Haileys SMILE Procedure in Minneapolis MN

Hailey knew she wanted to go back to school in the fall without the hassle of glasses and contacts in her way. She chose the SMILE procedure and now has 20/20 vision with less worry about dry eyes!

Transcription: my name is hailey lasalle and i’m having smile i’m a student i am on a pre-med track very excited i love everything health sciences and so i’ve loved being able to work here and kind of seeing what i’m studying and what i’m seeing every day at work intermingle and it’s amazing outside of work and outside of school i love hanging out with my friends my family i have a really big family and we’re all really close so i would say my vision is fine in contacting glasses it’s manageable it works for day-to-day life it’s not ideal i can’t wake up and see without doing something without putting glasses on without putting contacts in and that has been a struggle i’ve been in contact since i was old enough to begin wearing contacts so contacts and glasses have been a constant in my life for years and i’m over it so i am getting smile instead of lasik because personally i am more prone to having dry eyes just with some of my health history and so dr heckman educated me on both procedures and said i could do either it was my choice but she said that if it were her she would do smile because there is less of a risk of dryness after the procedure everyone at chu vision has been incredibly incredibly accommodating they’ve answered all of my questions from meeting with dr heckman to one of the scheduling coordinators to meeting with dr chu in my virtual meeting with him everyone has answered every question i have had has asked me if i have my own questions and i’ve had every step walked through with me i would say i’m looking forward to going and getting in my car and seeing my mom right after and really being able to see her and more so i know i won’t be able to see her as well but seeing her tomorrow and seeing what that’s like and just being able to wake up every day and see i am so ready i am so excited my vision is incredible it is better than i could have expected it to be at my one day post-op appointment less than 24 hours later i was already seeing 2020 and i could not have imagined that it feels bizarre quite frankly i woke up for about two weeks and i was like am i wearing contacts no wait i can just see and it is absolutely incredible so when i got here i was checked in under the awning and i went through all of the covet screenings and then i went on over to the front desk i paid for my procedure and then they passed me over to the csc reception and i checked in over there and then i went back with the nurses and i’m gonna be honest i was pretty nervous i had a lot of questions and the nurses calmed me down a lot and they walked through all of my questions they went through my paperwork that i went and did beforehand and then they got me all done with my pre-op and then i went back to the laser suite and everyone back there they talked me through exactly what i was doing dr chu came in which really calmed my nerves down he talked me through absolutely everything answered all of my questions i got to hug a little laser gator which was awesome and i wasn’t expecting it and it was pretty much done after that i had the procedure lasted about like i want to say eight minutes and then dr chew checked my eyes and then i went home yeah so when i was under there it just pretty much looked blue like there’s a blue light in the laser room and so it looked pretty blue and i was just i had to look straight ahead and stay still and i was just looking at a light and the light disappeared for a few seconds which he said was normal and that’s pretty much all it was looking like i could sometimes see shadows when he was moving his hand but otherwise blue light my favorite thing that he did was he counted and he was like okay five seconds and so forth he counted in five second increments and it really calmed me down because i was like how am i supposed to sit here and stare forward at this light for 20 some seconds which seemed kind of like an eternity and he counted and it calmed me down a lot it was right when i got up i went back into the exam room and i could already kind of see signs that were on the wall the second i left i got into the parking lot and i could read the two vision sign which i couldn’t beforehand and it was incredible and then i went home i took a nap for a few hours and i woke up and i walked around my house amazed that i could see things like my brother’s face and i was like oh my goodness and my brother’s like why are you looking at me and i was like because i can see you and it was absolutely incredible yeah so a few weeks after my procedure i went on a family vacation and it was so good to be able to see everyone and just driving i felt a lot more safe driving because i could see in front of me which was very nice and being able to like swim without worrying about getting my contacts wet or having sprayed glasses and just like just the stress of oh no i left my contacts at home wasn’t there and it was amazing it’s going to make my life so much easier this is probably my favorite part of back to school it has been my vision i don’t know why i didn’t do it sooner and i don’t know why everyone doesn’t do it because it is going to help me tremendously in school just with studying my eyes won’t get as tired and my dry eyes won’t bother me as much because i won’t be in contact and i won’t have to remember to bring my glasses everywhere i’m very relieved i would say just do it it was a free evaluation and just coming in and understanding what options i have really made me feel okay to go forward and now that i have had it done i don’t know why i didn’t do it sooner the care and respect i’ve received from the employees everyone has taken the time to learn my name answer all of my questions and really calm me down about everything because it’s a big change trusting someone with your eyes your vision is a huge part of your life and i have felt so incredibly safe in this journey and calm and i am so happy that i chose chu vision thank you so much for caring for me and taking excellent care of me i’m so i’m so grateful