LASIK : Patient Experiences

LASIK a Quality of Life Issue for Young Mother

One of my most vivid memories from elementary school is the teasing that came my way. I was called "four-eyes" from the time I was five, because I wore heavy, horn-rimmed glasses.

When I reached 9th grade, I begged Mom for contacts, and I wore them for some years before they started to irritate my eyes. So it was back to glasses. At the most, I could wear contacts once a week to church, but no more than that without severe irritation. My vision without glasses or contacts was 20:800; the world was one great big blur. I had astigmatism in both eyes.

My husband encouraged me over a five-year period to check out vision correction surgery, and finally I got up the courage to see Dr. Dwight Perry for an evaluation. He said I was an excellent candidate.

I had the surgery on a Tuesday night in June. I remember everything. It is totally imprinted on my mind. I trusted Dr. Perry, and at the same time, I was afraid to entrust my vision to anyone! Now, on the other side of the procedure, I can say truthfully that I couldn't entrust my vision to anybody else except Dr. Perry and his staff. I know there are lots of qualified and good doctors that do this procedure. But I've never met a more professional, but still kind and gentle and compassionate doctor and staff. When I lay down in the chair to have the procedure done, one of the nurses, Judy, sat beside me. I had a sheet over me because I was a little cool. Judy held my hand and kept that human contact. It was very comforting.

Dr. Perry put the eye-opener in place. It wasn't painful, just unusual. Actually, I had no pain whatsoever in the whole surgery, or at any time afterward -- and on some level, I expected pain.

When Dr. Perry began, he told me I would see different shapes and different colors of light, like looking through a kaleidoscope, and I did. Then he told me at one point that everything would go dark, and it did. At another point he said, "I just need for you to be still and we're just going to sit here quietly for a minute or two." He put drops in my eyes to prevent swelling. He talked me through everything he was going to do, everything he was doing, and everything he had just done. It all happened much faster than I thought possible. It was over really before I even knew it had started. Unbelievable. Right after the procedure, I'm just opening my eyes, to see what I can see. Things are a bit blurry. Of course because of the Valium, I'm a little bit groggy.

My husband and my friend Karen drove me home. I could see fine. At home, I went upstairs, washed up, got ready for bed, and then had a deep, sound sleep, wearing the eye shield Dr. Perry provided. I remember so clearly waking up the next morning. I was in awe, just taking it all in. Lying there, looking outside, seeing the trees, free of the heaviness of my glasses. It was a quiet, wonderful time, a time to rest and recover. Later, I retrieved my daughter from her overnight visit with friends, and drove myself to Dr. Perry's office. My eyes checked out perfectly. That evening, I resumed my normal routine: prepared dinner, gave my daughter a bath, put her to bed.

Now it's been over a month since the surgery, and every day is a new, wonderful surprise. I love to be outside. My daughter and I love to go to my parents' home and work in their vegetable garden. And we also love to pick strawberries. How wonderful to do this without the heaviness of glasses sliding down my perspiring nose! How wonderful to be able to swim and see where I am going! And how wonderful to be able to cuddle with my daughter and roughhouse with her, without glasses getting in the way. Actually, since I had this surgery, a couple of people, including my husband, have told me I have very pretty eyes, and that never happened before! I guess they were just dominated by my glasses. But those comments are nice to hear.

I had fears coming into the procedure, fears about losing my sight and fears about money. I've moved through that first fear and emerged with great trust and faith in Dr. Perry's ability. Actually, I found out about him from people in my church, Homestead Heights Baptist Church here in Durham. Many of them knew of my interest in LASIK vision correction surgery, and many have had it done -- and everyone has gone to Dr. Perry. So many people recommended him to me.

I let concerns about finances delay this procedure for a long time, and looking back, I would never do that again. I was reluctant to finance the cost, although that is an option. But now I realize that people finance their houses, they finance their cars. People find money to do everything that they really, really want to do, whether it's a hobby or a vacation. And what a gift this is, to have excellent eyesight restored, something I've been missing since the age of five! This is truly a quality of life issue, and I would do whatever I had to do, financially, to have this as a gift to myself. It is a simple procedure, a painless procedure, and without question, it is worth $100 a month or $200 a month or whatever it takes to make it happen.

I encourage everyone who is a good candidate for LASIK to put aside their fears and give themselves this wonderful gift. Like so many others, my only regret is that I waited much, much longer than necessary to do this.