Eye Fry, Part Three (Home)

On the way home, the anesthetic eye drops began to wear off, and I decided to shut my eyes. They began to sting a bit: not a dull ache as you might expect if someone had socked you in the face, but more of an acute pain that sunscreen might cause if it ran into your eyes. Occasionally I opened my eyes and looked around. Still good vision, with the Vaseline effect diminishing a bit.

At home, I was ready to go to bed. I put in more antibiotic eye drops, as well as some new anti-inflammatory drops, and went to sleep. I wasn't tired, but the stinging was annoying enough that I forced myself to sleep.

By the evening, the pain was mostly gone, as was most of the Vaseline effect. I assembled some Ikea furniture, thus proving that I was still a useful member of society, and went back to bed.

Next morning was 24 hours after the surgery. I was supposed to return to the doctor's office for a checkup. I felt good enough to drive myself, which I did. I noticed starbursts around reflected sunshine and a general but slight haziness in my vision. The doctor's assistant said this was completely normal, and after another round of exams sent me home to return in about a month.

Dr. Hyver promised dramatic improvement in the couple of days following the surgery, and he was right. Under ideal conditions -- daytime in natural light looking at scenes without glare -- my vision was very near perfect. But glare definitely bothered me, and I still saw starbursts around bright lights. I also saw fuzzy halos around other more subtle light sources, such as sunshine through the window at the end of an unlighted hall. Nighttime was particularly annoying; I saw enormous halos around point light sources.

Aside from vision quality, I felt diminishing discomfort in the days and weeks following the surgery. The best description I can think of is when you wake up to catch a 6:00 a.m. flight at the airport (meaning you had to get up at 3:30). You're bleary-eyed; your eyes sting and you just want to close them. That's how your eyes feel after surgery. But it's not intolerable, especially if you're liberal with eyedrops like Systane, and it tapers off pretty quickly.

Ten days after surgery you can stop wearing goggles at night (to keep yourself from rubbing your eyes while asleep), and after two months it's OK to rub your eyes if you want. Right around two months was when the daytime halos went away completely. Nighttime halos are still there, particularly around those infernal blue LEDs that have become popular in consumer electronics. Nighttime vision is also a bit uncomfortable; I feel like I'm wearing dirty contact lenses. But I can drive at night, and I can watch movies, and I can see the digital clock across the room when I wake up at night, and those are really all the functions I care about at night.

It wasn't until about four months after surgery that I stopped thinking about it each day. Until then, there was always something that reminded me of it -- usually either a temporary difference in vision between the eyes, or mild dryness that caused slight discomfort, or looking in the mirror and noticing that my eyes were a bit red.

I'm more sensitive to lack of sleep now. If I get only four or five hours in a night, my eyes are more sensitive than they would have been before the surgery. If I get a full eight hours, they feel absolutely wonderful.

What has most impressed me after six months is the accuracy of the correction. In particular, my astigmatism is gone. I can resolve letters on street signs much farther away than anyone around me, which I used to be able to do with my contacts only after blinking a few times and squinting.

If you're reading this, you may have just had surgery and are having buyer's remorse because of all the halos and dry eyes. Here's my advice:

• Buy a big bottle of Systane. Carry it with you at all times. Use it all the time. One day you'll realize you stopped using it a few days earlier, and then you'll be very happy.
• The daytime halos eventually do go away.
• It takes months to recover from this surgery. But probably 90% of the recovery is in the first couple of days. So be prepared to handle recovery, but if you have surgery on Friday and stay in bed over the weekend, you won't have to miss more than one day of work.
• Remember to wear protective eyewear from now on when appropriate! Imagine the irony if your surgery enabled you to stop wearing glasses and thus be blinded by a pebble thrown by your lawnmower!