My Personal Experience with LASIK Complications

In 1998 I had the chance to "throw away my glasses" and undergo LASIK. At the time, LASIK was not an FDA-approved procedure, but was being performed "off-label" on lasers that had been approved for another refractive procedure called PRK. LASIK is performed by cutting a flap into the cornea, flipping it back, burning tissue from the middle layer of the cornea (called the stroma), returning the flap to its original position, smoothing it into place and wait for healing to take place. Many patients get up from the table able to read the clock across the room, and by the next morning are quite happy with their vision, even able to drive themselves home after seeing the surgeon for their first postoperative check.

I was rather nearsighted, moreso than most people who undergo the procedure, and as such knew I was at higher risk for problems. At the time, this correction was not approved in the United States but I had access to a surgeon who had experimental software that could correct nearsightedness as high as mine. I had my procedure done, went to the hotel to sleep off the valium, and dreamt of nothing. I'd been wearing my glasses instead of my contact lenses for four months before my procedure, and would even dream blurry because my vision was so bad...I couldn't wait until the next day.

When I awoke, I pulled back the curtains from the windows of the hotel, and I could see the buildings across the street. I was so happy! When I went to the clinic, they took the plastic shields from my eyes (they had little holes in them through which I could see) and tested my vision. It was only 20/400 in each eye...that's good enough to see the biggest E on the chart. Nothing they could do could make it any better. It was a very scary time for me! Eventually I had plugs put into my eyes to allow the tears to stay in longer, and my vision settled into the 20/30-20/70 range. It was functional vision, and there were no glasses I could put on that could correct it. As I wrote in a previous article, I had higher order aberrations that could not be corrected by conventional glasses. At that time, though, we didn't know what higher order aberrations were. I accepted my vision and moved on. I didn't tell many people of my problems.

There is a small Internet presence of people like me who've been harmed by refractive surgery. Many of them harbor huge resentment against their surgeons. While I do not, I do know some of the "training" these doctors receive about "selling" the procedures, and some of it makes me quite ill. Nevertheless I shall never hold my surgeon accountable for what happened to me. My surgery was a success. My flaps healed beautifully, I did not and do not have any medical complications, and I have little to no residual refractive error, which is somewhat of a miracle when I consider where I started. Back in 1998 it was not as clear that people with large pupils, as I have, would have more difficulty at night. As time went on pupil size began to become a factor.

By happy coincidence I met one of the gurus, if not THE guru, of the post-refractive-surgery contact-lens world. He measured the higher-order aberrations in my eyes, which were sky-high given how large my pupils are. At night, the moon looked like a fuzzy ball with four ghosted fuzzy balls around it, and a halo around the whole thing. My corneas were so aberrated that light would just scatter instead of focusing, and I had an awful time. During the day it was a nuisance not to be able to make out street signs and such, but at night...indescribable. This wonderful doctor fit me with large gas-permeable lenses. They don't have an actual power in them, but the way they are designed they eliminate my higher order aberrations to an unbelievable degree. I go outside with these lenses and look at the moon...and I see one moon. My vision still isn't perfect and I can't expect that it will be. But I can function at night in a way I've not been able to do since 1998. I am so pleased by the comfort and quality of my vision. This doctor has helped many like me, and I am grateful every day that I found him.