I wanted to do this blog for all of you people out there considering ICL Surgery.. I'm sure you have red about it and you have tons of questions, well, I'm sure as hell not a Doctor, but I'm going through this with not much info about actual patients, just the info you can read online and brochures about the procedure. I'm not a good writer, and I'm sorry for that I just want you to know I'm here for all questions you have in the future.. ok, so here is where I stand.
I'm 20 years old, I've never known my actual prescription but I will look for it and put it here later.. but I'm really blind. My Dr. said he haven't done an ICL with this high prescription.
Anyway, I haven't had my Surgery yet.
5th of December I went to my regular ophthalmologist.. he referred me to a specialist on ICL because he doesn't do that kind of surgery. Anyway, I went to this new doctor and he told me I was candidate for ICL, and then like 6 weeks after it, we could do LASIK to correct my astigmatism. So it's gonna be both of them.. as for what i've red here online, I don't know anyone who has had both surgeries, so I'm really scared, I don't know what to expect, specially with details like halos, because with ICL and LASIK separately, i've red that it's really bad, now imagine have both, my halos are going to be a nightmare..
Anyway, im on this for good, so i will do it.
They scheduled me to check my retina.. everything was good to go ahead for surgery so the doctor told me it would be one week iridotomy for the first eye, next week iritodomy for the next eye, and then the following week the ICL surgery, 6am one eye, 9am other eye; so I'm happy they are going to do both of my eyes on the same day, as far as i know that doesn't happen.. they do one first and then when it's healed they do the other one.. anyway, I'm happy because I cannot use contacts, I was never able to wear them, they were so painful, and I just use them for one event and I think I even throw them away.. too painful. That's why I decided to go for surgery, otherwise I would've stick with contacts.
So today was my first iridotomy..
I went, they put numbing drops on my eye, measured my pupil, and looked with a bright light, then I sat in the laser machine, I was trembling, I was like "this is it, if I move, i'm screwed", so the doctor tried to insert the tube kind of thing in my eye to keep my eyelids from getting on the way, but oh god.. I couldn't even do that... the thing hurt my eye, i felt like it was scratching it slowly.. so I started to cry unconsciously. So he told me this all surgery process wasn't going to be possible If i was all nervous like this, and he thought for a minute and offered me the option of using general anesthesia and so he could do the iridotomy on the same day, of course i almost jumped of excitement, yessss I wanna be put asleep through the whole process I dont wanna feel a thing! it's awsome, cause all this time I was worried i wasnt going to be able to do this because im a very nervous person, and if i move, damn this is the only pair of eyes i have... i trust this doctor, i just don't trust myself.
So they told me they will ask the anesthesiologist and call me back..
my surgery was scheduled for feb 15, so I hope it's still the same date and everything goes well :)
Today I asked the doctor this 3 things...
I see like flies, small black things sometimes.. my ophthalmologist said it's normal for us nearsighted people, but I was curious if that was going to get worse with surgery or get better or just stay the same...
He told me it would stay the same.
I also wanted to know if just because I was having both surgeries, ICL and LASIK, my halos would be very bad..
He told me my pupil was very small so I shouldn't be worried about that.
And finally I asked about cell loss.. out of all of the risks I red "cell loss" sounded very scary.. I mean, I'm only 20 and if I plan of having the implant for the rest of my life what will it be of my eye if im gonna have constant cell loss?
He actually didn't answer that question as I expected, he told me that with this surgery there are two risks really. He said cataract was one of them, and that I shouldn't be worried about that because, that can be easily removed with surgery and put a new implant again and my vision would be as good as it was.
And the second risk was Retinal Detachment, but that one, again, we all nearsighted people have it, with or without surgery, but increases with surgery.
And that's where I am right now, I am really scared and excited at the same time..
I'm more scared about LASIK than ICL surgery..
If after the ICL surgery I can see with a decent thin pair of glasses I think I won't do the LASIK. Something tells me i shouldn't.
Anyway.. I'll post whenever i know what's next.
