Ya, they have a touch up guarantee with some packages. I guess the machines use some sort of card system to operate and the Dr's pay for the card to turn the machine on and then charge you for that plus the labor. Wapner said he would do touch ups for just the price of the card. TLC had a basic package that included like a 1 year warranty, and a more expensive package that covered custom mapping and lifetime warranty (good through any of their affiliated network of eye centers). After my DLK issue in my right eye (not anyone's fault, it happens to about 1/10 people), I was sitting at 20:20 in the left, 20:25 in the right but 20:15 combined. They offered to correct my right eye to be a little better, but to be honest I'm perfectly happy with my site as it is and don't really care to go through the procedure again if I don't need to. If I regress a little bit over the next few years I’ll probably have them touch it up.
The procedure was different from what I expected, and having gone through it I feel like I should give an account of my experience so you know better what to expect.
When I went in for the surgery, they offered me a valium (or some other sedative) to 'calm me down'. I wasn't nervous at all and don't like taking any drugs unless it's absolutely necessary (went 6 years without even taking advil/tylenol). I declined the pill. I think this was a mistake in retrospect.
They lay you down on the table and put these uncomfortable eyelash holders in your eye to prevent you from blinking. They pull the machine over my dome and then the nurse put a freakin teddy bear in my hands. At this point I was still totally cool and not worried and I asked the nurse basically WTF. Well, they cover one eye and lower the machine over the other and it creates a suction seal to the eye and your vision kind of blacks out similar to when you rub your eyes really hard. This is where it became, uhhh, uncomfort-get-this-thing-over-with-able. They asked me to look at the red light, which I didn't see, but I somehow became acutely aware that I was strangling the poor teddy bear like it owed me money and my toes were pointed due south like I was trying out for the lead in Swan Lake. Lucky for me the machine tracks your eye and you can't really do anything to mess it up, because I was loosing my cool.
All in all it was completely painless and only took about 2 minutes, but once that contraption suctioned to my eye like a pregnant roadie to a pro athlete, I went from zero to get-me-the-****-out-of-this-thing in about 1.2 milliseconds.
I had to go back under to lift the flap to clear out the DLK cells, and that didn't bother me nearly as much since I had an idea what to expect.
