my glasses out of habit for a week or so but then I would remember I didn’t need them and it was amazing. I still want to die when my alarm goes off (even though I go to bed at 9 most of the time), but at least I can SEE!
I love being able to see and like I said, my vision has gotten better every day. They say it can take a few months or up to a year for everything to get completely sharp and for halos at night to go away. My right eye is still a little blurrier than my left because it had to be corrected more and the suction cup made it swell more than my left eye. But even that isn’t noticeable or bothersome at all. Getting Lasik was one of the best things I have ever done and I don’t regret it for a second! I’m so glad I had the opportunity to do this and I’m so grateful for Dan’s total support and sacrifice (his paychecks are less now because we used Flex Spending money to pay for it).
And a side note-we used our Perkstreet debit card to pay for Lasik and then we got reimbursed from our Flex Spending account. We got 2% cash back for paying for the surgery, which was awesome! We saved up our “perks” and got $400 deposited into our account about a month ago and we used that money to pay for some our vacation to Puerto Rico in March! I love Perkstreet!
If anyone has questions about Lasik or Hoopes or whatever, just ask me in the comments and I would love to give you any information that I can about it.