What Can You Do After LASIK Surgery?
You finally got the LASIK surgery you’ve always wanted—so, what happens now? After LASIK, your vision immediately improves. The whole recovery process is quick as well. If you work at a job where the risk of eye injury is low, you can probably return to work the next day. You can even fly in an airplane within a day—just make sure to keep your eyes lubricated to protect them from the dry air of the plane.
Three Days
Soon, your eyes will recover enough to resume most normal activities. Three days out, you can play with children, if you are careful. At least you don’t have to worry about getting your glasses knocked off! On the third day, you can also exercise and participate in outdoor activities that involve a low risk of eye trauma—maybe try skiing without glasses for the first time, or go for a run.
One Week
By the end of the first week with your new vision, you can be completely active as long as you wear eye protection. Go shoot some hoops on a basketball court, shred on a motorcycle, or head out for some neighborhood pond hockey. You can also resume using eye makeup at this point, no eye protection needed (but try not to touch your eyes).
One Month
A month after the LASIK surgery, you can explore your inner adrenaline junkie with extreme sports such as skydiving or dirt-biking, as long as you wear eye protection. For standard sports such as soccer and basketball, and low-speed water sports such as swimming and sailing, you no longer need eye protection.
Three Months
By the end of three months after the LASIK procedure, all restrictions are lifted. Your eyes should be ready for activities such as waterskiing and surfing without eye protection. Obviously, we highly recommend continued eye protection for high-trauma activities such as paintball and skydiving—LASIK only works if you don’t go lose an eye, after all.
See our Post-LASIK Activity Schedule for a full listing of what you can do after your procedure. Whether you have had LASIK in the past few months, years, or never at all, it is important to always protect your eyes from ultraviolet rays when outdoors by wearing good sunglasses. Protect your eyes and enjoy your new vision!