I recently had LASIK done at the TLC center in White Plains and have mostly positive remarks but also a few critical points.
The free consultation appointment can be done at any time and they will tell you within an hour whether or not you are a candidate for laser eye surgery. After my consultation, I was quickly scooted into an office to discuss payment options and appointments. I felt kind of pressured at that point because the doctor only performs surgeries once a week and the holidays and vacation times were coming up and I really did not want to wait until 2016. I decided to schedule the surgery within 2 weeks after my consultation appointment. They make it sound like recovery is only a couple days and you can go back to work as long as you follow instructions, I was a good candidate, I should go for it.
DAY OF SURGERY - Consent forms were signed and payment was made when I arrived. They gave me a sedative and I relaxed in one room before being moved to another room that was right next to the surgical room. I was kept in my comfortable clothing and had to wear a surgical cap and things for my shoes, and the next thing I knew I was being brought in for surgery. Your eyes are drowned with numbing drops and they tape down one eye while they perform surgery on the other one. The device that holds open your eyelids was very uncomfortable, it looked almost like an eyelash curler. Only your eyeballs are numb, so the area around my eye was being stretched and really did not like that part. My body felt relaxed but my mind was screaming," be careful these are my eyes!!" There were 2 assistants in the room with the surgeon, they made me feel pretty comfortable and if you moved or spoke they told you nicely "no talking! " "don't move only 5 more seconds." I thought the machine that creates the flap was probably the MOST uncomfortable part of the whole procedure, as it created A LOT of pressure on the eye and I felt like the machine was on top of my face. The other laser machines were fine, you just have to look at a blinking blurry light and stay still and its done!
After the surgery was over, they took you to a very dark room for a little while, and put more numbing drops in your eye if you felt scratchy and pain, which I did. I was set up in another room to rest my eyes and got shields and dark sunglasses to put over my eyes. During this resting time, you could hear patient after patient being prepped and taken into the surgical room and hear the laser machines go to work. It was sort of like an assembly line and I had a hard time flagging someone down because I was in pain, my vision was blurred and it hurt to open my eyes, so it took about 10 minutes to really get someone's attention to get more numbing drops or ask what pain reliever I can take when I get home (really just Tylenol or Advil). Once my ride came to pick me up, I went home to sleep for a few hours, ate something, went back to sleep and used all the eye drops according to their instructions.
POST-OP - I experienced extreme light sensitivity, red blood vessels that popped due to the device that stretches your eyelid open, eyes tearing, stinging, soreness, halos around lights at night and difficulty reading for about 3-4 days after the surgery. I went back to work on the 4th day and could barely get any work done due to the brightness of the office lights and difficulty reading the computer screen. A friend of mine did not have any of these side effects after the first day of surgery, so it can really vary by patient. If you are considering this surgery, please ask around, as I did, and get a feel for the results short term, long term, and how long you think you may need to recover. I have been considering LASIK for a long time after wearing contacts and glasses for 20 YEARS! I know in a few weeks I will be so glad I did this and even some people I've spoken to who had it done even 8-10 years ago still rave about LASIK!
OVERALL, this office was VERY professional and the doctor was very good and was recommended by my eye doctor. read more
