This was an eventful day indeed. Yesterday I had worn glasses for over 23 years and had vision of -9.25 diopters (roughtly 20/1600 for me). Basically I couldn't see there was an big "E" on the eye chart until I was about 9 inches from it. So, after 10 years of research and 5 years of waiting for the right kinds of technology I had LASIK on both eyes over lunch yesterday.
Pretty damned good. I'm at LEAST 20/25 in both eyes only 19 hours later. They measured me as ~20/25 this morning. I think I'm 20/20 in the right eye and 20/25 in the left, but there's still healing to be had. I was zapped in Oregon by Dr. Teplick who is just about the coolest guy ever. Seriously, I did a crapload of research into this (considering I'm diabetic, and diabetics have eye problems) and I didn't want to screw around with any beginners. As far as I'm concerned, he's the only guy to talk to. If you are thinking about it, check them out and tell them I sent you.
Right now I'm writing this without my glasses, which is a miracle. I figure I'll be 90% by the end of the week and 100% in a month. But, considering it was done yesterday over lunch and I worked a full day today is pretty cool.
Software:
As a computer-type, I have to comment on a few technical things that were interesting to me.
The WaveFront LASIK Eye mapper takes a topographical map of the eye (3-D) to deal with things like astigmatism and odd curvetures and such better than previous technologies. I had 3 of these by two different doctors, both at Teplick and at my own Eye Doctor's. Interestingly enough, while it looked like a clever and impressive piece of hardware, something about the title bars smacked wrong with me. I looked closer (and dinked with it when noone was looking) and dammit if the thing wasn't running Windows 98. Good thing Microsoft extended support past the time I had my surgery! ;) A closer look at some other machines by my [also Lasik'ed] boss, Chris Brooks, showed that it was running OS/2. Seems to me there's some work and sales to be made in the Windows XP Embedded space, no?
Burning:
You know what Lasik's dirty little secret is? While the operation doesn't hurt at all (eye drops dull the pain) about 3 hours after the operation is hurts like a bastard. Someone described it as like hot sand poured in your eyes. I wouldn't disagree. It was a migraine, a stick in your eye and a sinus headache all at the same time. Now, mind you I'm not a fan of drugs, so to their credit they DID give me a prescription for Percocet. I wanted to avoid using any narcotics if possible. Long story short, it's not possible. :)