Goal 1: Get relief for vision problems, pain, and anxiety

Goal 2: Address practical needs for dealing with the next several weeks and months

Goal 3: Start educating yourself

Goal 1: Get relief for vision problems, pain, anxiety and depression

If you have any kind of vision problem after surgery, you’re probably getting very frustrated by now, trying to keep up with your obligations and activities as though nothing were wrong. When you are facing practical problems from your vision, there is a real risk of rushing into treatment that may turn out not to be in your best interest. We feel strongly that if you have had an outcome widely differing from what you expected, any additional surgery should be approached very, very cautiously and only after you have a thorough diagnosis that you have confidence in, and thoroughly understand the options open to you and their advantages and disadvantages

Our belief is that you should get whatever crutches you can to help you hobble along until you have had ample time to educate yourself on the issues.

Crutches?

• Glasses. Even if you are still regressing. Perhaps you need two or three pairs. But do try them, even if they only help a little. Some of us benefited from several pairs of cheap reading glasses in different strengths.
• Soft contact lenses. If you are in the first few months after surgery you should not wear gas permeable contacts yet but soft ones should be OK provided you look after them and your eyes properly.
• Eyedrops to constrict your pupils, which will improve your night vision temporarily (for a few hours, that is) so that you can drive at night more safely. Discuss this with your doctor — Alphagan and Pilocarpine are the ones most commonly used for this purpose.
• Visual aids. Brighter lighting (halogen lamps) may help. Adjusting your computer settings to larger fonts or smaller resolution or a different background colour. For those with trouble reading, whole-page magnifiers may help.
• Read about more aids in our section on Everyday Tips for Coping with Compromised Vision or Dry Eye. If you do not find your particular issue there, please contact us and we’ll see if we can come up with any useful suggestions.

Setting some priorities is also in order. For example, if you work and your income is important to the family, we suggest you first tackle whatever problem(s) are making work, or transportation to and from work, harder for you. If you cannot eliminate the problems, you may at least be able to lessen the stress.

If you are experiencing pain after surgery that is driving you to distraction, first of all obviously you want to make sure that whatever causing it is okay and does not require more or different treatment than you are receiving — a second opinion may be in order. Secondly, get some pain relief. Hopefully your ophthalmologist is doing all he can for you. Do not hesitate to also speak with your GP and see what else can be done. Your GP should have all your operative records from your surgeon.

If you are suffering from anxiety and/or depression, first of all we want you to know that almost everyone who experiences an unexpected and worrying outcome from laser eye surgery has experienced the same thing. In fact, most people we know in these circumstances have, at some point or another, had to take medication for this, entirely irrespective of their sex, personality, education or profession. It has nothing to do with being strong or weak. Anyone can suffer from excessive anxiety or clinical depression under circumstances that simply tax their resources too far. Speak with your GP. Find a counsellor. Contact us. But do something. Anxiety and depression will not only make your life more difficult but they can impair your judgement when it comes to making important decisions about your eye care.

Goal 2: Prepare practically to deal with the next several weeks and months

What about work? If you’re doing fine at work, great. If you’re having difficulties, investigate ways to make your environment, tools or tasks more suitable to your current condition, and most importantly be open with your employer about it and secure their help. If your job simply cannot be adapted to your situation even short-term, and you are really struggling, perhaps you would benefit from a short-term disability leave, say six weeks or so — to regroup and focus on your eye care. Above all, don’t let yourself be forced into any major decisions about your job when you’re still early on in the process of finding out what’s going on with your eyes and whether it can be remedied.

Make sure you have the right eye doctor(s). I cannot stress enough how important it can be to have a doctor who not only has the proper expertise for your situation, but is at least reasonably sympathetic to your plight. My sixth eye doctor was the first one who immediately agreed that I actually had a problem that might be making my life really difficult. The emotional relief I felt took me completely by surprise — I had not realised what a strain it had been all that time feeling as though I always had to be on the defensive — that if I didn’t insist there was a problem, they were all quite happy to proclaim me a perfect outcome. You deserve a doctor who will understand both that poor vision quality, or severe dry eye pain, are serious problems, and that you are probably facing a great deal of perfectly natural anxiety about the immediate problems and even more the outlook for the future.

Scale back activities as needed. No one likes to have to do this — but it won’t do you any good to run yourself into the ground. Can you work less hours? Volunteer for fewer things? Postpone some plans? Skip a few appointments? Give yourself some leeway — you have a lot on your plate.

Get help and personal support. Fine, we all like to be superman or superwoman. But as a minimum, you need to be in contact with at least one other person who really understands these kinds of problems and what you’re going through. It may be of practical benefit — they may have some ideas you wouldn’t have thought of — and it will almost certainly be a relief to you to be able to talk to someone about it who understands. If you do not already have someone with a similar experience to talk to, contact us, perhaps we can put you in touch with someone locally or if nothing else we’ll be happy to email with you or speak with you. Also, try to involve your partner, family, or a close friend — give them some idea at least of what you’re going through.

Document everything. We mentioned this before. There are overwhelming practical benefits to writing things down. You cannot expect to remember everything. A written record will be a great reference, whether with your current doctor or any future specialists you consult.

Consider your finances and insurance. Time to regroup. Stop thinking about this in terms of what you paid your clinic and the fact that it was supposed to cover all of your aftercare. That’s all history. What’s important now is that you have a problem and you need to get the best possible care. That may mean going to a private specialist. Speak with your insurer if you have one about their policy for a situation like this. Do not assume that they will not cover it simply because it was an elective procedure — talk to them and explain the situation. (I can’t advise on local practices, because my insurer is in California — but they, although they would not cover the cost of the surgery, have agreed to cover treatment for complications arising from the surgery.) If you are unhappy with your clinic and they have offered you a refund, do not accept without consulting a solicitor — we’re not talking about getting your money back for an unsatisfactory service, we are talking about medical care. — Above all, try to ensure that finances are not going to drive any of your decisions at this stage. We want your best interests to be truly looked after.

Goal 3: Start educating yourself

Learning more about diagnosis: Have a look at our section on Tests Your Doctor May Perform to get a broad idea of what kind of tools are used to diagnose you and what can — and can’t — be identified from those tools.

Learning more about complications: All right, you have passed the stage of dealing with short-term problems and are now ready to look at potentially longer-term issues. You need to get a thorough understanding of the kinds of things that may be involved. We suggest that you read through our Complications for Dummies course:

- Eye Anatomy for Dummies

- Glasses and Contacts for Dummies

- Laser Eye Surgery for Dummies

- Complications for Dummies (this is a long one — just pick the parts that you find easy or interesting)

In addition to that, or instead of that exactly as suits you, you may want to browse through All About Complications for any sections that may be relevant to you.

Identify resources that are right for you: Human and otherwise, of course! Hopefully this website will be a useful resource for you. Everyone has their own style and their own needs. There are internet forums to discuss complications (see our Links Library) and where you can probably directly interact with some doctors who may be able to offer valuable advice based on your description of the problem and/or scans and/or test results. You may find you enjoy researching things on your own — again the Links Library would be a great place to get started.

If dry eye is your only significant problem: Go straight to the Dry Eye Management section and don’t worry yourself with the rest.