My LASIK Journey Part 2: Recovery Reality Check - What They Don't Tell You About the First 48 Hours
Continued post - this is my honest, unsponsored account of LASIK recovery.
Let's jump right in, if you missed Part 1 might want to read that first.
The Procedure: First Time vs. Second Time
First Procedure: When you have bad vision, it's literally hard to ‘see’ what they're doing (lol). You have a few sensations but no pain. There are two machines you move between. I was most scared about moving my eye and ruining the procedure, but the technology includes a laser that moves with you if you do shift - so that worry was eliminated and the surgeon shared that with me in our pre-meeting.
They warned me ahead of time that the laser smells like burning hair, but nothing is actually burning. I've unfortunately burnt my hair before (#candle), and while I can see why someone would make that association, to me it smelled more like being in a tanning bed with tanning lotion (yes, I went to those in high school).
I was in the OR for 18 minutes. The actual laser was probably 2-3 minutes tops per eye. You're at the first machine prepping your eyes for most of that time. Immediately after surgery you have blurry but clear vision – kind of like being underwater. I could read the digital clock and a fun sign they had on the ceiling. It was crazy how quickly the lasering actually works and your eyes feel amazing all numbed up. (This will quickly change.)
Second Procedure: Here's where things get interesting - you CAN see more of what they're doing because you have better vision now! I had an adjustment done 3 days post-op and I could see the tip of the scalpel and other tools being used. At one point, I swore he put a contact in my eye! In my post-procedure confusion, I thought he'd cut out the entire lens of my eye and removed it to put it back in. Since everything was blurry the first time, I didn't know what was normal.
Turns out they DID put a protective lens over my eye to help keep the actual lens in place. I'm sure he told me this while I was under, but I have a bad habit of just "okaying" things when I'm in stressful situations. I thought my version of events was entirely plausible since I didn't "see" the procedure the first time. Even though no one mentioned removing pieces of my eye and they kept referring to a "flap" - a flap is still connected, after all!
LASIK Plus gives you a goody bag of recovery items: Goggles, sunglasses, drops, supplements, paperwork with instructions. Those goggles are a blessing!
The Immediate Aftermath
I felt amazing immediately after the first procedure. My vision was significantly improved before I left the OR. But here's what hit me that I wasn't prepared for:
The Burning Starts: Right under 2 hours post-op, the burning began. I would not have wanted to be in the car still, and I was so grateful to be able to get back to my room quickly to sleep off the procedure. They do not want you rubbing or touching your eyes so this is where actually listening/following instructions and wearing the goggles is imperative. The urge to rub, wipe, mess with your eyes is super strong during this period so the goggles are a great deterrent. You have to deter those intrusive thoughts and reactions.
Those "4-6 Hours of Sleep": For me, the nap/sleep was intermittent because the pain, watery eyes, and scratchy burning feelings were so intense. It was also daytime and I am not a napper. I was given some Tylenol PM before the procedure to help with grogginess. I decided to cover my goggles with an eye mask to help keep light out. I'm a right side sleeper and they cautioned this could be an issue and to try to avoid sleeping like that (same is true for tummy sleepers!) This also aided in not amazing rest since I wasn't comfortable but I did keep my eyes closed for a majority of this time immediately after.
Digital & Screentime: I was told by the time of my post-nap TV would be usable and visible. I did check a few emails and send some texts for just a few minutes at a time. If you are an audiobook or podcast listener this is an excellent use of your time. Unfortunately, I am neither due to my hearing loss so I did opt in to a little TV to keep me sane. In hindsight I should have brought maybe some coloring books or an actual non-digital book to read. Or nail polish. Or a puzzle! Something to keep me entertained.
Food & Showering: I had a morning procedure so I made sure to eat breakfast (even though I don't usually) and also showered/washed my hair. I knew I couldn't get my eyes wet. I didn't dry my hair or style it though and that was a mistake – more later on why. I also had food ready in my room for lunch and snacks so I didn't have to order delivery or leave my room during this critical nap/rest period.
The Asymmetry: By 6-7 hours after, I was feeling loads better and started the eye drops routine. Pretty immediately, I knew my eyes were different. My left felt completely normal, but my right continued to feel like I had a misplaced contact. If you wear contacts, you might know what I mean - I wanted to rub it into place, and more drops weren't really helping.
By dinner I felt comfortable grabbing a bite to eat across the street and wore the sunglasses they gave me, not my own, and wow were they powerful. Stylish? Not a chance but were really great for eye protection.
The Complication
Turns out that feeling in my right eye was an actual issue - the flap they cut didn't settle flat like my left one did, but wavy, causing my vision to be slightly blurry and creating that discomfort. We attempted a weekend of additional drops (so now I had three different ones to manage).
By Monday, at my second post-op visit (I'd checked out of the hotel on Saturday, so I had to make the trek again), after additional testing and discussion, we went back to the OR to fix the right flap.
The Second Procedure Experience
During the adjustment, I could feel a tickle and was told I was moving too much. I explained I could feel things - again, no pain, but it felt like feathers on my eyeball making me squirm. They added more numbing drops to fix this. I was only at the lasering machine for this adjustment.
The "protective contact" they put in had to stay for three days. So it wasn't until the Thursday after my original procedure that I finally felt like both eyes were normal. My 7-day recovery clock was re-set for my right eye since it underwent two procedures so close together.
All together I had 5 visit in 7 days. The final 2 I was able to pivot back to the Chicago office which helped with travel costs considerably. I would do a rideshare there and slow walk back.
The Recovery Details They Don't Mention
Goggle Life: While they tell you about goggles, and you know about goggles. The reality didn’t really register for me. You truly wear the goggles for 7 nights post-surgery and every time you nap. For me, that was extended to 7 days post-adjustment. The goggles also caused headaches being so right, so I had to loosen them periodically.
No Water + Crusty Eyes: You can't get your eyes wet, and your eyes are super crusty from all the drops. The antibiotic one causes some white, stringy residue, and the others kind of yellowy crust. You have to gently wipe them to avoid rubbing. It's also hard as hell to wash your hair with goggles on. In hindsight, I would have done a deep wash and style on the day of the procedure because it would be over a week before I could do a good wash again. Showering with goggles is quite the experience. If you have the means, schedule ahead a blow out to help extend your wash and dry shampoo options. Same for face washing - will be a week (or longer) before you can do a good, solid deep clean.
Sleep Position Challenges: Part of my issues with my right eye could have been due to being a side sleeper (on the right side). While I tried to avoid it I did find myself moving/fidgeting during rest and overnight. For the following week, I tried sleeping sitting up at an angle to avoid rolling over, using extra pillows for support. So my sleep quality was not amazing (and neither was my partner's as a result).
The Dry Eye Factor: I was told in my pre-op that I didn't have clinically dry eyes - they did a dye test that was super uncomfortable and I swore I failed it. But they said my eye drop routine and decreasing contact wear had likely helped. This was important because dry eye and LASIK can sometimes not be a great combination. I'm used to eye drops, which are still in my foreseeable future. One of the eye drops is a super fancy bottle that is not accessibility friendly and is super challenging to use. Takes forever to pump out a drop and I missed my eye often. I ended up switching (with permission) to single use preservative-free artificial tears instead. I can understand why someone with dry eye is told about this issue because even now 2-3 weeks post-op I am using drops 4-6 times a day. It'd be worse if I actually had dry eye. I still don't rub my eyes which is a behavior challenge.
Current Status (2-3 Weeks Post-Op)
I had an antibiotic drop and tears, then an extra steroid for my right eye. Now I'm just on tears for... ever. Probably not forever, but definitely for the first month.
Old Habits Die Hard: I still reach for glasses in the morning and want to "take out" my eyes at night when I'm tired. Thirty years of habit will take effort to erase. It’s kind of like ghost or phantom syndrome - I know the glasses aren’t there but I find myself looking for them and also thinking I’m wearing them at times.
Learning New Limits: I'm getting better about not pushing my eyes. If they feel tired, I stop and close them, especially at night. I've swapped eyeglass cloths and wipes for tear drops instead. They are nearby or on my person at all times.
Environmental Challenges: One issue at night is that our AC wall unit blows air directly in my line of sight while I sleep. I'm putting in extra drops at night and experimenting with eye masks (which I don't sleep well with) to help protect against dryness. We're unlikely to change our whole room structure as the first fix.
Donating Supplies
Because I ended up doing LASIK a little sooner than planned - I wanted to take advantage of a glasses-free summer to get back on my wellness journey. I ended up having a box full of unused contacts I hated wasting. However the bonus cost savings off the procedure to do it so quickly made the decision easy. I finally found a place that accepts unopened/unused contacts that redistribute them to people in need. Shipped them off my box this week. I also had all my contacts and eye drops recycling piling up (I’d been recycling my dailies materials) and while the program I was using no longer did home pick ups, I found an office nearby that was part of the same program that accepted my drop off. So I feel better that I was able to recycle all of my materials instead of trashing them.
The Bottom Line
Would I do it again? Absolutely. But I wish I'd known about the real recovery timeline (about 10-11 days from the 1-2 they anticipate for immediate correction, always the 7 days goggles/water-free), the logistics of procedure locations in my area, and the importance of planning for complications. I had to cancel meetings and rearrange some work things to accommodate the 2nd procedure + travel + recovery. The vision improvement has been life-changing, but the first week was definitely more challenging than the sanitized version you read in most reviews.
If you're considering LASIK, do your homework on the practical stuff - location, transportation, recovery space, and hair washing logistics. And maybe don't trust that everything will go perfectly the first time. Having a backup plan and realistic expectations will save you stress when reality doesn't match the brochure.
One element that was a hot topic with my family, was that I did this procedure solo and it's definitely doable despite their initial concerns and objections. I walked to my appointment from my hotel, grabbed a rideshare back, and then the rest of the immediate day is sleep and resting. If you can put in your own eye drops you don't need a caregiver. So it's definitely something you can do independently – the biggest concern is the ride home post-procedure(s). I did not get a hotel for my adjustment and the ride home an hour plus away became a struggle toward the end, reinforcing I made the right call the first time around.
Two weeks in, and I'm still amazed every morning when I wake up and can see clearly. The journey was messier than expected, but the destination was worth it (so far!).
