What Happens During My LASIK Procedure?
What am I in for? What will it be like? How long will it take? How can I prepare myself?
The key word for your LASIK procedure from Dr. Leavitt is “Relax.” Here’s exactly how it will go:
First we’ll ask you to set aside two days for your LASIK – the day of the procedure itself and the next day when you’ll come back to see us on your first post-op visit.
You should expect to be with us 2 hours on the day of your procedure. Some centers rush you through, but Dr. Leavitt is never in a hurry when it comes to surgery and he insists on verifying every important detail on the day of the procedure itself.
You’ll arrive, we’ll check you in and get the final testing and paperwork out of the way. We’ll provide oral relaxation medication, and then settle you down in the pre-op suite.
Most of us here have had LASIK ourselves so we really do know what it’s like and we’ll help you feel calm and relaxed.
We’ll give you some eye drops to prepare your eyes and give them time to take effect. Then we’ll take you into the laser suite.
You’ll be in the laser suite for around 15 minutes. Dr. Leavitt will talk you through every step of the procedure, and tell you exactly what is going to happen all along the way. He’ll use two lasers – the first for creating the flap and the second for correcting the corneal irregularities.
The actual procedure takes about 5-6 minutes per eye. You’ll have a small light to focus your attention, and you should know that there’s virtually nothing you can do that might mess up the procedure. Dr. Leavitt uses lasers with advanced eye tracking technology so that any slightest eye movement is detected, and if you were to turn your head or move your eye out of range the laser would instantly stop until your eye was back in exact position again. Lots of folks worry that they’ll blink or twitch and ruin everything but that is simply not an issue.
You’ll feel slight pressure on your eye as the lasers do their work and no pain. And that’s it. You’ll start seeing better right away; patients are usually amazed to read the clock on the wall of the laser suite immediately after the procedure. Expect your vision to be somewhat blurry for a few hours while the eye drops wear off and your cornea rehydrates. We’ll take you back into the pre-op suite and we’ll ask you to relax there for 30 minutes to an hour, and rest your eyes. Dr. Leavitt will make one final check to ensure everything is fine and you’re done for the day.
For the rest of the day you should rest your eyes as much as possible to help the healing process get underway. You can go out to eat, watch a little TV, or just take a nap. We’ll provide eye drops for you to use and protective goggles for when you sleep. Some folks find this the hardest part of the whole experience because we’ll ask you to sleep on your back, or recline on pillows, or in a chair so there’s no risk of bumping your eyes while you’re asleep.
We’re on call 24/7 if you need us. Your eyes might feel a little dry after the procedure but you should feel no pain at all. Most folks have a long and restful sleep the night of the procedure and wake to a whole new world the next morning.
