28yr Old Female Lasik Myopic Procedure - San Diego, CA

Ok, so like many people wanting LASIK, I am tired of wearing contacts/glasses. I began wearing contacts at 18, and honestly had bad eye hygiene, would sleep in them sometimes. I wore them until about age 25 when I noticed I was getting some pterygium. I was unsure if they were caused by my contact use or not. My optometrists never said anything about them though. I soon developed dry eyes, again, unsure if it was due to the contact wear or because I am a heavy computer user. I started wearing glasses, more or less for the past 4 years now. I wear them for driving and also at work. I am a phlebotomist, so I always wear them when I am drawing blood, but my glasses would always slide down because my nose area is oily. This was very bothersome, I mean, who wants the person drawing their blood to suddenly have their glasses fall off? I also have a flat face and big nose, so finding the right glasses was always a drag. Either they would lay too close to my eyes, or they would pinch my bridge due to my wide nose.

9/4/25 I went in for my consultation. The place I went to was having a Groupon deal, and I decided i'd check it out. I know, most people say dont go for deals or what is cheapest, but after reading their reviews I didnt really see any bad reviews. They complained, not about the procedure or the outcome, but about being treated like an assembly line. I did feel this a bit at my consultation, I was there with 3 other people with the same appointment as myself. But it didnt take that long to be seen. It seemed that when i was getting one test done with the medical assistant, the other patient was seeing the manager, while the other was with the optometrist. It wasnt that big of a deal. So I got all my tests done and they concluded that i was a good candidate. Even with my dry eyes which in their opinion werent severe at all. I honestly feel the dryness by the end of the day when I have been in front of the computer the longest, or in dry weather or wind. Sometimes at night they become red. This is one of the things I am most worried about following my procedure, that my eyes will get even more dry. I really hope not :/ My procedure is this Friday the 11th.

9/11/15
So on the day of the procedure I was there for about 2 hours. I had my eyes re-checked and measured, saw the optometrist one more time as well, and spoke to the manager to get payment and everything else set up. I told them about my interest in getting punctual plugs put in. The medical assistant told me it would be $200 for the semi-permanent ones, or $200 for the permanent ones. This was the price for me since I purchased the groupon, regular price was $500 and that would be my price as well if I waited over 2 weeks to get them put in. Because of my concern about my dry eyes, I felt that this would be a good investment especially since i had heard Lasik makes your eyes even drier. I hadn't spoken to my husband about getting those in, so i told them i would wait another week so that I could speak to him about it. I was then "in line" to get the procedure done. There were 2 people ahead of me. They cleaned my eyes first with a solution and put cloth booties over my feet as well as a cloth hairnet.

I went in, the doctor looked at my eyes, and had me lay on the table. It had a hole on the headrest. Stupid me forgot I was wearing one of those hair claws and i wondered why i was so uncomfortable. I then remembered, took off the claw, and laid back down. He told me to just relax and lay still. I don't remember the exact order of these things since they happened so fast, but this is basically what happened: I had some drops put on my right eye, and my left eye was covered. They put some tape on my top lid to hold it open, and they did the same for my bottom lid. Then some kid of forceps were put in to hold my eyelids both open. A red and green spotted light came on and i was told to look at it. I felt like my eyeball was going to pop out for a couple of seconds as he was telling the med assist to turn on the suction. My eye went black for a couple seconds. At one point the machine also turned on, there was a whirling of sound, and then i smelled something burning. Then my eyesight was back. The dr came and started rubbing my eye. It was kind of surreal. It was like watching tv, where you see things being done, but since you can't feel it AT ALL, it feels like you are the spectator. He seemed to be putting my flap back together, adding more drops, using a tiny squeegee(i dont really know if he was, but it looked like it). He then wiped my eyes and covered it up. He then went and did the same thing to my left eye. After the cleaned that eye, he had me stand up and sit in front of his eye machine thingy so he could check both flaps were back in place. They were fine and he gave me some glasses to wear while telling me to try and sleep for a couple of hours, then start my prescribed eyedrops in 4 hours.

I went home, took some nyquil, and tried to sleep. They gave me some eye covers with medical tape so that i could sleep on my back and protect my eyes in case i rolled over. I tried to sleep, but because of the heat it was hard. I began to get a headache after about 2 hours, and my eyes were sort of throbbing. Mild, but it was still a pain. My eyes were also watering a lot. After a couple hours I took off the eye covers and got my first look. I could see perfectly. It really did feel amazing to not see blurry anymore. But then I looked at myself in the mirror. My eyes were bloodshot, and i had a red dot on each eye, im guessing from the suction cups. I had seen pictures of other people on here with them, so i kinda expected to get them as well. Thankfully i had told my bosses at work on Friday that i might come in on Monday with bruised eyes, so they won't get shocked when they see me. They are not too bad, and i know they will go away, but i was hoping i would be lucky enough not to get them. My left eye feels great, no pain whatsoever, but my right eye felt as if there was a tiny piece or lint or something. Not all the time, just randomly every hour or so. Anyways, I put my drops in, and went to bed. It was around 9pm by then.

Today 9/12/15
So i woke up and i looked in the mirror. The redness had completely gone away, although i still had the bruise dots. I tend to get eye redness throuought the day regardless since i use the computer a lot and by the end of the day my eyes get bloodshot. By morning it is always gone. Seemed like the same happened today. I went to my 1st day appointment today at 7:30. They checked my eyes again, and told me that all of my numbers were at 0. I did not really know what that meant, and they told me that that was what they were aiming for, but not most people have all zeros by their first day. So they said my eyes were healing pretty well. They did tell me my bruises would go away in a couple of weeks. My vision was checked, and they looked closely st my flaps to make sure they were in place. Everything looked great. I honestly feel really great. I went home and continued my drops, as well as the systane they gave me. I can honestly say that the systane drops are amazing. I bought some generic drops from CVS a couple of days before the procedure to try them on my dry eyes, but i felt that those lubricated for a bit, then left them feeling funny and back to dry, and the redness happened by the end of the day anyways. The systane seems to keep them moisturized for a while. It is not 7:30 and my eyes are still white! This has literally never happened. I dunno why i never used drops in my eyes before. I mean, i did, but i always got the wrong kind i guess. I feel really good about the Lasik procedure so far(minus the bruising). I don't know if the procedure is going to make my eyes drier in time or not, but i have high hopes. I am waiting until my one week appointment to decided whether to get punctual plugs or not, but i am 90% sure i will as a precautionary measure for the future.

So it's 6 days in. I stupidly went to what I thought was my appointment today, only for them to tell me it is next Thursday. Great. Anyways, things have been good so far. I see perfectly still. I have been taking the Theratears dry eye vitamins, I bought a pack of 2 on Amazon. They were a bit pricey, but there were many good reviews, so I figured it was worth a try. I haven't felt as much dryness as I thought I would. I have been doing a lot of reading, and to me it seems that more complications occur when the prescription is higher. My prescription was only -1.50, which means that there was less tissue they had to remove from my eyes. I suppose this is why I havent gotten any side effects really?

Using the computer is one of my complaints. My eyes tend to feel strained more easily, especially because of the brightness. They told me my eyes would be more sensitive to light for a while, and I am hoping this goes away soon. It's only been 6 days, so im sure that will improve as time goes on. Turning the brightness down really helps when im on my laptop. I also installed the leo program, which tells me when to look around, take breaks away from the computer. I have been using the Systane drops every day, they really help. I was using 2 vials a day. They are pretty expensive, I bought the box of 60 at CVS for 29$, but i was able to print out a coupon for $3 from their website.

My second complaint is my eye bruises. They have gotten sooo much better than the first day, so im hoping they are gone soon. They make me feel so self conscious, especially at work! None of my patients have asked, but i'm sure they are wondering what is wrong with them.