Here are the details as to what happened during my LASIK eye surgery. I tried to be as detailed as I could from what I remembered. Some details may make some people uncomfortable.

1. They rub something on your eyelids
2. Put in some numbing drops into each eye, numerous times
3. Put special tape from lower eye lashes to cheek and from upper eye lashes to forehead
4. Cover one of the eyes, only operate on one eye at a time
5. Use a spreader type device to hold eyelids open, doesn’t really hurt at all and didn’t really seem to make my eyes any more dry or anything from not blinking
6. Put some more moisturizing drops in
7. They use a circular device and put it between eyelids and down around eye ball
8. Slight suction is applied (this is what causes some inflammation that is seen the days following the procedure)
9. Something that seems like a microscope lens comes down and applies slight pressure to the eye ball
10. You stare into a circular pattern of white lights with a single red one in the center, stay focused as much as possible on the red light
11. The laser then cuts the flap in a C shape, with a slight hinge on one side, this takes maybe 30 seconds
12. The pressure / device is removed and the surgeon uses a little tool to fold the flap over
13. A little irrigation tool drops a solution on the exposed area to clean it
14. Then I was rotated around the other direction in the chair to the cornea shaping laser
15. They activate a iris tracker and have you stare at a quite bright set of white lights with a green one in the center
16. Stay focused on the green light and the reshaping is started
17. There may be a slight smell as the cornea is burnt away, this process is about 5-8 seconds
18. They irrigate with a liquid solution again
19. You will see something that looks like a squeegee and it wipes the surface clean
20. The flap is then folded back down into position
21. Drops are applied and then repeat above for second eye
22. Once both eyes are all finished they do a quick check
23. I happened to have a slight bunched up edge on the lower part of my left eye flap, they took me back in and lifted it again, and reseated it. This has made it so that my left eye is slightly more inflamed then the right and will be slightly behind in the healing / increased vision process

I could see a very noticeable difference in vision before even leaving the operating room, much better than without my glasses.

They then ask you to rest and you will be fairly sensitive to light, my operation was at 7am and by noon or so I was okay to not have the sunglasses on in the house. You apply steroid and anti-biotic drops every 2 hours or so and use eye drops to keep them moist as you see fit, for me was about an hour between the 2 hour drops.

The operation isn’t really painful, but the most uncomfortable part would be the suction ring and pressure used to make the initial flap.

By evening I didn’t really feel sensitive much at all and was back to normal behavior. They do have you wear some goggles to prevent rubbing your eyes for things like sleeping and showering.

It has been almost a year I think since I had the procedure done, I am happy to say that I have had no issues with dryness or irritations. I havent had any issues driving at night or swimming etc. My vision ended up slightly better than 20/20 in one eye and slightly less than 20/20 in the other, when combined I have 20/20 vision.

Here is an excellent resource for learning about how it works, what to look for and what questions to ask: US FDA/CDRH Lasik Center