Recovery time after a LASEK procedure.
Timothy Asks:
Doctor Chynn:
I am still on the fence about getting LASEK. My main concern is recovery following the LASEK procedure.
I was told that my nearsightedness vision would be affected for a week or two. I have also seen other similar complaints on the web by other people who have had LASEK.
I am a tax attorney who works extremely long hours and in connection with my work has to do a lot of reading from books with small font.
I was wondering if you can give me a sense of how bad my nearsighted vision would really be and for how long. Is it similar to vision after having pupils dilated??
Thank You,
Emil Chynn M.D responds:
I don’t know whom you spoke with, but typically my accountants, bookkeepers, and lawyers are back to full work in about a week.
The typical recovery goes like this:
1. You will be legal to drive in the daytime according to DMV standards walking out of the laser room, but we don’t want you to drive until the next week.
2. You will be legal to drive at night the day after surgery, but, again, we don’t want you driving for another week.
3. Postop days 1-3 are to be spent with your eyes closed as much as possible (ie, almost always) so the corneal epithelium can regrow.
4. You come in postop day 4 to have your bandage contact lens removed.
5. You return to work postop day 5, but can only work 6 hours that day on the computer.
6. Postop day 6, you can work 7 hours on the computer.
7. Postop day 7, you can work 8 hours on the computer, which is why we say you can return to full work function within 1 week postop, but by full function we mean an 8-hour day, not a 12 hour day, which unfortunately is all to common in NYC.
8. The following weekend, you are also supposed to sleep and close your eyes as much as possible, to let the epithelial cells finish migrating and smoothing out the surface. You will notice your vision continuing to improve, so it matches your vision with glasses or contacts.
9. The following Monday, you can work 10 hours per day
11. The following Tue, you can work 11 hours per day
12. The following Wed., you can go back to your typical 12 hrs/day, if nec.
In summary, as a rough guideline, you can open your eyes and read or use the computer for a total number of hours per day equal to the number of days postop you are (ie, 8 hours of work when you are 8 days postop, 12 hours of work when you are 12 hours postop).
This is the rule of thumb that I tell my patients, and it is more concrete and gives patients better guidance for what they need to do postop, so they can plan appropriately.
