April 7th, 2011
Several years ago I had LASIK procedure for better vision. I had glasses and was ready to get rid of them. It seemed my vision just got worse and the only thing the eye doctor did was prescribe me stronger and stronger
glasses. I had been thinking about getting it for awhile, but the thing that pushed me over the edge was when I was interviewed in Houston to be a Secret Service guard. The interviewer told me it would be best to have the LASIK instead of wearing glasses because if I got into a fight and had my glasses knocked off, I would not be able to see to run after him or shoot him. I had horrible vision at the time and without glasses everything was completely blurry, so I scheduled an appointment for a consultation.
During the consultation the assistants did a whole bunch of eye tests, one of which was taking a picture of the inside of my eyeballs and printing it out. One of the qualifications for the surgery is to have your cornea a certain thickness, and mine barely hit the mark. I asked the assistant if this was the reason I felt my eyes were dry so much, and she said that having a thin cornea caused dry eyes, and having the surgery would cause my cornea to loose even more thickness.
We scheduled the appointment for the next week. I had somebody drive me and pick me up because the hospital would not let me drive home after surgery. The first thing that happened was I was led into a waiting room where an assistant put eyedrops into my eyes to get them ready for surgery. A cap was put on my head and I put my glasses away. Then I was told to go into a certain room where there was several people waiting for the surgery. There the surgeon told us exactly what to expect. He told us about the different eye drops and what they were for, and then he told us he would cut a flap in the cornea, lay it back, and have us look straight into the laser for 10 seconds. After that he would lay the flap back over the eye, smooth it out, and then it would be time for the next eye. The whole procedure for both eyes would be about 12 minutes.
I believe an hour passed before I was led into the surgical room. I was laid on a flat table where I was told to keep my eye shut and not look at the laser. My head was put in what was like a doughnut hole so I would
not move it. I laid there for what felt like 10 minutes or longer. When the surgeon and the assistants came in they told me I would not be able to move while the surgery was going on. The surgeon put a covering over my right eye and put a contraption on my left eye so I could not close it and proceeded to put a series of eyedrops in my eye. The first one made my eye numb, and the next drops made my vision turn black, then white. Next he took a little scalpel and made a flap in my cornea (mind you I am awake and watching from the other side of my eye). He laid it back and then moved his head and told me to stare at the laser for 10 seconds. The laser was a bright light that pulsed and made beating noises as it worked. I didn’t feel anything at all. Sure enough, after 10 seconds it stopped and the surgeon laid the flap back over my eye, smoothed it out, covered up that eye, and proceeded to work on my right eye. .
After the right eye was done, I immediately got off the table and was led into a darkened room where I sat and waited until the numbness in my eyes went away. During the wait an assistant gave me some sunglasses that I would wear for a couple of days, a pair of goggles to wear at night so as not to accidentally put any pressure on my eyes if I laid on my side, and some eye drops. At this time I could barely see anything, but right away I could tell my vision was very clear. After the numbness went away the surgeon came into the room and looked at my eyes to make sure the flap was without wrinkles. Unfortunately it was wrinkled, which was uncomfortable, so he numbed my eye again and smoothed it back out. He told me to go home and keep my eyes shut for 4 hours and that would help heal the flap.
It’s amazing how something like that can exhaust you. When I went home I wound up sleeping for a lot more than four hours. I wore the sunglasses for several days, probably a lot longer than I needed to, but my eyes just felt too sensitive to the light. My vision was perfect and when I went in the next day for a checkup (I drove myself), I was 20/20 in both eyes, whereas before I was 20/400. The surgery did make my eyes drier than they were before and I use a lot of eye drops and I will probably be using prescription eye drops in the near future.
As for the Secret Service job, I decided it just wasn’t for me after pondering my little self getting into fights with fists and guns, moving to Washington D.C., and working night shifts. However I will always be glad I had that interview which prompted me to have this surgery.