LASIK: I’m a candidate!

3/5/09 Posted in LASIK  |  0 Comments

I’m going to officially throw my hat into the ring. I’m now a candidate. Forget about politics though. I’m going for LASIK surgery and it’s going to happen on March 18. It’s official.

I passed the last test, or actually series of tests, with Dr. Frank Rosenbaum, who will be performing my LASIK surgery, and Dr. Brian Houser, who is my eye doctor.

My week started with an appointment at Dr. Houser’s office, at Holt Eye Care. There, my cornea was tested in a variety of ways to determine thickness with a variety of machines that looked like objects out of Tron. There were lights. Lasers. I wasn’t allowed to blink, but it was so different I didn’t want to look away. It was pretty cool.

After Dr. Houser figured out my prescription again (I haven’t degraded in two years!) he gave me a tear test then put drops in to dialate my eyes. The tear test, which consisted of sticking what felt like two really big strips of tape under the bottom of my eye, determined if I could make the right amount of tears for surgery. Passed that test with flying colors.

The dialation was interesting. The actual test was fine, but for rest of the day I couldn’t focus on anything close. I was sensitive to light, and the vision thing was tricky, but I managed. Overall it was find.

Dr. Houser even gave me a funky pair of glasses. That was nice.

Yesterday, I went to Dr. Rosenbaum’s office. There I was subjected to more Tron-like devices. As I spoke with Dr. Rosenbaum, and thanking him for the opportunity to write about my LASIK experience, he told me how sophisticated the equipment really was.

Previous LASIK only corrected vision, near-sightedness and far-sightedness. The new technology takes care of much, much more. After my tests were complete, and matched up with Dr. Houser’s tests (which is a great thing, because if it didn’t we would have to consider an alternative to LASIK) I found that I have the beginnings of an astigmatism, as well as a host of other problems.

And here I thought I had beautiful eyes.

The good news I found out that LASIK will take care of that.

My nurse told me that I’ll see better at night, glaring light won’t bother me and I might grow.
I, of course, made up the last one. But I tell ya, the thought of not wearing glasses or contacts, is great. The idea of seeing better than I ever have in my life—that’s pretty cool.

I’m more excited than ever.

written by Tim Kissman, publisher and owner of Healthy & Fit Magazine.