Gail Schmidt & Family Donate Glasses to Charity

Following Successful Eye Surgery

My husband, daughters, and I are so pleased with our improved eyesight, we donated our old eyeglasses to charity.

But I’m the one who is most delighted – with the results of my CK (conductive keratoplasty) as well as my LASIK surgery at Horsley Eye Center. My eyes are wonderful. They’re great.

I had thought about having eye surgery for years – maybe ten years. I wanted it badly because my eyesight was so poor, but I was concerned about the pain. And there was no pain whatsoever. The worst thing was having my eyelids taped. Otherwise, it was nothing.

Dr. Horsley is the best, and Dr. Sheth is wonderful too. They made me feel very comfortable, very positive I was going to come out of it just fine.

As a child, I was nearsighted. In fifth grade, I had those huge ugly glasses. One of my eyes was really bad; I even ran into doors. Without my glasses, I could not see at all. But the biggest reason I wanted to have the surgery done was because I thought I’d like to be able to read and watch TV at the same time. I’d be moving my glasses up over my head when the program was on, and as soon as there was a commercial, I’d have to pull them down to read. That was frustrating.

My friend had a good experience with laser eye surgery, and the technology is becoming better and better. So I decided I would like to do it. I went to see Dr. Horsley, and I found out that I also needed CK. I had the same LASIK done in both eyes in the beginning so that I could see far. But I had to still wear reading glasses for the really small print. I definitely wanted freedom from glasses. So six months later, Dr. Sheth did the CK in one eye.

The CK felt different from the LASIK. I could feel something was going on, but there was no pain and nothing hurt. (CK is a minimally invasive procedure that uses a tiny probe and radio waves to increase the curvature of the cornea, improving near vision.)

I can see so much better, it’s hard to believe. It’s so nice to wake up and not have to put on my glasses right away, and to be able to watch TV and read. I love that.

My husband and I have four daughters who are 18, 20, 23, and 30. After I had my eye surgery, my husband and two of our daughters decided to have the laser eye surgery too. My 23-year-old is the biggest baby, but after the procedure, she said, “It didn’t hurt! It didn’t hurt! She was so happy. We were so thrilled we didn’t need our eyeglasses any more, we took them all and donated them to charity.

Gail Schmidt
Wellesley, MA