Many people, and perhaps you are one of them, feel extremely anxious at the idea of having someone mess with their eyes. When you learn a little about LASIK, and discover that not only is a laser beam used to vaporize bits of your eye, but also a piece of surface tissue is cut, bent back to enable the laser to do its work, and then replaced, it can seem even more horrifying a prospect.
This is a healthy response! We all have self-protective mechanisms and reflexes which snap into operation before we consciously notice any threat. If a car careens around the corner to where you’re crossing the road, you’ll dash to safety so fast you’ll marvel at your own athletic ability! If a tennis ball jets right for your head, your eyes will snap shut and your head will duck faster than you thought you could move.
That’s all normal and healthy, and in an emergency could be life-saving. But sometimes, for certain desired events to happen, it must be ignored, de-activated, or somehow made unnecessary. Of all the desirable events in life, surely acquiring clear eyesight would be high on anybody’s list!
Ways to increase your knowledge
One way to gain more control over those protective impulses is to gain more knowledge about the events or circumstances which provoke them. If you think that the missile approaching your face at jet speed is a rock, your protective instincts will take over more mindlessly than if you know it’s a soft snowball.
In the same way, learning more about LASIK will help you feel more calm about the prospect of a highly trained and gentle eye doctor treating your eyes. Here are some ways to expand your familiarity with LASIK:
1. Read about it – in books, magazines, brochures, websites
2. Talk to people who have had it – their first-hand “survivor’s” knowledge will be reassuring
3. Schedule consultations with several LASIK surgeons as part of your procedure for choosing one. That will give you first-hand experience being in LASIK facilities and seeing equipment, staff, doctors, and other patients.
4. Watch videos about it – many websites have such videos, such as Griffin & Reed Eyecare in the Sacramento area, California. They have 27 short videos on their website (recorded during a free LASIK seminar they teach), which cover topics such as:
· How the eye works · How precise is the laser?
· The importance of education about LASIK
· What if I don’t look at the blinking red light during my treatment?
· Close-up view of a LASIK procedure narrated by Dr. Reed
· How the flap heals after LASIK
5. Learn more about how the eye works, how it’s structured, and how it heals itself. This will boost your confidence in your own healing ability and strengthen your conviction that you will indeed survive the LASIK procedure, and be far the better for it. There may be some ophthalmologists in your area who give free seminars about LASIK, eye care, how the eye works etc., and this could be a very enjoyable way to start expanding your knowledge.
6. Watch a LASIK procedure being done. Many surgeons will allow you to sit in on a procedure, and many have it videotaped for people to watch.
7. In a quiet moment, write down exactly what frightens you about a LASIK procedure. · Is it the prospect of having to keep motionless while the surgeon works? (Actually, you don’t, because the best LASIK surgeons now use tracking systems which lock on to your eye and in 1/50 of a second cease work until your eye is back where it needs to be.)
· Is it the idea of a sharp blade? (In some procedures, a laser is used instead of any blade.) · Is it the fear that damage will be done? (Talk to some LASIK doctors to learn about how well trained they are and what mind-bogglingly precise instruments they use.)
· Is it a horror of bright lights being shined into your eyes? (This is done no more than in a regular eye examination.)
· Is it fear of having your head held in a fixed position? (Watching a LASIK procedure will help here, when you learn what is happening around the patient.)
By pinpointing exactly what your fears are, you can move forward in overcoming them. Vagueness tends to increase fear, but precise knowledge tends to dissipate it.
When you learn how fast LASIK is, how easy, how safe, how precise, how well-planned it is for each individual patient, and how many safeguards there are, you’ll begin to feel more relaxed about the prospect. Imagine how validated and proud you’ll feel when you emerge from that doctor’s office with clear eyesight, and a stack of old fears discarded behind you!
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