Like a lot of my fellow nerds (and maybe all of humankind), I was blessed with shitty vision from childhood. In fact, my vision is bad enough that I’m technically blind without prescription lenses. I’m extremely near-sighted - something like a -9/-10. About a decade ago I explored if I could get LASIK and was quickly told it was out of the question (my corneas are too thin). Instead the only option available to me was PRK, which seemed like a nightmare of a process to go through. So I opted out.

Fast forward to ~5 years ago and I had talked to a doctor at Stanford and learned about Staar Surgical’s Evo Implantable Contact Lenses (ICL). It’s a procedure where they stick a really thin contact lens inside of your eye, one that stays in there and corrects your vision, and one that is fully reversible. Unfortunately at the time it wasn’t FDA approved yet, and shortly after that was everyone’s favorite time of life: Covid. That meant traveling to do the surgery (to say Japan or Europe) was also out of the question.

That’s changed now, as FDA approval went through a few years ago and so folks like myself could now easily get this done without jumping through hoops.

So I did it.

It took a nudge from a friend (h/t Dax) to get off my ass and go do a consultation, but then everything else fell into place. If you’re on the fence, its pretty easy:

1. Do a quick consultation (its like a standard annual eye appointment)
2. Stay out of your contacts for 3 weeks
3. Spend 20 minutes of your life being extremely uncomfortable (but not in pain)
4. Results.

Most of this is straight forward, but the surgery itself is one of those areas where you don’t really know what to expect. I will say it was not at all pleasant. They apply some localized anesthesia around your eyes but you’re fully awake for the procedure. The taxing part is you’re staring into a bright light for ~5 minutes, trying to keep both eyes open (ones forced open), while they cut small incisions into the outer layer of your eye. They then shoot in some liquid, put the lens in, and seal it up. Completely painless, but still super uncomfortable. Take a 5 minute breather and repeat on the next eye.

Recovery from there took me 2-3 days. I was able to see pretty quickly (by the next morning), but using a screen was still very taxing on my eyes. This I’m told varies a bit, but doctors don’t really tell you what its going to be like, so just know it was pretty painless for me. You spend a few weeks avoiding getting water in your eyes, taking some anti-infection eye drops, and then you’re done.

It has now been four weeks since I did the procedure. I have 20/20 vision, no dryness of the eyes, and have recovered fully. I was quoted a number that only ~55% have this “idealized” outcome, but I think the majority of problems others see is no different than LASIK: dryer-than-normal eyes. Its not that big of a deal as I’m already staring at screens all day so end up needing artificial tears to survive anyways.

So if you’re on the fence, take the consultation. Its amazing waking up and being able to see.