Nothing hits closer to home than a REAL patient’s REAL story about surgery. This is a real testimony from a patient of our very own Dr. Frank Spektor’s. Dr. Spektor performed her VIsian ICL surgery in January of this year and she sat with us to describe her experience.
When Kristi came in to talk to Dr. Spektor about LASIK, all she could remember seeing was colors, lights and masses.
She was considered highly myopic with a prescription of -11.50 and -12.00. When someone is myopic, it means they are nearsighted (can’t see far) and being highly myopic like Kristi means that a patient can only see what is extremely close to them.
Before surgery she recalls how hard it was to put on makeup without glasses and how difficult it was to shower without glasses. Many people refer to “seeing the alarm clock” when they talk about the severity of their vision loss. Kristi explained “I couldn’t even tell you if there was an alarm clock on the nightstand!” She remembers that bright lights would make it hard to see, it was impossible to exercise or to do things that mean so much like take her young daughter swimming. All things we take for granted.
At her LASIK evaluation Dr. Spektor explained to Kristi that due to her very high myopia, she was not a LASIK candidate. Many aspects are involved in whether or not a patient is a candidate for LASIK. One of these aspects is the severity of their myopia/nearsightedness. Fortunately, for Kristi, her husband had just been told he was also not a LASIK candidate 3 years prior and he had chosen to go the route of the Visian ICL. Her husband had chosen ICL not because of his myopia but because his corneas were not thick enough to qualify for LASIK.
Kristi says she chose the ICL for a lot of reasons, but she specifically liked the thought that ICL surgery is not permanent. What really affected us is when she told us “I have a 3 year old duaghter that I need to see grow up, so the non-permanence really appealed to me even more.”
Many people have heard of LASIK but not as much about the option of the Visian ICL. The Visian ICL is a special lens made of artificial materials that is placed in the eye of eligible candidates to correct vision. The tiny ICL is placed in the eye through a very small incision and positioned in a space behind the iris and in front of the natural lens. The ICL works with the natural crystalline lens of our eye to correct vision and the ICL’s power is calculated based on a patient’s prescription.
On January 10, 2013, Kristi had Visian ICL surgery with Dr. Spektor and can now see the alarm clock on her nightstand. More importantly, she can enjoy her beautiful little girl grow up, and witness all her milestones without having to fumble for glasses or contacts.
Before surgery, Kristi remembers having to sleep in her glasses to be able to be ready to breastfeed and attend to her baby girl in the middle of the night. She strongly feels that having ICL surgery is more conducive to having a baby around and we can see why!
Another great thing after surgery that Kristi wanted to point out to us is that traveling is so much easier. It used to be so hard to deal with bringing glasses in her carry-on, remembering contact lens solution and lens cases, trying to figure out if the lens solution meets the fluid ounce limit or needs to be in a checked bag, etc.
We truly appreciate Kristi sharing her amazing story with us as we always like to hear from our patients about their experiences.
Dr. Spektor has years of experience performing LASIK at our Center as well as all laser vision correction procedures including the Visian ICL. If you are interested in reading more about ICL surgery and what it entails, please visit our ICL webpage.
If you or anyone you know is interested in Visian ICL surgery or any other laser vision correction surgery like LASIK, we strongly encourage you to come in for a free LASIK evaluation. Our doctors will run all the necessary tests to determine if you qualify and give you surgery options. Call us at 305-598-2020 and be free of glasses and contact lenses by this summer!
