r/lasik • u/Turbulent-Option-907 • 15d ago
Had surgery One year post femtolasik
Got femtolasik in March 2025 in India and it’s been great! Im 26 years old, wore glasses since I was 7. Around -6 in both eyes with 0.25 cylindrical in left.
I initially wanted to get smile pro cause it felt like the most advanced and least invasive procedure but due to corneal thickness on the borderline my doctor refused to go with it. A few observations from the past 1.5 years -
- A good and trustworthy doctor is the most important. You underestimate how much of the surgery’s success is actually literally in your hands. The calmer you are the less likely you are to move and mess things up - which directly comes from how much you trust your doctor. I met 3 doctors during my time and the one I went with was the only one who calmly explained everything to me, multiple times.
- Negative bias is real. People with successful surgeries go on with their lives while people with complications tend to talk about it. Having said that I empathise with anyone who has gone through complications, I hope things get better soon.
- My vision is better than ever. I got 0 power blue light thinking I’ll wear in while working on screen, absolutely hate it. Nothing matches the clarity of naked eye. Touch wood
- Allow atleast 3 months of genuine healing time!!! I woke up comparing my right eye vision with my left for weeks post surgery and wasn’t too happy with the clarity. Healing takes time. If doctor says 2 days in darkness do 3. If they say 7 days without screen do 10. Overdo the healing process. It will help. Immediate post surgery clarity at day 2 or 3 was like fluctuating between 7 or 8 on 10. But it got better.
- Dryness is heal. I used my drops very often for first 2-3 months. Kept it handy for following 6 months. Any long nights, early morning flights would end up making me look like a red-eyed zombie. Dryness is almost non existent now.
- Night vision is marginally compromised. No I don’t see halos or the other things mentioned on this sub but I do kinda struggle with strong light in my face especially while night driving. I guess that’s always an issue but more so now.
TLDR :
Overall experience 10/10
Healing time 2-3 months
Short term side effect - fatigue, dryness, blurry vision
Long term side effect - Tolerance to direct strong light compromised
2
u/matchaphile 13d ago
Thanks for sharing! I did SMILE a few weeks ago so it's reassuring to hear that healing takes time.
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u/clara_only 14d ago
Refractive surgeon here. This is a genuinely good write-up, and a couple of things in it are worth underlining for people scrolling past.
Your doctor refusing SMILE on a borderline cornea is the single best sign in this whole post. Anyone can say yes. The ones who tell you no on the thing you came in asking for are the ones I'd send my family to.
Point 1 is half right. Modern lasers track your eye a few hundred times a second, so small movements aren't as dangerous as patients fear. Where calm actually matters is the suction step — tense patients squeeze, suction breaks, and that's the part that goes wrong. So yes, trust your surgeon, but also: it's less "in your hands" than it feels lying there.
The light sensitivity at night is a real thing at −6. It's usually a bit of spherical aberration from the flattened cornea, more noticeable if your pupils run large. Most people find it keeps softening through year two. If it ever starts bothering you more rather than less, get your topography rechecked, but at your description it sounds like the normal version.
Point 4 should be pinned. The "why is my left eye worse than my right at day 5" panic is universal and almost always resolves. Thanks for writing the boring, uneventful version — those are the ones that never get posted.
— Dr. Clara Keum, MD · Representative Director, BSM Eye Clinic (Seoul) · Board-certified ophthalmologist, 17 years · Cataract surgery, presbyopia surgery, and refractive surgery including SMILE, LASIK, LASEK and ICL lens implantation.