The Procedure

The entire procedure lasted maybe 15-20 minutes including the prep time. The actual Intralase process completed in 15 seconds per eye. The Excimer laser lasted maybe 30 seconds per eye. In between, the surgeon and three support staff helped did their job. It was fascinating to watch the procedure on the television set.

The scariest part of the procedure and probably the most difficult portion of the procedure for my wife was the cutting of the flap. I think it was mostly psychological. By taking the oscillating blade out of the equation, the biggest fear was also removed. She opted to skip the Valium altogether. It wasn't necessary because to her the laser wasn't as scary as the microkeretome, which is a glorified oscillating razor blade. The anticipation of the surgery was the hardest part for her. The actual surgery was over before she knew it.

The Prep
For the surgery prep, her eye areas were wiped with antibacterial wipes. She donned the the surgical cap to keep her hair out of the way. Afterward they brought her into the surgical room where the Intralase FS and Visx S4 IR machines dominate the room. The room has a glass window to allow family members to view the procedure. There is a television that displays the camerea from the laser's and surgeon's point of view.

Before the doctor came in, the assistant adjusted the laser level so that so that it was level with my wife's head. She told me that the scene from Final Destination 5 kept popping into her head. Bad idea to watch that movie before the surgery. Fortunately for her, that movie made absolutely no sense. Let's see how many things that it got wrong. First of all, she was never left alone. There was always at least two person in the room with her. The laser does not work on autopilot, so it must always be operated by the surgeon. A rogue killer laser was just not possible. The laser has a fail-safe that shuts itself down in case of a malfunction. Furthermore, the laser beam is ultraviolet which is invisible. Heat would cook the surrounding cells. The reason excimer laser works so well is due to its ability for pin-point accuracy without burning the surrounding cells.

The Procedure
When the doctor finally came in, the surgery was ready to begin. My wife was positioned under the Intralaser laser and had the eye clamp positioned to keep the lids from closing. Yes, at least the director of Final Destination got that one right. Multiple numbing drops were applied to numb the eyes. Then they checked her corneal thickness again with an ultrasound device. Finally, they asked the patient her name and birth date. I assume this was to prevent accidental procedure of the "custom" procedure on the wrong patient.

The doctor asked her to look at his forehead in order to position the eye. The suction cup was laid over her right eye. On the TV, it looked like the eyeball got flattened by the suction device. What she saw under the suction cup was a series of white light. She didn't know or felt the Intralase laser cut the flap. On television, I saw the outline of the flap appearing by the changes in a lighter shade of her cornea as the laser cut the outline of the flap. Once the flap was finished, the doctor applied something like tape to keep it closed and then then the process was repeated for the second eye.

Once the second flap was cut, the doctor moved her over to the second machine to start the actual fixing of her vision. He used a surgical device to separate the flap. This piece looked kind of like a dentist's pick as he because it has a needle end to gently separate the flap. When the flap was moved, her vision became blurred and everything became 'bouncy'. That's her description, it was as if her vision was moving. The doctor asked my wife to look at the red light. On the TV, it looked like a circular red target. Imagine the point of view of the Terminator as he's looking at his target with the bracketed heads up display. That's what the red target looked like. When the laser started, there was a zapping noise that sounded like firecrackers going off. It was fairly loud. She told me that her entire vision blacked out at that point. My wife thought they turned out the lights. Except they didn't. Good thing she didn't know what was happening. It was probably more comforting to think that the lights were turned out than knowing that at that moment your eye just shut itself off by the blinding ultraviolet light. She said it smelled like hair burning when the machine was zapping her eyes. The corneal tissues that were responsible for her bad vision were going to a better place, vaporized into nothingness.

Once the process finished, the doctor scrubbed the cornea with a surgical tool with flat side. He reapplied the flap then pushed it down with another tool that was circular in nature. Then he applied a bunch of medicinal drops on her, perhaps antibiotics, steroid and numbing drops. She said once the flap was reapplied she could immediately see clearly albeit with a slight haze. One thing was for sure, it was much better than the pre-op vision. The same procedure was performed on the second eye. After everything was done she just got up and walked to the next room for the post-op consultation where they gave you the shades, the surgical eye cover for the first few nights of sleeping and the schedule of medicine application.

That was it. We arrived around 12:25. The procedure started at 1:05 PM. We left the building at 1:30 PM.

The First Night
Other than some dry eye symptoms on her left eye, everything appeared normal. Her right eye amazingly has no issue, no pain or dry eye. Only her left eye has dry eye symptoms. It was also the eye that required numbing drops the first night due due to the contact in the eye feeling. She describes it as feeling as if something was left in the eye. We were told that this was normal due to dry eye symptom from the LASIK procedure. She's actually lucky as her symptoms are very minor. I guess this is why LASIK is the preferred procedure over PRK. It's almost close to zero recovery time.

The Next Check Up
Her eyes were tested the next as 20/20 and 20/25. The left eye that was bothering her with dry eye is weaker than the right. Her vision is clear other than the haze that covers it. She describes it as kind of like looking through a foggy filter. The interesting thing is that other than the haze, she swears she can see better than she did with her contacts. Her vision is just sharper. I wonder if this was due to her higher order aberrations? Before the surgery, she had poor quality vision even when she wore glasses or contacts. Her distant vision was only half as good as mine. However, one day after surgery, her vision is of better quality than she ever had even with contacts! It's truly remarkable technology and nothing short of miraculous.

We're looking forward to the one week consultation. Hopefully once the swelling and haze go away, her vision  will  improve even more. She's extremely happy with her decision to have LASIK done. I asked if she had to do it again, would she go through with it? She says yes she would do it again in a heart-beat and that you can't put a price tag on her improved quality of life. Well, there you go. Another LASIK evangelist is born.