A writer for MSW shares his experience going through LASIK. Microsoft’s benefits provided incentive for the vision correcting surgery.

By Joshua Isaac
February 18, 2008

“Look at the light, Josh,” the doctor said.

From what I’ve been told, that’s not something one should do in an operating room during a procedure—or is that run to the light?—but despite what I’ve heard, I try anyway to focus on the small orange blinking light. My right eye surgery went fine just minutes earlier, but my left eye refuses to stay in one place. It keeps crawling back from the light and the doctor’s wishes.

“Keep looking at the light.”

Of course I want to shut my eyes, but a small clamp holds the lids open. I peer as best I can into the light. Meanwhile, three technicians shuffle around me in the darkened operating room as the doctor pokes away. After a brief suction noise that goes “swoosh-swoosh,” followed by a slight buzzing, the procedure ends—no more than 20 minutes in all.

I can’t describe exactly what they did to my eyes, although it has something to do with changing the scope of the cornea, but I walk away feeling as if somebody waxed the inside of my eyeballs and forgot to wipe away the residue. Yet I see better than I did a half hour earlier when I walked into the operating room without corrective lenses.

Hearing back in January 2007 that Microsoft covers a portion of refractive eye surgery** provided incentive to investigate the procedure. I called TruVision at (877) 942-2020 and set up an appointment with a doctor in Seattle. I did this prior to the open enrollment deadline, so once they confirmed that I was a candidate, I set the money aside in a health savings account. With the $500 Microsoft covers, the procedure cost a total of $1900. Utilizing the benefit means that I can never take advantage of the company’s $180 annual credit for glasses (you have the choice to decline using the $500), but hopefully this means I will never need glasses again.

When people ask, I say the procedure was no more painful than visiting the dentist for a routine checkup—not something you look forward to, but easily survivable. Of course, there was a lot more anxiety with this. Will it work? Will they mess up? Could I go blind? For the anxiety, they give you a Valium. As for the questions, there’s research and faith.

I heard about LASIK surgery more than 10 years ago when it first started to get popular. I asked an optometrist back then about the surgery, and she told me that I would be a candidate but I should wait until I’m in my 30s when my vision stops changing, and I’ve had the same prescription for a couple of years. I thought that was good advice, figuring that a decade later we’d know if everybody was going blind or if this too-good-to-be-true procedure was for real.

My relationship with glasses and contact lenses has always been tense. Prescribed corrective lenses in elementary school, I fought the idea of wearing them for vanity reasons. But I realized I wanted to see the blackboard and play sports so, despite the dorky frames my parents chose for me, I decided to wear glasses. Then, as a teenager, I made the move to contact lenses which, despite popping out on occasions, worked pretty well for me. In my 20s, I determined glasses were more convenient to correct my 20/400 nearsightedness.That day following the surgery, I napped for a few hours and woke up seeing better. But for the rest of the day, I really could not read or look at the computer, because my eyes had trouble focusing. It was not until the next morning that I really had 20/20 vision.

I wouldn’t say that everything went perfectly. My eyes remain very dry, and four weeks later I’m still putting drops in them every couple hours. That should wear off after a few more weeks. I also have to adjust my focus when reading, which is something I never had to do in the past, but it too gets easier with time. And once in a while, I still reach for glasses when I get up in the morning, or think I should take out my contact lenses before falling asleep.

I have to say I feel much better overall. Glasses tended to give me headaches, and my eyes were much more tired at the end of the day than they are now. Plus I can go through my day without needing corrective lenses, something I could not do since I was eight years old. I would say that makes it worth looking into the light—the small orange blinking light.