I woke up around 8am from the Hotel Valencia in Santana Row and rubbed my nearsighted eyes for the last time. I then put on my glasses and headed down for a complimentary breakfast (which was actually quite good).

Around 9am I showered and dressed up before hitting the road. Once I got to the dr’s office I signed in and had a seat. I was supposed to get one last examination to see if I qualified for Wavefront lasik surgery which is the latest and greatest method. Unfortunately after a short visit with the dr, it turns out I was borderline qualified because my corneas are too thin. I thought about it for a minute and then decided to opt out and just go with the traditional IntraLase procedure.

I then met with a patient councelor to sign my life away and decide on how I plan to pay. There were three lasers to choose from (who knew) and I wanted the best. The top of the line laser actually had a built in eye tracker in case I had problems holding still. Turns out the dr. said it was best if I didn’t use that one. Good thing because it saved me an extra $600. Thanks doc!

So after taking some valium, my eyes were anesthetized with eye drops . I was then taken into the IntraLase room and laid down. an instrument called a lid speculum was used to hold my eyelids open. A ring was placed on my eye and very high pressures was applied to create suction to the cornea. My vision dimmed while the suction ring was on and I felt pressure and experienced some discomfort during this part of the procedure. A laser shaving was made with an instrument known as a microkeratome, to expose the inner layer of my corneas, creating a “flap.” After both eyes had been shaved, I was taken into another room.

This room contained the laser which was then used to vaporize a very thin layer of my corneal tissue, 0.2 microns at a time. My corneal flaps were then reflected back to restore the corneal surface. The whole surgery only took around ten to fifteen minutes.

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