I had the surgery on January 10th, and went home that same evening with intense itching in my eyes. They were so teary that I couldn't open them, and I didn't do anything at all until my follow-up appointment the day after surgery.
At that follow-up they said that everything seemed well.
That was still early and I assumed all of the problems I had encountered (blurriness, ghosting/slight double-vision, glare, etc) were part of the early healing process; I was told that 95% of the improvement would be afforded in the first week or so of recovery. While there was substantial improvement, the blurriness nor the double-vision didn't go away. The glare remained (and remains) a major problem for functioning in any situation that isn't outside, in broad daylight -- so far as to mean that cloudy days cause me problems.
My second check-up was on February 10th -- normally the second check-up would be a week later, but I live far from where the surgery was done and have to commute a few hours and schedule around classes to get to the doctor. At this appointment they determined that corneal flap created by the surgery on my right eye was wrinkled and they scheduled me to see the surgeon to have it 'refloated', cut and lifted again to smooth it out.
After the lift, I was stuck wearing the eye-shield for another week (which is used to keep a person from rubbing their eyes following refractive surgery), which damaged my sleep schedule (it was incredibly uncomfortable, and kept me from sleeping through the night.) Since then, the problems have been consistent with the first month, and even become worse: I still see ghost images, particularly with my right eye, though with my left as well now; glare remains a constant distraction, especially in dark areas with bright light sources (the front door of the house during the day, for example, causes me a great deal of distress.)
Each time I've seen my doctors and tried to explain my issues, they've told me that I should wait for the problems to sort themselves out.
Increasingly, I find that I am too distracted and frustrated to enjoy the things that I enjoy in my life: movies, television, video games, even reading causes. Almost anything that uses an artificial light source or back-lit screen causes problems, especially in the evening. Presently, using my laptop to write this in my bedroom, at 3 in the afternoon, with my bedroom light on and both of my windows open to allow light in, I'm distracted by the overflow of light from my monitor onto its frame.
Before the surgery, I relied heavily on glasses; I used to say that I couldn't see at all without them, and that was mostly true; I could hardly distinguish more than approximate shapes and colors of anything more than a few inches from my face. With my glasses, however, I was perfectly content. I underwent the surgery expecting that, at the worst, I would just continue wearing glasses and that I would have more reliable vision without them.
Now that I understand exactly what the possible complications suggested mean and research them more carefully, I'm finding that there may be no recourse for the problems I'm facing; "wait and hope" is what I'm hearing from my doctors, and I'm not certain what my options will be if that fails to work out.
I am constantly distracted by these vision problems. I was told that people who have this surgery are often excited to be able to wake up and immediately be able to see; instead, every morning I wake up and am immediately angered and frustrated at facing another day with these problems. I am reluctant to get out of bed every morning because I know that I'll be facing another day of frustration.
I am very unhappy as a result of this surgery; I feel an incredible amount of regret and anger toward myself as a result. I am depressed, in the colloquial sense, though it's becoming severe enough that I'm planning to see a professional; I would be surprised by now to discover that I'm not suffering from clinical depression. While it might seem unreasonable to pin that entirely on the results of the surgery, it is worth remarking that prior to the surgery, I was the happiest I've been in all of my life.
May all your days be bright!
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