[vivekiny2k]

Originally Posted by bblost

Read e-books on my Kyocera 7135 PDA Phone on an almost daily basis.

close range reading is the largest reason for myopia. don't strain your eyes beyond a limit.

[vnabhi]

As an afterthought, Sam, you could have avoided lasik altogether if you had eaten those ants instead of burning them---remember that old saying that eating ants is good for the eyes ? Just kidding .
We are waiting with bated breath for your next post???

[shajufx]

Yes Sam, you didnt mention anything about the pain part ! But you mentioned the girl before you came out with tears etc. Seeing things live through the operated eye is a scary feeling in itself ! I am scared of pain on teeth, bones and sensitive on everything related to eyes, ears etc. I went to the extremity of chosing a lady paediatric dentist for my root canal that happend last month. My reason was, its a lady (will be kind to patients by nature) and she does dental care for children (so will be more kind and patient to anyone). And I was 100% right on my thoughts. But when it comes eyes, I am left with no choice.

Its the first time I am reading about lasik process from a real situation. Your details are expressed very well as its your brand mark. Please express your 'pain' part during and after the lasik. If you have gone through any dental corrections, it would be useful to compare the pain part. Even there we face a grinding and whining machine.

[Sam Kapasi]

As I have described in my earlier post, during the operation there was not so much pain, as discomfort.
My eyes were burning exactly like somebody had squeezed orange peel on it.

As I stepped out of the operation room, I realised that my eyes were watering uncontrollably.
My eyes were shut, but I was not clenching them. That would hurt a little. Moving my eyes around under the lids was causing more burning too.

Someone thrust a tissue in my hand and I held it under my eyes. To be honest, it was not pain. It was very strong irritation.
I sat there for about 10 minutes till the tears were in control.

The nurse then gave me some eye drops and 2 little eyecups. These little green cups were about the size of half an egg. I was supposed to tape these to my eyes before sleeping.
You see, my eyes were beginning to burn and itch and instinctive reaction would be to rub my eyes and that was a HUGE no-no.
In fact the nurse recommended I do not even clean the white stuff off my eyes till the next day.

I was driven home, where my bed was waiting. I put my eye drops as advised. When I opened my eyes to put my drops I immediately realised through all the discomfort that my vision was a lot less blurry than without glasses. In fact it was exactly like seeing through a pair of extremely dirty glasses.

As recommended, I lay down on my back with my eyes closed and those silly green half-eggs taped across my lids. I plugged my iPod into my ears and slowly fell asleep.
Friday evening when I awoke, the burning sensation was all but gone. I had a slight heavy head and my eyes felt itchy as warned.

When I opened my eyes to put the eye drops, I could see a little better. The burning sensation of the eye drops was a welcome relief to the itching. I ate my dinner on friday night without opening my eyes.

My Dad fed me, lol.

Saturday morning when I awoke, I peeked a little. It was really looking a lot better, but I quickly put my drops and closed my eyes as recommended. All of saturday was spent in bed with my eyes closed. I would peak and cheat a little, mostly to change tracks on my iPod.
Saturday night I put my sunglasses on (Eyes were sensitive to light) and opened my eyes and ate. Already I realised that my vision was almost normal.

Sunday morning I cleaned my eyes, but only from outside with a clean tissue. By Sunday afternoon I was able to walk around the house normally, seeing and doing things normally. The Doctor had asked me not to read or watch TV or do anything on the computer till tuesday.

Monday morning I opened my eyes. It was a beautiful feeling to wake up and see the ceiling fan crystal clear. I realised I had never seen it clearly in the morning ever.
I washed my eyes gently with medicated water and went to work.

I avoided computer work, doing just a little. I was not worried about TV, I had given up watching TV in 2001. Altogether.

On Thursday I went to meet the doctor. He was very pleased to see that my eyes had healed almost completely. He asked me how well I could see, I told him as well as when I wore lenses and spectacles. He laughed and said it would get better than that.

He was right. By the next Sunday I realised I had never seen so clearly in my life. Glasses have internal reflections, fingerprints, scratches. Lenses were a lot clearer.
This was the clearest I had ever seen.

Already from two different eyedrops, I had started using just one. This was an eye lubricant, similar to the composition of tears. It had no harmful chemical content and I was advised to use it as often as I pleased. I would keep one little bottle at home and one in the office, using one drop in each eye every 2 hours.

Finally, 3 weeks from the operation, I stopped using the drops. I visited the doctor who asked me if I had any discomfort. I told him that I was 100% comfortable.
He asked me to use the tears-in-a-bottle whenever i felt like it. It was up to me. I never used them again.

He asked me to visit him a year later. To tell you the truth, I never went back.

That was in 2005. I can still see very clearly and often forget that I ever wore glasses. Since then I have had conjunctivitis once - this was because a girl in our office made sure everyone got it, lol.
Other than this, I have had no problem, no dryness, no infection and I can see very clearly.

I am happy with my decision to get a LASIK procedure done in May 2005.

So, my story ends here. Many thanks for reading it and I hope it has helped you in some way.

[DocG]

Hey guys, I just noticed this thread, read some of the posts, but there is a lot of incorrect information floating around...Also there were many questions.

I have subscribed to this thread, and would be happy to answer any questions you have about ophthalmic surgeries or LASIK [I am currently working in the Ophthalmology Dept].

cheers:
DocG [The Doc is in there for a reason ]

[Sam Kapasi]

Originally Posted by DocG

Hey guys, I just noticed this thread, read some of the posts, but there is a lot of incorrect information floating around...Also there were many questions.

I have subscribed to this thread, and would be happy to answer any questions you have about ophthalmic surgeries or LASIK [I am currently working in the Ophthalmology Dept].

cheers:
DocG [The Doc is in there for a reason ]

Hello Doc,

Actually the only information is from the website.

The rest of my information is first-hand, a relation of my personal experience. If anything we have discussed or I have related seems incorrect or inaccurate, please do comment, many will benefit.

[phamilyman]

Sam,

you missed the detail about how one lady gave conjunctivitis to the whole office

Kidding ! Interesting. seems less painless than I thought. But yes, I am just giving up the habit of rubbing my eyes. Speaking of which, another expense budgeted - let me get a cornea specialists's advice sometime soon. how much does the diagnosis cost?

[DocG]

Originally Posted by Sam Kapasi

Hello Doc,

Actually the only information is from the website.

The rest of my information is first-hand, a relation of my personal experience. If anything we have discussed or I have related seems incorrect or inaccurate, please do comment, many will benefit.

No Sam, not your information. You have merely posted your experience, and no one has the right to comment on that.

It's the stuff people are saying about their visual acuity ["number/power"] being so high and therefore considering LASIK, also the issues about post-op pain...

Well LASIK is corrective only for powers upto 6 diopters. Any more, and the refractive error is too high to correct effectively [ie: you would still need contacts or glasses] hence LASIK is not considered as a viable option in such patients [I belong to this group]

Also the thing about the eyeball itself being longer in miopes which leads to the focal point falling in front of the retina instead of on the retina like it should, only applies to congenital miopia or miopia that develops early on in life. The rest of the cases has to do with other causes for incorrect refraction.

Now pain...No, not pain, discomfort, irritation yes, but no real pain. Today LASIK is essentially an OPD proceedure. It takes around 15 mins for one eye, and you walk out right after. The discomfort felt lasts for a few days, and is very intermittent in nature. It's not like pain over which sleep is lost, it comes and goes. HOWEVER the feeling to touch or rub one's eye is immense!

cheers:
DocG

PS: Sam Dr. Dedhia happens to be a close relation of one of my classmates. A great doc indeed; he always has the latest equipment. I take it that you're extremely pleased with the result...

EDIT: I would like to correct myself. LASIK is effective in correction of myopia with a visual acuity as bad as - 12 Diopters...But then again there are many known issues faced by those with powers greater than - 6, especially if they have astigmatism...

[Sam Kapasi]

Originally Posted by DocG

Now pain...No, not pain, discomfort, irritation yes, but no real pain.
The discomfort felt lasts for a few days, and is very intermittent in nature. It's not like pain over which sleep is lost, it comes and goes. HOWEVER the feeling to touch or rub one's eye is immense!

Exactly. There is no real pain to speak of post-op. Just a massive irritation.

And I was very thankful for those silly half-undas that I taped on my eyes. Without this I would have rubbed my eyes out on the first night itself!

Here is an idea of what they looked like

Source: amrainstruments.com

Originally Posted by DocG

PS: Sam Dr. Dedhia happens to be a close relation of one of my classmates. A great doc indeed; he always has the latest equipment. I take it that you're extremely pleased with the result...

Yes - I was very impressed by his professionalism and the equipment.

I am 100% happy, worry and complaint-free.

[AbhiJ]

I too had my Lasik in Dec 07.

One of the best decisions of my life.

Got it done in Calcutta. If anyone has any questions, feel free to shoot...

Btw.. Sam ... did you get any halo's around light sources at night after the surgery?

I did get them right after the surgery, and my doc told me they will go away gradually.

8 months in, they are practically gone...

Edit: I just remembered I have a video of a lasik surgery in action ... But I dont think its that great an idea to post it here...

[Sam Kapasi]

Originally Posted by Sam Kapasi

Friday, May2005

He then raised a little device in front of my open eye and said this was the Kerato-something - a machine was was going to cut my corneal flap open.
He aked me to calm down, making sure I had a good eyeful of the machine so my eyes would stop moving around and waited for a few minutes till my breath was normal again.

He then placed it on my open eye and did something. I knew what was going to happen as I had been informed.

But to see THROUGH the eye that was being operated was a completely different thing!

To my horror after the machine had cut through my cornea I saw the doctors gloved hand lift up the flap delicately with some instrument and turn it over to the side.

Upon reading this I realise that I seem to have missed an important step here.

After showing me the instrument that was going to cut through my eye, the good doctor placed a kind of suction instrument on my eye.

He said I would feel the suction and there would come a time when my vision would black out. I was to signal to him when that happened. When I did signal this, he made the cut immediately after that.

Then the suction was released and then he raised the flap of my cornea and turned it over to the side.

[Sam Kapasi]

Originally Posted by AbhiJ

Btw.. Sam ... did you get any halo's around light sources at night after the surgery?

I did get them right after the surgery, and my doc told me they will go away gradually.
.

I did not look at any light sources after the surgery for 3 days.

By the time 8 days had passed after the surgery, I had perfect vision, no halos or anything. Did not have them then and do not have them now.

8 months in, they are practically gone..

Does this mean that this halo thing is not entirely gone? 8 months later? This is news to me.

I was visually perfect in exactly 2 weeks. Not even a slight problem of any kind.

[Vid6639]

Originally Posted by AbhiJ

Btw.. Sam ... did you get any halo's around light sources at night after the surgery?

AbhiJ, my mom currently is facing the same symptoms. She got the laser surgery done for mild cataract and after that you don't need prescription glasses.

On the first eye she had no problem what so ever and she was out of the hospital the same day.

When we went for the second eye almost a year later she had terrible pain after the surgery. The doctor said it would pain for a few days. We took her home and the pain became unbearable. She ended up really sick and had to be readmitted cause of the pain. After pain killers and some rest she felt better the next day.

She kept complaining of blurry vision and the doc said it was because of the bubble and it would go away after a few days with the drops. Although the bubbles went away the vision was still blurry when there was a light source.

We then realised that the contraction and dilation of the pupil had stopped working. Her pupil would always be dilated leading to glare.

The doctor tried many drops and said that it was a rare case and sometimes it did happen. There is a 50% chance of it getting corrected as per him.

I'm not sure if this is similar to LASIK.

[DocG]

@vid6639 - Sorry, but your mother didn't undergo LASIK. The surgery must have been a Phacoemulsification which is the current norm for Cataract surgery. Not sure if I should go in depth, but feel free to PM me if you need anything. Ofcourse your mom will be under the care of a good ophthalmologist I'm sure, remember that they are always there to answer your queries.

NOTE: There is a surgery for cataracts known as Laser Phacoemulsification, however it is not really practiced in India

Originally Posted by vid6639

We then realised that the contraction and dilation of the pupil had stopped working. Her pupil would always be dilated leading to glare.

The doctor tried many drops and said that it was a rare case and sometimes it did happen. There is a 50% chance of it getting corrected as per him.

Would you mind disclosing information as to when and where she had her surgery. Also who was her doctor?

cheers:

[AbhiJ]

Originally Posted by Sam Kapasi

Does this mean that this halo thing is not entirely gone?

Well ... its gone 99%.

I get a very very slight outline of every light source (Maybe thats normal!!!) but I dont notice it until I REALLY try.