LASIK : Patient Experiences

Active Mother of Three Throws Her Contacts Away

When 10-year-old Nash slammed an inside pitch over the left field fence in a recent kids' baseball game, Mom Laura Blackley, an ardent fan, responded with a gasp of disbelief on the heels of a predictable shriek of pleasure.

"The pleasure came from my son's great hit," says Mrs. Blackley, "but the greatest surprise of all was that I could follow the flight of the ball from the time it left the bat until it cleared the fence! That was amazing!"

Even now, some months after a visit to North Carolina Eye, Ear, Nose & Throat for LASIK vision correction surgery, Mrs. Blackley is still adjusting to the fact that she has perfect 20-20 vision in both eyes. "Every once in awhile, I go to take out my contact lenses-but of course, they've long since been discarded. But I had worn those hard contacts for nearly 30 years, and taking care of them was a deeply ingrained habit."

Encouraged by her husband, Lennie, Mrs. Blackley first went to NCEENT in late January. "I had explored the Internet, gathering information about LASIK, and I was able to talk with a few people who had the procedure with great success. By the time I went to see Dr. Perry, I was ready both physically and emotionally for what turned out to be a very simple and wonderful procedure."

The LASIK surgery was performed on February 18th, requiring less than 15 minutes for each eye. As she entered the operating room suite, Mrs. Blackley's uncorrected vision was 20-200 in each eye. "I was very calm throughout the entire experience," she remembers "I kept concentrating on green light, red light, no light. There was absolutely no pain, during or after the procedure."

"Immediately after the operation, I felt certain I could see better. As advised, I went home to rest. The following morning, I came in for a checkup, driving myself. From the instant I woke up, my world suddenly was bright and clear. Actually, one eye was very clear, the other a bit fuzzy. But by the time I got to the office, my vision was perfect. And that's the way it tested: 20-20 in both eyes. It was just absolutely amazing."

Laura Blackley is looking forward to an active summer with her husband and three children. "My 10-year-old wants to take scuba lessons when he's 12. I told him I would do it with him, but I knew I didn't want to have contacts in my eyes, because I've done that with goggles and it's a pain."

"All this time that I've had kids and taken them to the pool in the summer, they'd beg me to swim with them. And I couldn't, because I had my hard contact lenses in. I used to love to swim underwater. I could hold my breath a long time. They've never seen me do that. This summer, they will."