Lasik eye surgery in New Jersey

If you have googled Lasik to find personal anecdotes, you might have found more bad than good. But try googling other routine procedures, such as mammograms or even pedicures. You will see that people tend to complain more than praise. That's just human nature.

Besides, quality can vary. So maybe take the negative with a grain of salt, and find a few good testimonials about Norden Laser Eye Associates or something just as good in your area.

Further down this page, you'll find my Lasik story.

On April 19, I went to Norden for my consultation. The office is posh, with a large fishtank, flat screen tv, tasteful decorating with a hint of eastern, and freshly baked cookies. The employees are all nice to look at, well groomed, and all without glasses, of course.

The tour included a short stay on the sofa in the Tranquility Room to see a film about Lasik. With its empty massage chair, soft music, and Eastern decorating, it begs to be revisited, but that's for another important day.

After extensive testing (but nothing more invasive than I've had from my regular eye doc), the doctor and the assistants explained that monovision would be right for me. They'll correct one eye for reading, the other eye for distance, and my brain would eventually "learn." Dr. Norden called it neuroadaptation.

The technician explained that the doctor will create a flap on the front of my cornea, perform the surgery, and then replace the flap "just like velcro." We scheduled my appointment for that Thursday. I thought of velcro on the way home.

I got a quick checkup with my regular opthamologist, Dr. Auerbacher, who works at Pearle Vision in Paramus. Norden coordinates its services with the patient's regular eye doctor. The apparent teamwork was reassuring. Dr. Auerbacher pointed out that I could ask for Valium before my surgery.

No eyedrops and no makeup today. I arrived a half hour early, as they requested. I downed my Xanax after signing the consent form in their presence. I picked out music. I spied "Black Eyed Peas" on the list, but something about black eyes didn't appeal. I chose Enya.

After getting some drops, I watched the bulgy-eyed fish and wondered if they'd had Lasik too. I'm sure it was the Xanax. Then time for the meditation room. Between the massage chair and the drug, I got pretty relaxed.

Then they seated hubby at the operating room door, by a close-circuit television. I went in and lay on the table. The technicians efficiently prepped me to the tune of "Eclipse."

Then Dr. Norden attached these clampy-type things to my eyes. I didn't like that too much, but they're on there for a pretty short time.

I heard some sounds like maybe welding or the dentist drill, and saw pretty red lights the texture and sparkle of a shimmery red dress. The doctor instructed me softly a few times to look up or look down, I think. Frankly, I don't remember his instructions. The whole procedure is only sixty seconds in each eye.

It was nice to get those clamps off. Then they took me right away to get an exam. I started to cry when I could read without my glasses. Then I thought maybe I shouldn't get my eyes all puffy so I held back on the tears. But I was really happy.

After the procedure they surgical-tape these goggles to your face (and hair.) I wore them overnight, but they really weren't bothersome.

On Friday morning I got to rip those goggles off my face. Then I dug around in my medicine cabinet to find one of those tiny print drug inserts, but couldn't find the really small ones that are hard to read. Hubby pointed out that the joke's on me.

That day I went for my followup, and my vision measured as 20/15, but Dr. Norden said it might be even better than that.

I'm 53 years old, and my sight is almost completely restored to what it once was, before Presbyopia knocked on my door at age forty-six. I still have blurry distance vision, but I can drive, and my understanding is it can take a while to adapt to the monovision.

With four different kind of eyedrops, it's an hourly extravaganza for the next few days. After that, it lightens up somewhat.

At first I thought the eyedrops were making my distance sight a little blurry. But Dr. Norden told me I'm in the monovision adjustment period.Okay by me. It's already better than my former beloved progressive lenses.

Three days post-laser, I got my eyebrows waxed. It wasn't my usual girl. This one mashed my eyeball. For the rest of the day and all night I thought she'd ripped my velcro. I called and got a sanity checkup with Dr. Norden.

"So you got your eye waxed, huh?" said Dr. Norden. I'm used to his dry wit. Moments after my surgery, I had freaked a bit, then commented to him that I'm probably not the only patient that's ever freaked. To which he retorted: "No you're not....there was one eight years ago....but then again, that was over the bill."

He assured me I'd survived the salon assault intact.

Seven days post-laser, I had my followup with Dr. Auerbacher. His report was identical to that of Dr. Norden. He was pleased with the outcome, and said the blurry distance will fade.

When pressed, he guessed that the average time is maybe a month. That means it could be three days or a half a year, as an average doesn't reveal much, but still, I like numbers.

He thought my eyesight is somewhere between 20-15 and 20-10, so we settled on 20-12, but the doc calls it 20-Happy.

On the way out, I said au revoir to the eyeglasses ladies in Pearle Vision. I told them that before, I couldn't read the big words "SMART BALANCE" on the butter, but now I can read the patent numbers on the back. This picture of the patent numbers is taken with a camera and a magnifying glass.

Those progressive lenses were also transitionals, so now that they're useless, I have to get in the habit of wearing sunglasses. At the drugstore I discovered they make sunglasses just for driving. Then I found a cool little overhead sunglasses container in my van that I never knew was there.

I can see!

When I'm tired or in certain lighting, my mono-eyes still act separately. But most of the time, I'm unaware of my monovision. I can simply SEE.

As for side effects they're gone, save but for an occasional red eye in the morning. Here were my symptoms in the last few weeks:

1. Underneath my right eye, far from the place where the surgery was done, I would feel very sore after rubbing eye makeup off, or after putting on pencil eye liner in the morning
2. One or the other eye was red each day
3. Glare at night while driving, but not halos
4. General eye irritation

My eye doctor said maybe the irritation was caused by those clamps that were on my eyes during the brief surgery. They are after all, a little harsh on the eye sockets.

Maybe it can take a while to recover from their impact. That makes sense, and as of week six, all the irritation seems to have gone away. Not bad.

It's now summer 2011, a little more than a year since my surgery. While shopping at Costco recently, I realized it's been several months since I was aware of reading the newsstand magazines with one eye, and using the other to spot the laundry detergent down at the other end of the warehouse. (No, not at the same time.)

I guess this means my brain really did adjust.

Also, every once in a while, when I'm very tired, I become aware again of my monovision. It means I need sleep.

The only other symptom I've run into in the last year is that on the morning after having a few drinks, my left eye is a bit red. It clears up during the day.This never happened before my Lasik.

But ask me if I care. NOT!