TLC

Happy new year. I’ve needed glasses for as long as I can remember. I first started wearing glasses when a teenager and although I never hated them, I never liked them either :-). Later in life I was introduced to contacts and I wore contacts for years even though they were irritating and gave me many eye infections and other complications along the way. For the past 10 years or so I’ve gone back to wearing glasses and wore contacts for sports only. God knows how much money I’ve spent on contacts, glasses, cleaning agents, solutions etc. Well, what other choice did I have?

I had first heard about refractive eye surgery about 12 years ago when an old buddy of mine had put the blade to his eyes via an old Russian procedure. He was happy with the results though but putting a blade to my eyes … no, no way Jose!, that’s not me. Then came along Lasik. Several years ago I became curious about Lasik but my optician friend managed to change my mind. Of course he is not for Lasik because he wouldn’t get to sell me contacts and a new pair of frames every other year.

Finally last summer I made a move and started researching various Lasik centers around town. My family Doctor had his eyes done at the Bochner Eye Institute. My optometrist recommended TLC Laser Eye Center. There are also many others such as LasikMD, Herzig, Yonge Eglinton etc. Money wise they are all about the same. I actually booked a time and went in for a consultation with both TLC and Bochner. They each spent about an hour on my eyes doing various tests. I somehow found TLC a better choice for me, but to be honest, I was too squeamish so I did not have the guts to go ahead with it and left it at that.

Come December I started thinking about it again and finally made up my mind to go and do it. I called TLC and booked my surgery time for Jan 4th. To my surprise several people at work and a couple of friends had also done their eyes at TLC and were quite happy with the results.

The people at TLC are amazingly super friendly. They performed further tests on my eyes to make sure all is Kosher. The technology is so advanced now a days and the surgery is all done by laser which is called Lasik Wavefront with Interlace.

The surgery was a breeze. I was very nervous but for no reason. They washed my eyes out, put in all sort of drops in them and the Ophthalmologist Dr. Nick Nianiaris was super friendly and talked me through the procedure. In about 3 minutes the surgery was over. Yes, 3 minutes only. After the surgery, you look up, see the nurses, see the big clock, a bit foggy, but wow, what a difference. You are asked to relax for 24 hours and keep your eyes closed for several hours after the surgery. It’s best to sleep. You get to wear a cool pair of “Men in Black” style shades and put in eye drops in your eye every hour or so. No pain, no burning, nothing… just some minor irritation as if an eye lash is stuck under your eye lid, which will go away within few hours after the surgery. So far so good, and thank God, no glasses, and no complications.

It’s been 2 days since I’ve had my surgery and my eyes are healing well. I have resumed normal activities, but my jaws, still on floor :-).

Category: Lifestyle