i'm envious, having to wear my glasses all the time... my vision is not as bad as yours was, but bad enough i cant drive without my glasses

The transformaton has been amazing. ^^

also i'm terrified at the idea of having lasers shot into my eyes while conscious ^^

Lasers, knives, yeah.

I'm right there with you.

The procedure I had didn't involve any blades, at least. All done with lasers. ^^

No, the razor blades were how they used to do it. Lasik was the first all-laser treatment (IIRC), prior to that they still used a knife to make the flap in your cornea.

The original lasik procedure used a microkeratome to cut the flap. The kind with just lasers, like I had, goes by a bunch of names. All-laser lasik, epi-lasik, bladeless lasik, and smiliar.

*Nod nods*
That's the kinds I meant.

This part is a little freaky, admittedly. You do have to have your eyes lasered open, then precisely lasered again to reshape the cornea. I think videos of the procedure are way more scary than actually having it done, though.

What did it feel like?

They numb your eyes with drops before you have it done, so you actually don't feel anything! If you don't know anything about what's actually happening, I'd say that the experience is similar to having contacts put in your eyes, everything going black for a minute, then very very blurry, then a machine whirs for a bit while you stare at a blinking light, and then you can see. ^^

crazy stuff man XD

I know, right? It's a wild experience, but so worth it.

aliens!!

Benevolent, eye-fixing aliens!

It feels like nothing, as you don't have an nerve endings (that feel "pain") in that part of your eye.

Or so I've been told.

There's numbing drops, too, but that might just be to make it easier to stick all the doodads against your eye.

Thats great news! :D
While I am quite concerned about the long-term effects of lasik for minor corrections, it seems that the improvement jump youve experienced sounds like it was totally worth it. ^_^

There are certainly possible side effects that may not be worth the risk for minor corrections. Still, though, going from unable to make out my own face in a mirror to perfect vision? Amazing, Spitty. ^^

I've considered it, but I'm not comfortable with being awake for the procedure ("Get away from me with that knife! I don't care if it's made of light!") and it can't be done any other way.

It certainly wasn't the most calming thing I've ever done. The only saving grace is that you can't see what's happening while it's going on. ^_~

That's a very silly joke

Maybe, but it's also kind of true! Your vision is black while they're making the flap, and everything is super, suuuuuper blurry while they're doing the actual correction. You really can't see what they're poking at you with once it gets started.

woooot i ve been thinking of having such a procedure in the future, who knew it could be that interesting :D

gratz btw ^^

Thanks! It was expensive, but tooootally worth it. ^^

how expensive is expensive?

$4,000, and it's considered an elective procedure, so most insurance plans won't pay a dime.

I understand that you can get it for much less, but I went with a very well-respected shop with the latest equipment. A couple of years from now, the money won't mean a thing to me. Having my vision bungled on a cut-rate procedure, though? That might just stick around in my mind for a while.

Hey that's wonderful

Thanks! It really is fantastic. ^^

I've thought about one day getting such surgery but honestly I don't think I could ever do it, I'm terrified to put even contacts or even eyedrops into my eyes because in my mind they just don't belong and the eye is pretty much one giant nerve. Let alone being numbed in the eye then the laser surgery itself then then recovery and having to do the drops to treat the eye after...to me that is just terrifying and stuff. How did you manage to overcome such fears? Or did you never have such fears?

I had trouble with eye drops before, but not out of fear, really. It was really hard for me to suppress the spasming blink reflex so I could actually use drops. Surprisingly enough, I was practically an old pro with drops two days after the procedure, just from having to use them so much. I was amazed at how quickly that went away.

The only fear of the procedure that I really had was of the possible side effects, like halos and decreased night vision. My night vision has been unaffected, fortunately. While I always had some halos in my vision, they are slightly worse than before in one eye, but not enough to impact my life. The doctors say it should clear up in several months.

As for the recovery, it's very mild, all things considered. You have someone drive you home after the procedure and then sleep for four hours with plastic eye shields on so you don't scratch in your sleep. You wear those eye shields while sleeping for a week, and use medicated drops during the day for that same week. You use artificial tears for a while afterwards (duration depends from person to person. About five months for me), but you use less and less each time.