I did 2 eyes on the same day. The whole process is about 20 min.
1. First part is to cut open the tissue to create the flap. Then I stood up and was escorted to a nearby room. The nurse held my arm while I was walking the short distance. One of my eyes vision reduced tremendously. I asked why and was told there was air bubble between the flap and my eye.
2. I entered another room, lie down again with eyeball clamped again. The lasering is round 20 seconds only. The doctor continued to work on my eye for a few more short minutes. I assume he was positioning the flap back in place and applying some glue to the edge of the wound. Of course, the doctor also placed a hard contact lens, which was removed the next day, so that the flap will stay in place for the next critical 12 hours and starts to heal.
The process below is correct, but wording was to promote another method than traditional Lasik.
Your eyes will be diluted during the initial assessment and it will take 4-6 hours to return to normal. I was advised not to drive for assessment, so I followed. If I recall now, it is possible to drive and I could drive, but risks may arise.
Your pupils are diluted in the assessment. The obvious effects are:
- Your pupils cannot contract. Your eyes cannot be exposed to too much outdoor sunlight. When I stepped out, I really need to almost close my eyes to not feel uncomfortable. At least you bring a pair of sunglasses.
- You will temporarily have Lao Hua. Texts on paper will be come fuzzy when you try to read. I was told that some people may want to vomit if empty stomached due to this sudden change. I did not have such feeling for whatever reason (maybe most ppl won't have it), but I cannot guarantee I won't develop discomfort if I drive.
I wanted to share my experience. I hesitated for a long time before I decided to go. If I had read more people sharing his/her experiences I would have gone much earlier. That motivates me to come back to this forum and share my experience.
Last 3 days I felt very comfortable so I did not apply any eye drops. This morning after waking up my left eye becomes less clear again and tired. This is caused by eye dryness, although physically I cannot directly feel/tell my left eye is dry, not like what you can feel with your hands. So anyone who went for Lasik, please remember to apply eye drops consistently for the first weeks like what the doctor recommended.
I suspect that the reason why my left eye's condition fluctuates infrequently was because my left eye tried to move a bit when the doctor was burning away the eye tissue. I could distinctly smell the burning smell. So please restraint your eyes and relax as much as possible. I was relaxed but really could not help moving my eyes just for the 2 seconds. The doctor stopped after detecting my eye trying to move and the surgery continued. The left eye was the second eye to be lasered.