What will it be Like After Laser Eye Surgery?

Almost all patients will return home the same day they have their surgery. If you are considering having laser eye surgery to correct your vision, you need to also be aware of all the possible side effects and outcomes associated with the surgery.

The laser surgery itself is a relatively quick process and actually only takes a few minutes to perform. With the preparation before and after the surgery you can expect to be at the hospital or clinic for only a few hours.

The Procedure

Immediately after the surgical procedure you may feel dizzy or even a little nauseous. This feeling should quickly go away as you feel well enough to begin moving around and eating small meals. Often the sitting still and blurred vision will increase your nausea...so get moving as much as you feel comfortable doing.

Your surgeon will give you specific recovery instructions that will need to be followed exactly. Some people choose to have one eye operated on at a time, while other people prefer to get both eyes done during the same appointment.

Surgeons do not usually have a preference of doing one eye at a time or both. You will have to decide if your lifestyle can take a break to let both eyes heal at the same time. For many people they do not want to take time off of work or worry about needing help from others so they only have one eye worked on at a time.

What to Do at Home

Some doctors will require that you wear an eye patch over the eye that had surgery while others will just prescribe lots of rest. Your ophthalmology surgeon is specially trained to perform laser surgery and they also know extremely well what the best way to recovery quickly is. So it is important to follow their instructions as much as possible.

Corrective eye surgery may not be a major surgery that requires you to remain in the hospital, but you should plan on taking at least a day off of work to let your eye or eyes recover. You may experience blurred vision for several days after your surgery and might not feel up to going to work during those days.

At home try to get as much rest as possible and enlist the help of your loved ones in your recovery. Normally you can expect to be feeling normal again within a day or two.

Laser eye surgery is an innovative way to improve your vision and eliminate the need for glasses or contacts. There are risks involved in this type of surgery and those risks should be clearly discussed with your surgeon prior to the day of surgery. You can also do some of your own research on the potential risks of the surgery as well as all the possible results of the surgery.