You don't want the happy drugs? Wow. I got some Tylenol 3 and some magic liquid drops that I could put into my eye to numb them for about 30 minutes. I won't lie to say that the recovery period did suck a bit. But with books on CD, absolute darkness and a jacuzzi tub I'd go so far as to say it was bearable.

No, the flap never fully bonds with the eye again. You are always at risk from one 3 Stooges re-enactment from having her flap hang-out. What we have reached here however is the crossroads of long-term gain for short-term pain.

In my case I deemed it worth the pain, you chose the easy / risky alternative. Both essentially come with lifetime guarantees, get an annual eye test and if vision degrades measurably you can get it touched up so risk is a relative term in this case.