I had incredibly horrible eyesight as a child. The kind that required bifocals and quarter inch glass for my constant waking eyewear. This gave me a bit of a complex and I switched to contact lenses as soon as I was old enough. Only, being an outdoorsy tomboy, this came with its own set of issues. I’d constantly forget to take them out at night, or would get dirt and grime near my eye, leading to frequent eye irritation and infection.

My parents, worrying about my ability to keep clean and on top of eye care purchasing as an adult, decided the best course of action would be to gift me LASIK eye surgery as a graduating present. As of today, this remains the greatest present I have ever received.

The process itself was incredibly painful but mercifully short. My procedure was nearly a decade ago, and friends who have more recently undergone LASIK report that the process remains wholly the same with some patient improvements.

They begin with the standard eye exam before bringing you into a dentist-like room in which you’re lying face-up next to the LASIK machine. Once you’re situated, they put drops in your eyes before taping up your eyelids. Today, they use a metal clamp called a speculum to help keep your eyelids still and wide open. But during my LASIK eye surgery, I was told to stay focused on a red dot and bank on sheer willpower. I remained incredibly stone-still for a fidgety person and could feel the laser, or some sort of incredibly painful device, cut through my eye. But it was brief, less than a minute, and a strong desire to have both eyes functional kept me stoic for the next one. From office entrance to exit, the whole process lasted barely an hour.

This procedure has changed a bit since then. They use numbing eye drops, and some offices will offer a mild oral sedative to keep you free from pain. Maybe I had some drops, but I sure didn’t feel their effect. Regardless, you will have to be awake for the operation. Another device utilizes suction pressure to keep your eye stabilized, but also has the effect of turning your vision into static. Either a scalpel-like blade or laser then gets used to cut and correct your eye.

After the procedure, the office will give you special darkened glasses to protect your eyes and tell you to avoid direct sunlight and bright rooms. I couldn’t help peeking out from underneath. On the trip home, I noticed immediate, impossibly true improvement. By the next day, I was seeing 20/20, on my own, for the first time in my entire remembered life.

It’s been many years since my LASIK eye procedure, and I can still see just as amazing as I did that first week after. The cost has been more than made up by never having to pay for glasses, contacts, or any relating eye care costs, and I would 100 percent make the decision to undergo it again, pain and all.

However, my main advice for anyone looking into LASIK eye surgery would be to ask their surgeon for numbing eye drops or oral sedatives for the pain. I wish I had been better prepared or warned about that part; brief as it was, the pain blindsided and frightened me.

Additionally, ask whether they offer enhancements after the initial surgery. Some offices will offer free enhancements for a year, others include a lifetime enhancement policy. My uncle’s eyes regressed after the first few months following his own LASIK surgery, requiring him to go back for a follow-up. Having the process done fairly young, I also expect I’ll need a follow-up at some point, and while I think the costs are well worth it, it’s nice to have a lifetime guarantee clause.

Finally, find a surgeon who has been performing LASIK procedures for at least a decade. The procedure has been around since the 1990s, so finding a specialist who has undergone tens of thousands of LASIK surgeries in your area shouldn’t be hard. It is your eyes after all, and they deserve the best.

One of the most interesting side effects my own surgery was that before treatment, I would often dream in my natural eye state. Meaning my dreams and nightmares were constantly seen through blurry vision. Immediately following my treatment and to this day, my dreams have all been in my corrected and now true vision.