Lasik eye surgery, the good, the bad and the ugly.

Part of our planning process involved reducing the number of things we needed to carry around with us and utilizing things that were easily replaceable, anywhere.  My bifocals and prescription sunglasses made this list and we decided, after determining that I was a candidate, to have Lasik surgery performed on my eyes leaving me needing only a cheap pair of readers.

We scheduled the procedure for December 2^nd which was very important for the Peace Corps medical clearance process.  Among other things, the Lasik procedure required a six month waiting period, post-surgery, before final medical clearance could be obtained.  Since we were tentatively scheduled to enter the Peace Corps in September, our medical clearances had to be obtained by no later than July.

I had completed all of the pre-procedure items carefully and presented myself at the vision center early the morning of December 2^nd.  The plan was to do both of my eyes that day and it was expected that within a week my corrected vision would be working perfectly.  My eyes were prepared, I was given a mild sedative (for nerves) and my doctor cut my flaps.

After waiting for about 30 minutes it was time for the laser.  After making me comfortable and securing my head the doctor pulled back the flap on my dominant eye and started grumbling.  The laser procedure went ahead as planned and the doctor seemed to take quite a bit of care smoothing my flap back into place.  He then said we weren’t going to do both eyes that day and that he’d speak to my wife and I in a few minutes.

Turns out, I share, with only about 2 percent of the population, a condition known as a “floating Bowman layer”.  The layers of your eye are similar to your skin with the outer layer called the epithelium.  It is this epithelium that the flap is made of during a Lasik procedure and the layer underneath is known as the Bowman layer.  My condition meant that my Bowman layer was excessively slippery which causes the flap to have difficulty reattaching.  The doctor said that the flaps usually reattach within a week for people with this condition and that if everything went well, we’d do my other eye the following week.

Everything proceeded normally for the next week and I again prepared myself for the Lasik procedure; this time on my other eye.  I awoke the morning of the procedure feeling like a thorn had been stuck in my eye.  We went to the vision center and after looking at my eye the surgeon cancelled my procedure telling me that my flap had pulled off.  After debriding my eye (real fun I can assure you) the doctor put a contact bandage on the eye and told me the flap would grow back and attach in a couple of weeks.

Twice a week in the ophthalmologist’s office was becoming time consuming and a little problematic.  The doctor did not want me to drive, read, watch TV, use a computer or be out in the wind; wow!  On December 16^th we discovered that I had an additional problem; I was a “steroid responder”, a condition I shared with about 5 percent of the population.  This is important because the primary treatment post-Lasik is to use steroids to reduce the inflammation in the eye.  This condition caused my eyes to develop a very high IOP (intra-ocular pressure) which can lead to glaucoma among other things.  I was now on a boutique steroid along with glaucoma medication.

Everything was going well as Christmas rolled around.  My eye had been debrided a couple more times and I was beginning to see better with the treated eye.  We enjoyed a nice Christmas with the family and were looking forward to a new year that would have quite a lot of changes.

The morning after Christmas, a Sunday, I again awoke feeling as though a thorn was in my eye.  This time we knew exactly what it was and amazingly, my doctor answered his phone and arranged to meet us in his office at 8am that morning.  Since I had been wearing goggles to sleep in and had therefore not been rubbing my eyes, it was determined that my eyelid had been drying to my eye and pulling the flap off when I opened my eye in the morning. 

The doctor once again debrided my eye and, after moment’s thought, put tear duct plugs in the eye and sent me home with new prescriptions and what can only be called “goop” to put in my eyes before bed.  He told me that if the flap didn’t attach in the near future that he’d need to perform a procedure in which my eye would have to have a pattern perforated into it.  By now, I just wanted my eye to be better and took what he told me in stride without really listening.

The rest of the holiday season passed in a blur, literally.  While I could see colors through my treated eye, everything was simply a smear and my condition did not improve in spite of my bi-weekly debridement and careful home treatment.  By this time, I had put on about 15 pounds due to the absolute lack of activity and we were seriously concerned that I might have been blinded by the procedure.  The new year arrived with little hope of our obtaining medical clearance from the Peace Corps in time to leave in September; I still had another eye to do!

My appointment with my doctor on January 4^th rolled around……..