In December 1999 I had LASIK laser eye surgery and quit wearing glasses for the first time in 30 years. The results are nothing short of miraculous. My vision now is 20/25--just a hair short of perfect without glasses or contact lenses needed at all (you can legally drive without glasses at 20/40 or better). Before LASIK my uncorrected vision was somewhere in the range of 20/800--off the end of scale. I could see clearly only about 6 inches without glasses. Now that's reversed and the first 6 inches are blurry and everything beyond is clear. 

I had been told that there was a 50/50 chance that I'd need reading glasses after the surgery; that I'd lose my close-up vision as result of the LASIK. That had me doing some reconsideration, but I decided the trade-off was worth it. It didn't happen and I think my near-in vision is better than before. I had just gotten a prescription for bifocals--and that's a bit of a smack at age 40--but I think part of that was due to the glasses I was wearing. I certainly have no need of reading glasses now.

Husband, Geo, had his eyes done in May and they came out even better, 20/20 with 20/15 in one eye ("I can see through walls" he told me with delight the next day). His vision was better than mine to start with--only wore his glasses to drive--so better results were to be expected. 

The better your sight is to begin with the better end results you can expect. My results were better than could be statistically expected. The quality of results in LASIK is directly tied to the skill of the doctor, too, so always check your doctor's track record. You want a doctor who had done at least  300 procedures. As LASIK procedures become more standardized--it's still new and somewhat subject to individual innovations--this will be a less significant factor. For now, however, choose the doctor by his results, not by his prices. Your eyesight is no place for bargain shopping. 

Also, you want a doctor who will tell you "no." You want a doctor who only wants patients who will have the best results. 

Both Geo and I had our eyes done by Dr. Michael Schermer and are extremely happy with the results. His web page is at lasereyes.com. 

Side-effects...

--It took about a month before I quit automatically reaching for my glasses as soon as I woke up. And, by the same token, trying to take them off when I went to bed. 

--The world no longer has an "off" switch. This was something that took me by surprise. There's an off switch effect to taking off one's glasses; a sort of unspoken statement that "I'm done dealing with the world now." This is gone. I had gotten the flu about a week after the second eye was done and wanted desperately to shut off the world and couldn't. On the plus side, I could see the tv from the bed which I hadn't been able to do from before. 

--No more big fuzzy Christmas lights. It's an odd thing to think of, but I've had other people comment to me on this very thing. 

What it's like...

(pictures are from a videotape they made of my actual surgery)

First of all, it's scary. 

You're letting someone mess with your eyesight when you really don't have to. And, to do it, they have to cut a flap in the surface of your eye. You're wide awake when they do it and it all depends on you holding your eyes still. Sounds fun, huh?

The good news is it doesn't hurt, and it doesn't take very long. They gave me a valium--which I don't think did anything; not even sure it would have had time to take effect. They put anesthetic drops in my eyes along with all sorts of other drops and disinfectants. 

They spread the eyelids open so I couldn't blink. This is the only somewhat uncomfortable part. The good side is I could blink to my heart's content and nothing happened, yet the blink impulse was placated. 

The flap-cutting device was put in place and pressed downward. When they did this everything went black and I couldn't see anything. There was a buzz and the flap was cut. Truly, I didn't feel it, but this is the hardest part because I knew what was being done. 

The doctor (who described every step along the way) moved the flap back. He asked if I could see the red light. No, all I could see was a blur that looked like an out-of-focus version of the old cyber movie "Tron." So he told me to stare into the center of the blurriness. The he activated the laser. 

There was a snapping sound--still no pain at all--and, this can be a bit icky, a burnt-flesh smell. Yes, indeed, that's bits of your eye being burned away that you'll smell. The laser portion only take a matter of seconds to do. 

The flap was repositioned and "squeegeed" down (his word for it). Smooth placement of the flap is the most important part of the procedure. Once in place it has quite a bit of suction on it and--despite the plethora of irrational fears about it--is extremely unlikely to come lose or fall off or do anything else. 

Because of a complication with my eyes (a slight side-to-side flicker) the doctor decided to do them one at a time, with a week in between the procedures. Unless your doctor recommends it, do both eyes at once. That week of extremely unbalanced vision was a nightmare. For a few days I had a contact lens for the eye that hadn't been done, which was okay, but contacts have to be left out several days before LASIK so I tried to wear glasses with one lens in. That didn't work. I couldn't drive; could barely see well enough to function. 

Because of doing my eyes one at a time I didn't get the "miracle of sight" reaction until the morning after the second eye was done. Then it was, indeed, amazing. I went to sleep (they gave me a sleeping pill that put me out for about 16 hours) and when I woke up I could see! I do recommend doing nothing but sleeping afterwards, with sleeping pills if necessary. My sister had her eyes done in March and did not sleep. Her eyes were very painful that afternoon and evening (other than that she was thrilled--she hadn't been able to get 20/20 even with contacts). 

The surgeries were done on Thursdays on the theory that one would take Friday off from work and have the weekend as well to recover and adapt. I didn't have that luxury; had to work Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. It was not easy, with uncertain vision, especially in the dry air of a tv station (keeping your eyes moist is critical). The new, corrected vision may be technically fine, but it is a bit different. My depth perception was slightly different and took some acclimatization. I also had considerable "haloing" at first. This is a haloing around lights, and is most likely to happen with large corrections (Geo didn't have this happen). At first night driving was difficult (it was like looking through a very greasy windshield) but within a month it had disappeared almost entirely.