This was a post from my blog from January 29, 2010 that I'm reposting on Steemit to familiarize myself with the platform
It has been 2.5 months since I had LASIK eye surgery, so I decided to give an update as to how my vision has changed since the surgery. I would say laser eye surgery has to be one of the biggest miracles of modern medicine. Imagine (those of us with bad vision don't need to imagine) being practically blind without glasses or contacts for most of your life. Then you walk into an eye doctor's office and less than 30 minutes later you can see 20/20 or better! Laser vision correction is one of those technologies that can improve the quality of life for millions (billions?) of people in the world.
I can say that my vision continues to improve with time since my surgery. During the day, my vision is spectacular. It is BETTER than what I could see with contacts or glasses. My vision at night has also improved dramatically in the past month. For several weeks, I was seeing large halos at night and that could make it difficult to see sometimes. The halos have gotten dramatically smaller. They are still there, but they are about one quarter to one half the size of what they were a month ago. If you have any problems with your vision, at night is definitely the time you will notice it most.
One thing I noticed after my surgery is that how good your vision is has much more to do than just which line on the eye chart you can read at the doctor's office. That simply measures how MUCH you can see, but it doesn't tell you how WELL you can see. For example, you may have visual aberrations at night in the weeks after your surgery. I saw huge halos. Others have reported star burst patterns or other aberrations. You may be able to read evenly lit, distant street signs, but may have trouble seeing anything in certain situations when these aberrations get in the way.
Besides the halos, here are some other things that I have noticed that may not be as good as before I had my surgery.
- My eyes seem to take longer to adjust to changes in lighting. If I move from a very dark location to a very bright one, my eyes seem to take longer to adjust before I can see again. For example, if I come out of a movie theater in the middle of the day, it seems to be blinding for a longer time than before. Or if I go from a bright room to one that is dark, it seems to take me longer before I can see anything in the dark room.
- I don't seem to see as clearly at night or low light situation. There are times at night where I can't really see anything when I use to be able to. This might be related to my eyes not being able to adjust to light levels as rapidly as before the surgery. The light levels can change rapidly at night, so there are times I can't see anything when it gets dark quickly such as moving from a brightly lit street to one that is unlit. This can be an issue when I ride a bicycle at night and don't have a headlight bright enough to illuminate the road.
- I don't seem to be able to focus as rapidly as before the surgery. I spend long hours in front of the computer. Sometimes, after staring at the computer screen for hours, I have trouble seeing distant objects in one of my eyes and my vision gets unbalanced. It can be disorienting.
- Related to the focusing issues is that sometimes one of my eyes just goes blurry. The solution seems to be to use some artificial tears, close my eyes for a minute or so, and blink a few times. Once again, this seems to happen at night or after long hours in front of the computer.
- There is better clarity in my right eye than my left. I can't see any more, but the clarity is slightly better in the right eye compared with the left.
- I have some issues with dry eyes. It's not bad or uncomfortable, but it is noticeable. I do need to use artificial tears up to 3 times a day. The times it is most notice is when I wake up in the morning and late at night.
- I seem to have more eye strain in front of the computer or reading for long periods of time. I do need to take breaks more frequently than before.