Recovery After LASIK Eye Surgery?

The majority of patients who have LASIK on a Friday are driving the next day and back to work on Monday. The only restrictions are to be a little extra careful with exceptional exercise(basketball, marathons, swimming,etc) for about a week or so. Your surgeon should give you a very thorough instruction list of "do's and don'ts" for the first one to two weeks.

LASIK patients are a very active group, so we don't hold you down very long. Air travel if fine after about two days, though sometimes the eyes can feel dry on the airplane, so we give extra tear drops to our travelers. I had PRK performed on myself in 1994. It was done on a late Thursday afternoon. I flew in an airplane on Friday and operated all day on Monday! So, I fit the profile of a very active Laser Vision Correction patient!

I typically tell patients they will see well enough to drive and go back to work the very next day. Hard to believe, but true. Of course, there are rare exceptions, more common with extremely severe preop prescriptions. If your job entails exposure to chemicals, or very dusty and dirty places, I recommend taking a day or two off.
I tell patients to avoid swimming for two weeks, and to avoid rubbing the eyes for a month.
Vision can vary for a few weeks to a few months as the cornea heals, but typically these variations are mild and patients have no trouble performing their usual activities without glasses and contacts.