SMILE vision correction is a revolutionary eye surgery that corrects your vision, similar to LASIK! Kayla is a nurse at Chu Vision Institute with Dr. Chu. She chose to have the SMILE procedure to get out of her contacts and glasses. Congratulations to Kayla on her new eyes!
Transcript:
my name is Kayla and I’m having SMILE today
I am a nurse here at Chu Vision I’ve been here for about 3 and 1/2 years
Hobbies would be boating fishing um spending time with family um when I do have time I do like to scrapbook um and then spending time with our cats
I’ve been wearing glasses since fifth grade so about 25 years so it’s been a long time um it’s pretty blurry I do need to wear my glasses to see or contacts getting up in the middle of the night like going to the bathroom I I don’t put them on but um it’s it’s pretty blurry without either of those things to help me see
also when just as a woman putting on makeup I feel like I can see my makeup more when I don’t have my glasses on so I do you know like that but I am looking forward to just feeling like Freedom when I wear my contacts I just would feel more and more the past couple months just say I really like not wearing my glasses not having to worry about packing stuff for getting contact solution when you go on a trip or just anywhere and you got to go buy it at the store
so I wanted smile my husband actually had it done about 2 years ago here um he really um was super happy with his results I didn’t want LASIK specifically because there’s more risk of a dryness after I don’t really have dryness to begin with and then I just preferred not to have a flap I’m feeling excited kind of anxious a mix of emotions can’t believe the day is finally here but I’m really excited
for it my eyes are doing fantastic I have no complaints it took a little bit to clear up of course some kind of hazy Vision fogginess um but then it took a little while for the eyes to kind of match each other um but I’d say they’re they’re very much the same as far as Clarity wise and Dr Chu walked me through the entire process um I did not feel nervous nervous at all or anxious during the whole process I actually thought it went fairly fast so Dr Chu like is super helpful for him to talk through the whole thing but his voice is very calming um there’s not a moment where he’s silent and you’re wondering what’s happening um being under the laser it was kind of nerve-wracking to think about um I felt that after talking with co-workers after that I was a patient that you know was just great under the laser um I was nervous about the part where you couldn’t see for a little bit it I didn’t really feel I didn’t feel a thing like the laser touching my eye I felt you know they put the little eyelid separator there but you have a numbing drop administered before anything starts at all and then it’s just the countdown and you’re just focusing on breathing and it’s just I I wasn’t nervous at all it just was more of excitement for me than anything yeah so I remember walking out of the laser room and when I turned the corner I didn’t expect myself to get emotional but just seeing Dr Chu and having the whole Entourage of everybody cheering me on was like super just surreal it was emotional it was happy my husband was there all the people and it just was super exciting and I I wouldn’t change anything for that experience
um my whole identity for like my young adulthood and my teenage years was glasses and contacts so being free from those has been a huge change for my life um I thought a part of me would be losing myself because I wore glasses all the time for me I didn’t really mind wearing glasses I saw it like as an accessory then I started working here and I thought maybe I’ll do that someday but I don’t know if I’m ready for it a lot of patients will say why didn’t I do it sooner and I feel like I think I just did it at the right time in my life but it’s changed just everything the way I get ready I don’t have to decide is it a glasses or a contacts day today at night I feel like I got to take my contacts out cuz it’s time for bed or waking up from a nap it’s not the case so I just don’t have to make those choices anymore which is awesome yeah so um my in-laws live in Red Wing so my sister-in-law is she lives in LA so she was here for a stent of time in October so we stayed at my in-law’s house uh with my husband husband and I and it was the first place that I stayed other than my own home overnight since the surgery so immediately when I woke up I thought I got to get my glasses on and I didn’t have to do that that was pretty cool yeah very exciting
I think the biggest thing like Christmas coming up driving at night cuz it’s so dark now that I don’t have to worry about like dryness with contacts or wearing glasses if I can see really well a really nice thing too even though it’s getting darker now but sunlight daylight wearing um sunglasses is really awesome because I didn’t wear prescription sunglasses so I can just pop those on and way I go
being treated but not like a number but like a patient the way that I see our staff greets patients right when they walk in you feel like you’re treated like another human being and then just seeing the whole process and how everything goes with laser vision correction it’s it’s an excitement you know it’s something exciting things that you do in life like your hobbies and we take all of those things into account why you really want to do this surgery and what how it’s going to help your life after
it is truly a gift to have this I never would have thought that I would be doing this um I’ve worked here for almost 4 years and I just when I started working here would I have thought that I would be in this boat in this chair no having the roles reversed and being a patient and like I said I wouldn’t change anything I the team was wonderful everybody was super happy for me and I think that’s like their excitement was my excitement that was like very very special but I feel like you can get you get to be seen more of who you are versus behind your glasses so I think that’s something that was scary at first cuz that like I feel naked without them but now I’m so used to it you know 2 and a half months after that it’s just one less thing that I have to worry about I found myself after surgery like motioning to take my glasses off you know or pushing them up like this and it’s yeah it’s incredible
I would say your first best choice would just to come in and get a consult see if you’re a candidate I know it might be nerve-wracking and people a lot of times say they put it off because other things come up in life kids work schedules everything just come in to see if you are able to get the surgery first off and then lasik versus smile I liked smile because there was no flap because my husband had it done 2 years ago and I thought it’d be cool that we both had smile together so and it’s a very unique procedure and Dr Chu is the only one that does it here in Minnesota so it’s amazing I love it thank you I would do it over and over again
