Recovery From Lasik

Matthew Pruitt is the owner of NuVision Medicenters, which has offices in New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut. He has been working with LASIK technology since 1995 and has assisted in over 25,000 LASIK eye procedures over the course of his career.

The great thing about LASIK is that not only is it physically non-invasive but it is really non-invasive in your lifestyle as well. And for most people, the recovery time is overnight.

I was a LASIK patient myself and I remember having the procedure in the evening. I went home, had a bite to eat, and I woke up in the middle of the night and it was 2 a.m.—I remember this vividly—and I was able to see the clock across the room. When the laser changes the shape of the cornea, that change occurs immediately. However, there is a little bit of swelling that’s created, although that swelling reduces quickly. By the time patients wake up, most of the time they are able to see 20/20—sometimes even better. They come into our office, oftentimes being legally blind, and end up driving back to our office the next day with vision that is perfect.

Restrictions:

There are a couple of restrictions you will have, however, for a week or so after undergoing the LASIK procedure. Dr. Jackson [NuVision's medical director] tells patients not to swim for two weeks, no exercise—running, lifting weights, yoga, those type of things—for one week, and certainly we don’t want any patients to rub their eyes for one week, although that probably goes without saying because your eyes are still healing from the procedure during that time.

Other than that, however, the next day after the procedure people are able to go straight back to work. They can drive a car. They can go have a picnic at the park; enjoy their friends. You can do all the normal things that you usually do. We just like patients to take it easy on the physical activities for the first week after their procedure. After that one week, though, it’s pretty straightforward and patients can pretty much do whatever activity they choose.

The other thing that patients need to do after undergoing LASIK is to use their eye drops. We give them two drops—one is an antibiotic and the other in an anti-inflammatory—and of course those just help with the healing process. We ask patients to use the drops for the same one-week period of time as well. So the recovery restrictions are pretty easy and pretty straightforward for patients.

Follow-Up Appointments:

Certainly patients also need to check in for their follow-up appointments. Dr. Jackson loves to make sure that his patients are coming along well after the procedure. The first appointment patients will make is the first day after surgery. So patients will come in the day after their procedure—the next morning, usually—and that’s really a critical appointment because you want to make sure the healing process has gotten off to a good start and of course check the patient’s vision. Because hat is really when we are looking for the big ‘wow factor,’ the big reveal of waking up and being able to see the clock across the room. We love being able to hear all those patients’ wonderful stories, and it is usually on Saturday morning when they have the first follow-up appointment, so they can then have the rest of the weekend to hang out.

The doctor sees them again one week later, then a month later, then three months, six months and a year after the original procedure. Usually after the first appointment or the second appointment, however, we are just trying to chase patients down and get them back in the office. For many, they have already forgotten about having had the procedure and they are just out enjoying their own lives and not thinking about LASIK.

The information in the article is not intended to substitute for the medical expertise and advice of your healthcare provider. We encourage you to discuss any decisions about treatment or care with an appropriate healthcare provider.