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So, yesterday was not quite moment of truth day as far as my eyes were concerned but pretty close - I went for my consultation appointment to assess my suitability for radar tracked LASIK.
After a welcome lie in, Alex and I turned up at the clinic at 2pm. It's recommended that someone come with you because the dilation of your eye leaves you very sensitive to light and having someone to help you home is a good idea. We sat down and they provided a cup of coffee and an information pack on the testing I'd be undergoing. As well as details of what each test was for, it contained a sheet with details on each member of staff at the clinic and their qualifications.
( the tests, and my surgeon )
Finally, after a bit of examination of the results, it was confirmed that I am an excellent candidate for LASIK. I have a stable prescription. My cornea is nice and thick and under low pressure which means that there is plenty of space for treatment. My pupils, when dilated, are not too big, which means that I have a minimal risk of glare/haze effects, which apparently happen when your pupil dilates to larger than the treated area (similarly when your eyes dilate to larger than your lenses you also experience this). My retinal health is excellent, with no tears, scrapes or scarring, meaning that my chances of experiencing one of the more serious side effects such as retinal detachment is very low. All in all, the surgeon suggested that I would have about a 97% chance of ending up with 20/20 vision.
( risks )
Basically, there are always going to be risks with a procedure like this. From the consultation, however, it seems that my expectation of problems is very low and my chances of getting what I want are pretty high. So I'm going ahead with the treatment.
The one slight delay comes from the fact that I've been wearing my contact lenses for so long. Rigid gas permeable lenses actually deform your cornea slightly. Although I've had them out for 3 weeks, they want to be absolutely sure that my cornea has popped back into shape before proceeding with the treatment (otherwise, the chances of under or over correction are much higher as the cornea continues to bounce back and I'll probably need a repeat treatment). So they've recommended that I get some soft contact lenses to wear for a month and then come back and have the treatment. I could just wear my glasses, but we discovered in the examinations that the glasses prescription is really really out of date, which explains why I've been getting headaches! So, I'm off to the opticians on Wednesday for soft lenses, and then in the middle of April I'll be going under the laser. I can't wait!
After a welcome lie in, Alex and I turned up at the clinic at 2pm. It's recommended that someone come with you because the dilation of your eye leaves you very sensitive to light and having someone to help you home is a good idea. We sat down and they provided a cup of coffee and an information pack on the testing I'd be undergoing. As well as details of what each test was for, it contained a sheet with details on each member of staff at the clinic and their qualifications.
( the tests, and my surgeon )
Finally, after a bit of examination of the results, it was confirmed that I am an excellent candidate for LASIK. I have a stable prescription. My cornea is nice and thick and under low pressure which means that there is plenty of space for treatment. My pupils, when dilated, are not too big, which means that I have a minimal risk of glare/haze effects, which apparently happen when your pupil dilates to larger than the treated area (similarly when your eyes dilate to larger than your lenses you also experience this). My retinal health is excellent, with no tears, scrapes or scarring, meaning that my chances of experiencing one of the more serious side effects such as retinal detachment is very low. All in all, the surgeon suggested that I would have about a 97% chance of ending up with 20/20 vision.
( risks )
Basically, there are always going to be risks with a procedure like this. From the consultation, however, it seems that my expectation of problems is very low and my chances of getting what I want are pretty high. So I'm going ahead with the treatment.
The one slight delay comes from the fact that I've been wearing my contact lenses for so long. Rigid gas permeable lenses actually deform your cornea slightly. Although I've had them out for 3 weeks, they want to be absolutely sure that my cornea has popped back into shape before proceeding with the treatment (otherwise, the chances of under or over correction are much higher as the cornea continues to bounce back and I'll probably need a repeat treatment). So they've recommended that I get some soft contact lenses to wear for a month and then come back and have the treatment. I could just wear my glasses, but we discovered in the examinations that the glasses prescription is really really out of date, which explains why I've been getting headaches! So, I'm off to the opticians on Wednesday for soft lenses, and then in the middle of April I'll be going under the laser. I can't wait!
