How Long Will it Take to Get Back to Normal Activity?

Everyone is pushed for time these days. And so consciously choosing to undergo a surgical procedure on your visual apparatus could only mean one thing:

More wasted time spent lying in bed recovering.

At least this is the idea you would get from traditional surgeries. Right up there along with Johnny gowns, stretchers, and plenty of bad food.

Fortunately, however, Laser Eye Surgery doesn’t belong to this category of surgeries. In fact, apart from the name, there’s little about it that would make you think it was one.

This is especially true about the Laser Eye Surgery recovery process, which is a fraction of the time (and discomfort) or your typical routine replacements, bypasses, and appendectomies.

To get straight to the point: The majority of Laser Eye Surgery patients are back to their normal routine within a day or two.

Even better, if you’re a LASIK or ReLEx SMILE patient, it’s highly likely you’ll be able to return to work the next morning after your treatment.

Just to be sure, though, here at the London Vision Clinic, we tend to ask our patients to take two days off — the day of and the day after their treatment. This allows you to reside in a relaxed environment while taking a bit of time to adjust to your new vision and lubricant drop routine.

A timeline for returning to normal activity after Laser Eye Surgery

To some people, normal activity is diving out of planes and crashing into other people at ten metres per second. To others, it’s having a few bevvies down the pub and watching their favourite series on the tele.

Whatever you consider normal activity, after having Laser Eye Surgery, it likely won’t be very long before you can get back to it.

Expert laser eye surgeon Mr Glenn Carp talks about the swift and painless process of returning back to normal activity after Laser Eye Surgery.

The following is our recommended recovery timeline for LASIK patients. Use it to get an idea of when you can return to certain activities and start seeing them in a whole new light.

Immediately after surgery

• Rest and keep your eyes closed for the first few hours after surgery. Once things have settled, you can resume normal activity at home.
• Be very careful to avoid any activity that could lead to something touching or poking your eyes.
• Avoid rubbing your eyes. Instead, use the provided lubricant drops for any itching or dryness.

24 Hours after surgery

• Take a bath instead of a shower. Avoid getting any soap or tap water in your eyes.
• You can read and watch TV as long as you avoid letting your eyes dry out.
• LASIK patients tend to return to work, but you should keep your eyes well lubricated with artificial tears (staring at computer screens can dry your eyes). This does not affect the outcome, but can cause temporary visual fluctuations.
• Flying is acceptable but again, you will need to lubricate your eyes, as the air is very dry inside the plane.

48 Hours after surgery

• At this stage, your cornea will have strengthened. This means that day-to-day activities such as showering and wearing make up are once again acceptable.

Day 3 activities

• You can return to do exercise that does not affect your eyes, such as using a treadmill, or stationary bike, but not swimming.
• More playful activities like wrestling with the kids is acceptable but be careful they don’t poke you in your eye!

Week 2 activities

• Racquet sports are permitted i.e tennis, squash, racquetball, badminton (but always wear eye protection). Along with the following:
• Swimming (with goggles)
• Scuba diving, snorkelling
• Sailing
• Motorcycling, dirt biking, mountain biking
• Football
• Skiing (with goggles)
• Avoid high-impact sports such as martial arts, boxing and water-skiing until at least one month after LASIK.

If you would like to find out more about the recovery process or book a consultation at London Vision Clinic, leave us a comment or give us a call us on 020 7224 1005.