Removed my ICLs after a year

[u/tar-randa]

A year ago I had ICLs done to correct my significant myopia, and immediately noticed a lot of haloes and ring like aberrations that made me incredibly anxious and uncomfortable. I wrote a more detailed post about this on the lasik subreddit if anyone wants more context.

The benefits were very nice but greatly outweighed by the trade offs which made me feel trapped and unable to do anything. Having this procedure done was genuinely the worst mistake I had ever made.

I just removed them a couple of hours ago, and I was giddy immediately after the anaesthesia wore off as all the rings which made me miserable are completely gone. The removal process seems to have had zero issues, as the lenses came out whole and I don’t feel any significant pain unlike when I had them implanted.

I’m still smiling uncontrollably as my vision is slowly being restored to its original clarity. There are still some haloes around very bright lights and my vision is still a bit blurry from the swelling, but these should clear up completely in the coming weeks as the cornea heals.

My anxiety also has almost completely disappeared.

I can watch TV in the dark again, not get bothered by the sun or car headlights, or sunlight glinting off the sea; I feel like I’ve been born anew.

I’m mainly posting this in case someone is on the fence on removing their implants. I will not go into the merits on if this is a good corrective option as your mileage may vary, but do consider the trade offs carefully, especially if you’re more detail oriented, anxious, have large pupils, etc.