bound for enhancement (?)

[astonia]

Hi everyone,
A few words about myself - I'm 30 now and have been shortsighted for 16 years. From the very beginning I've had different degrees of astigmatism, greater in the early years of my "adventure with glasses". What some people find odd and striking is heterochromia, my left eye being blue and right brown. The pupils and also uneven.
However, apart from those phenomena I'm pretty normal :) and never had serious eye problems of any sort.

I've been using soft contact lenses for the past 4 years and glasses occasionally at weekends. Contact lenses were not toric, but gave me what I perceived as a very acute vision (left -5,25, right -4,75). What I found surprising was the fact that I saw things better in contact lenses than in toric glasses. Since my eyesight hasn't changed for the 4 years I decided to check whether I could be qualified as a refractive surgery patient. Ophthalmologists qualified me to standard LASIK and I hadt it on 16/10/12.
One day after the surgery I was pleased with the results as both eyes were corrected to -0,5. That degree of sight defect didn't bother me at all. It was almost imperceptible to me. However, on the fourth/fifth day after the op I started noticing my right eye getting weaker. Additionally, I noticed a yellowish part on it and panicked.
I called for an earlier appointment and it turned out that right eye regressed to -1 and that yellow thing on my sclera was a perfectly natural fat, which must have been there before (I'm sure it wasn't!) and which does not affect vision in any way.
However, coming back to -1 diopter. I was told that it may heal over time (?), but if there is still -1 during my next appointment in December, the flap can be lifted and I can get an enhancement on the right eye free of charge.

Every day I try to "check" the vision, but my right eye does not get any better and I seriously doubt it will :-(
I'm still wondering what to do. Definitely I'll go to some other eye-doctor to check the vision before I vist my refractive surgery clinic. I'm not a doctor myself but I did notice that the operation on the right eye did not go as smoothly as on the left. First of all, the suction ring had to re repositioned before the flap cut, the laser itself was stopped at one point and then turned on again, and it took a longer while to repostion the flap to its original place after the whole procedure. I'm not quite sure if these remarks are of any significance but it worried me a bit. My ophthalmologist did not provide me with satisfying answers and my trust in her is a bit upset. I was supposed to end up with one eye "strong for reading" and it was to be the right one, and it's the other way round - the left one was -5,25, had greater astigmatism and seems now pretty ok, while the right one has more of halos at night and has a tendency towards haze.
As far as medications go, I'm finishing Vigamox and Lotemax and still using moisturing eye-drops and gel.

Thank you for any remarks and attention.

[LasikExpert]

It sounds like you are doing the “Lasik Salute” of putting one hand over one eye, then the other, then the other, and checking the vision in both eyes.

Regression when you started with moderate myopia (shortsighted, nearsighted) is surprising, but not uncommon. Everyone heals a little different. The progress of your healing otherwise appears normal.

It seems unlikely that the intraoperative issues regarding the laser stop with restart and the flap repositioning would have had a significant effect. In fact it would have been more likely that these events would have resulted in an overcorrection, rather than the undercorrection you have experienced.

At age 30 you are way too young for monovision. You will not likely experience the effects of presbyopia for another decade or more. Your target should be full distance correction with the Lasik.

The halos at night and a tendency towards hazy vision is probably due to the undercorrection more than anything else. If you were to wear a contact lens to fully correct that eye, I suspect these symptoms would resolve.

The yellowish spot on your sclera may have been the result of the suction ring from the microkeratome. It can bruise or disrupt the area where it is attached. This normally resolves with healing, but it often takes weeks or months.

It seems very unlikely that the residual myopia will resolve on its own, although you are only three weeks from surgery. When you get to 6-10 weeks postop you will want to decide about enhancement surgery.

[astonia]

It sounds like you are doing the “Lasik Salute” (...)

Exactly, but I guess it's quite a common practice.

The progress of your healing otherwise appears normal.

It seems unlikely that the intraoperative issues regarding the laser stop with restart and the flap repositioning would have had a significant effect.

The halos at night and a tendency towards hazy vision is probably due to the undercorrection more than anything else.

Thank you very much. That's really comforting :)

The yellowish spot on your sclera may have been the result of the suction ring from the microkeratome. It can bruise or disrupt the area where it is attached. This normally resolves with healing, but it often takes weeks or months.

I thought so. Although my surgeon denied, I see the spot, thank God, is gradually fading away :)

When you get to 6-10 weeks postop you will want to decide about enhancement surgery.

I'll get an independent ophthalmologist's opinion sometime in November to see the degree of refractive error left and try to post my findings so that it could be of use for somebody in the future.
Unfortunately, there aren't many forums in my country where you could get an unbiased opinion about refractive surgeries and clinics themselves are very reluctant to tell about the possible disadvantages to the "miraculous procedures" they perform...

[astonia]

Here I'm back to share my results with all those who might be interested.
It almost 3 months after my Lasik procedure. All in all, the vision is pretty good, but I'm almost sure I'll have an enhancement in my right eye, which stays at around -1 dioptre. For the time being I'm still waiting for the eye to heal as much as possible, but we've arranged enhancement with my doctor for sometime in March (on the assumption that this -1 myopia will not resolve on its own...).
The left eye was about -0,5 during my 2 months post-op checkup. I read more of a Snellen chart that I did before the op in my contact lenses. According to my ophthalmologist (and my own perception), the laser did better than expected :-)
All in all, I do not feel any halos or haze, which is a comfort. Dryness is subsiding and using moisturising eyedrops and gel does give an effect. Soon I'll start moisturising my eyes 3 times a day, but I do feel that will be enough.

[LasikExpert]

Soon I'll start moisturising my eyes 3 times a day, but I do feel that will be enough.

Be certain that you use only preservative-free artificial tears.

http://www.usaeyes.org/lasik/faq/dry-eye-treatment.htm