A year and a half ago, I decided to have LASIK. LASIK stands for laser-assisted in-situ keratomileusis and it’s corrective eye surgery for glasses and contact wearers. My eyesight before the surgery was dreadful. Without corrective lenses, I wasn’t even able to discern who was standing directly in front of me. It drove me crazy!

After spending some time weighing the pros and cons, I went in for a consultation to see if I was even a candidate for surgery. A lot of things can determine whether or not you’re a candidate for LASIK and sometimes there is an alternative surgery with a longer recovery time called PRK that you can qualify for. I have a friend who wasn’t a LASIK candidate but went in for PRK and was very happy with her results!

Surgery

Obviously, I was a perfect candidate and I went through with the LASIK surgery. The surgery itself wasn’t really painful, it was actually just fairly awkward. Now, watching a video of it was disgusting if I’m being honest with you. I still have the video if anyone wants to see exactly what it entails but honestly, why? If it doesn’t hurt and it fixes your eyesight, why stress over the details? I did detail my experience on surgery day here, but I didn’t go into graphic detail. My experience was that I laid on a table and somebody put a machine all up in my face and messed with my eyeballs for a few minutes but I felt nothing.

Recovery

Recovery varies for everybody but I personally experienced no pain afterward, short of a little bit of slight burning with bright light for the first few hours afterward. I had gone out on some dates with my husband that same day. Within the first six months, I had extremely dry eyes which required me to use eye drops at least three times a day. As time went on, that dwindled down to less and less. After about a year, I can say that I’m down to using eye drops maybe once a week and it usually seems like it’s triggered by certain eye makeup.

Results

By the third month checkup, my eyesight was 20/20. That’s right, PERFECT. I threw away my glasses and contacts and never looked back (but if I had looked back, I’d have seen it clearly! Ha!). I just went for another eye appointment to confirm that I’m still 20/20 and have absolutely no issues. The level of convenience of my life has vastly improved and for some reason, it’s improved my confidence too. I just feel so grateful to be able to see with my own eyes!

For years, I considered LASIK but it felt like a hefty price for something that could potentially be damaging or not work at all. As it turns out, the chances of those things happening weren’t nearly as common as I’d assumed. Now, that eyesight campaign was sponsored for me, meaning that Dr. Silverman at EyeCare 20/20 up in northern New Jersey had given me the procedure free of charge in exchange for sharing my experience but this post isn’t part of that campaign. This post is just me reiterating the fact that LASIK was seriously a Godsend for me. If I’d known a decade ago that LASIK would give me 20/20 vision, I would have easily coughed up the several thousand for that convenience. With my glasses and Toric contact lenses, I’ve spent at least a couple thousand in the last decade anyway!

So here I am, reaching out to those of you who are tired of not being able to see, urging you to at least visit your eye doctor. Ask him or her those burning questions, weigh your own pros and cons, and give LASIK a real chance before just writing off the idea. I would hate to think that anyone is missing out on an opportunity to see the world clearly because of fear or feeling like it’s not worth it.