Having LASIK Today

In about 6 hours I'll be having my eyeballs cut open and shot with a laser.  What are you doing today?

I've had horrible eyesight my entire life.  I've had contacts since probably 7th grade, which would have put me around 12 years old.  I'm 32 now, so if you're great at math like me, that's 20 years with contacts.

And it all could end in 6 hours.

There ARE risks.  As I understand it, these days they are pretty good at excluding people who aren't good candidates for the proceedure and minimizing risk.  But still 1 in 200 people don't heal properly after the surgery and their vision is pretty much messed up forever.  And by "messed up forever" I don't mean "will still have to wear glasses"...I mean  they get stuck with very poor vision uncorrectable by lenses.

So that gives me a 99.5% chance of success.

I'm playing Russian Roulette with a 200 chamber gun.

See you later!

(hopefully) 

Update 7/23: It's the next morning, I'd say that everything went pretty well.  It's not perfect.

Immediately after the surgery there was a significant amount of "fog" in my vision which they said is normal.

The surgeon said it would mostly go away after I took a nap and should be fully gone by the next morning (this morning).  He was right about that...it's almost all gone, but there's definitely still some fog in my vision.

Other potential side effects of LASIK are the "Starburst" and "Halo" effects:

When I look at a light in a dark room (for example the white clock on my DVR in my "man cave" or white text on a black tv screen) I currently see a decent amount of Starburst and a significant amount of Halo.

They do say that it can fade as the eyes heal, so I'm hopeful for that!

It's also a little annoying to look at the computer to type.  Not nearly as sharp as it was before with contacts or glasses.

To be sure, though, my vision is dramatically improved.  There's no way I would have been able to sit down and type this without any contacts or glasses.  I can see very well in general, and I currently don't regret the surgery at all.  I have a follow up appointment this evening, and hopefully it will just continue to get better!

Update 8/1.  I can basically see perfectly.  The starburst and halo are almost totally gone, and whatever is left isn't really noticeable anymore (it's still there, but it seems normal now).  I can't believe I can see this well without contacts/glasses.  Amazing!