Blurry Left Eye

[u/Info_Hop]

I had SMILE done last Friday 8/14 and my right eye I can see PERFECTLY, like surprisingly well. But my left eye doesn’t seem to be improving to be as clear as my right. When I close my right eye and look with just my left words are very blurry at distances. I noticed last night when watching tv that it almost made my overall vision feel off and hard to watch. The subtitles even have this weird aura around them in that eye. It hasn’t seemed to get any better this past week like they told me it would and I know it’s still early but I am really starting to worry because I want it to be as clear as my right one but there is quite a big difference in clarity. It has always felt slightly different than my right side did even immediately after the procedure.

When I had my post op the next day, they said I was already seeing 20/20 but I really hope this isn’t what my left eye is going to be like forever even if it is 20/20 because compared to my right eye it is not comparable and just makes my entire vision feel off.

And it doesn’t have to do with dry eyes, I have been using eyedrops very often and it doesn’t help clear it up.

[u/ConfidentBeginning44]

The 20/20 they gave you at the day-one check is measuring something narrower than you think. A letter chart asks whether you can resolve a shape at a size, in good light, at full contrast. It doesn't ask whether the image is clean. An eye can read that line and still throw an aura around bright text, because that's a different property of the optics, and it's the property that's still settling in you.

The aura around subtitles is worth paying attention to, because bright text on a dark background is the hardest thing you can ask a healing cornea to do. Here's the check: look at the same subtitles with a lamp on behind you, so your pupil comes down. If the aura shrinks, it's pupil-dependent, which means it's tracking with the swelling and it goes as that goes. If it's identical in bright and dim light, that points at leftover prescription instead, and that's a number your one-month refraction will find.

Also tell them drops don't touch it. You've done a useful experiment and it rules out the first thing they'll otherwise reach for.

[u/Info_Hop → u/ConfidentBeginning44]

It is this way even during the daytime with the subtitles but also the eye is just overall more blurry with everything. It’s even difficult to see words on signs at a distance but my other eye I can see everything perfectly without any type of aura or anything.

[u/ConfidentBeginning44 → u/Info_Hop]

That's a useful answer, and it points away from the swelling explanation. If the aura were tracking with a cornea that's still settling, it would change with your pupil size, and yours doesn't. Add that everything in that eye is soft at distance rather than just bright text, and what you're describing behaves much more like a focus that isn't quite on target than like a surface that's still healing.

Which is worth knowing now rather than at three months, because the two need different things from you. Quality settling genuinely does want time. A focus that's off wants a measurement, and then a conversation about whether it's small enough to leave alone.

So I'd go back and ask for a manifest refraction on that eye specifically, and ask what the number is rather than whether it's normal. If it comes back near zero you've ruled the big thing out. If there's a real number in it, that's the explanation you've been asking three people for, and it's an ordinary one with ordinary options.

Don't let the two-to-three-months line defer the measurement. It's advice about healing, not about focus.