Intralase experience - Lasik Eye Surgery Message Board

onataliya · 02-26-2006, 02:01 PM

I had intralase done almost 2 months ago. It was healing very slowly. I couldn`t focuse on objects for a long time. Eyes got tired quickly and felt weak. I had dry eyes and some pain. Also, vision was not like it was with glasses, especially for the first weeks. It felt as if you are looking through some sort of glass which was not natural. I did have some blurriness in the right eye which was quite bothersome, seems like it`s going away now.
Currently, the main problem for me is that the quality of vision after this procedure is not as good as it was with glasses, it`s not as sharp and crisp, and it feels like I need to put glasses back on to get the sharpness back. They told me I have 20.15, 20.20 vision, but It feels like I`m looking through some very thin vail or smth which is quite irritating. The difference in the quality of vision and pain in the eyes caused me a lot of stress. Mine was conventional intralase Lasik as I understand I didn`t need Custom. Also, the procedure was very painful as they apply a lot of pressure to the eyes for the laser to make the flap for smth like 30 seconds per eye.
What was your healing process after intralase like and what is the quality of vision like, is it the same as with glasses?

q1w2e3 · 02-28-2006, 01:35 PM

I am 1 month post-op Intralase lasik. My left eye came in clear the on the first day. The vision quality in my left appears to be as good as with glasses. My right eye however has the same haze/fog you describe since the day of surgery. No changes at all. I have the halos and starbursts at night in both eyes but slightly worse in the right.

q1w2e3 · 03-04-2006, 03:04 PM

Onataliya,
Could you please keep us posted on your progress. Thanks.

onataliya · 03-05-2006, 10:32 AM

Hi,

Well, I`m now a little bit over 2 months after surgery. It seems like things are improving, today as a matter of fact is not too bad.. I hope. Yesterday I went out in the sun and that irritated the eyes.. That never happened before the surgery.. On the whole it was such a stressful experience. If I only knew what it would be like before I got it done I wouldn`t probably even do it.
Another thing is I thought that Intralase is better then regular Lasik with mikrokeratome, safer, it turned out that the healing was so painful that I think that regular Lasik is probably better. The surgeon who did the procedure doesn`t even offer regular Lasik, so I thought it must be better then as I was a little bit afraid of the blade.. If I only knew what it will be like..They say that Lasik is painless, I don`t know about regular Lasik but Intralase is very painful.. Was it painful for you? What made you choose Intralase? Did your surgeon offer regular Lasik with the blade? Did he explain both procedures to you? As I read on the Internet, they usually do, but my surgeon didn`t even offer regular Lasik and obviously didn`t say anything about it to me which I think is not fair as the patient should be fully educated and know advantages of both.. As far as my vision, blurriness in the right eye is going away now..after 2 months and it seems like the vision is crisper now..
At first it hurt even walking.. Terrible.
It`s interesting that you had a problem with your right eye just like I did.. My left eye came out clear the 1st day.. Also, they didn`t tell me about keeping my eyes closed after the procedure for several hours. They gave me drops to put in the eye every hour so that`s what I was doing right after the procedure..Actually, they did mention to keep them closed but they didn`t stress it and didn`t explain why it`s important to keep them closed ( I know now that the flap can shift if you don`t keep them closed). The next day post op the doctor said that the flap in the right eye shifted a little bit..but that it will heal.. and then I started having problems in that eye, blurriness, vision fluctuations, scratchy feeling. I didn`t have any of that in my left eye..
But the doc said that it was not flap related..I don`t know.. Were your flaps fine the next day, did you sleep after the procedure?
So, how are you doing?

Natalia.

q1w2e3 · 03-05-2006, 02:13 PM

Natalia,
Thanks for the in depth update. I went with the intralase for basically the same reasons that you listed in your update. I experienced no pain beyond the first 12 hours or so after the surgery. I slept the whole evening and night after surgery. I have not had any flap problems. As I mentioned earlier, my problem has been the hazy/foggy vision in my right eye, at all distances. I had my surgeon examine me two days ago and he says that the problem is being caused by healing haze underneath the right flap. I also have some healing haze under the left flap but it is not as bad as the right. The difference between the vision in both eyes is definitely noticeable. He says that the haze will disipate over the following weeks and months. I'm very concerned at this point because I have not noticed any perceptible changes in vision in either eye, good or bad, since the day after surgery on 2/1/06 - more than a month ago. My left was clear the next day, just like yourself. Two days ago, he said everthing else is fine - flaps, healing, no dryness, etc. 20/20 left, 20/25 right.

Also, I might add, I am still having the halo, glare, starbursts at night. Are you experiencing this?

Has your vision quality that you initially described improved closer to what you had with glasses?

Thanks, please keep me posted.