This account of my experience covers everything after the initial lasek procedure. If you would like to read about the actual lasek procedure itself, please view my previous blog page.

1. Day 1 post Lasek : This was the worst day by a long way. It was the only day I felt incapable of doing anything and I barely got out of bed. The morning was the absolute worst. I couldn’t open my eyes without pain. I felt like it was hard to keep them open, like I’d been chopping onions, they were watering and felt really uncomfortable and painful to open them. Close up vision was the worst. I couldn’t see anything on my phone or laptop, even making text huge. I just wanted to sleep and I sleep all day on and off. I didn’t know how I’d get through the day. It seemed so far off when you are feeling so rotten. I didn’t want to eat either. I just generally felt ill.

2. Day 2 and 3: These days were for me better than day 1. My eyes still felt painful and uncomfortable constantly. But the watering and feeling of not being able to open them was not as bad. Waking first thing was always felt the hardest time of day. This is still the case weeks later. But you get used to it and don’t think much of it after a while. My vision had not improved and although I didn’t expect a miraculous recovery, I thought each day there would be signs of improvement which there wasn’t.

3. Day 8: Each day the pain and discomfort eased. I work on computers all day for work and by day 7 there had been no improvement in my vision which had me really worried. I had initially booked so I had 6 days off work but I could not have returned and had to book an additional 2. I’d had my procedure on a Thursday so on the following Friday I returned to work. I didn’t really feel up to it but had been told I couldn’t take sick or unpaid so any more time would have eaten into my annual leave too much. It was a really hard day. I felt really down as both close up and distance vision show no signs of improvement by this time. Even zoomed fully on my laptop I could barely see and needed a magnifying glass to help, something I wasn’t sure I should really use. I called the clinic and told them my concerns. They said I just needed to give it more time. They were not worried. They did however tell me as I was over 40 I would need reading glasses from this moment for the rest of my life. This was not something I was told and came as a huge shock. I know everyone needs reading glasses as they get older but being early 40s and having perfect reading vision, I did not think the laser surgery would be the cause of needing glasses for something else! For this first week I had my phone on maximum zoom.

4. Week 2: Day 9 and 10 were weekend days for me. I do really feel not having to stare at the screen all day and using my eyes in different ways and different environments really helped. I finally was sure there was a small improvement in my vision. I had various markers, including number plates I could see from my front window. I printed an eye chart. so I could test each day. Although it wasn’t obvious on a day to day basis, I knew both distance and close up vision had improved a bit over these 2 days. There was gradual improvement over this week. Discomfort was low other than dry eye feeling, like I’d had contact lenses in too long. Vision in the left eye was better than the right.

5. Week 3: 3 days into week 3, On my iPhone, there is a text size setting. Out of 7 sizes, in week 1 I had text size on maximum and dropped this a couple of stages throughout week 2. By the end of week 3, day 3 I could actually read the smallest size. However as the day goes on my vision gets worse and the smallest size doesn’t feel comfortable anyway. I am using the middle size setting. I also switched on the bold text setting which really helps by creating more contrast. Again, although not completely comfortable due to the double vision effect, I can see a word document at 100%. I would say I can probably read a number plate at the legal driving distance, however there is an unclear blur to everything and I don’t feel confident enough yet. The eyes feel very dry at times, especially at night and my vision really gets worse by the evening. But there’s no constant pain. I have one eye feeling maybe mild pain and discomfort at times and especially when they are closed or I’ve just woken. My vision in one eye is much better than the other. I am still hoping the right eye will catch up. I still have the double vision and when I looked up at the crescent moon I could see 2 moons!.

6. Week 4: At the start of week 4, I think there has been more improvement with the left eye and its just the double vision/halo affect that is causing issues. But I feel the vision is not far off in this eye. The right seems to be lagging quite far behind it. When trying to read the eye chart I downloaded, with both eyes I can just about see 20/20 but not perfectly. But just looking with the right I can’t even see the large 4 letters near the top. This means there hasn’t been noticable improvement here from the first week. Close up with the left is now pretty clear but again with the right everything is blurred. I hope its just taking longer with the right but I am still a bit worried. I am down to one drop now of the anti-inflamatory. My follow up appointment is next week.

To be continued…