Lasik Eye Surgery

[D66]

Doing some research on Lasik eye surgery. Have any of you had it done? If so, did you have any problems with it, and would you recommend it?

Thanks

[D66]

Sorry. I did a search, and found some great info from earlier this year.

[seeahill]

Beck Weathers, the Everest climber who was left for dead but walked back to camp blamed a bunch of his problems on his lasik surgery which apparently screws up your vision at altitude. So don't do it if you're going to climb high mountains.

[TomFurman]

The BIG Lasik place in South Florida does the Heat, Dolphins, Panthers and many WWE wrestlers. They recommended my roommate get cataract surgery down the hallway. They are very good. There are different procedures for Special Response,.. EMT, Firemen,.. and Special Forces... Airborne, Delta.. etc.
Contact me...

[milosz]

Best $4k I've ever spent. Starting in my teens, my right eye started to get worse - at one point I was 20/15 in both eyes, then 20/15 left and 20/100 right; then my left started to get worse. By my mid-20s I couldn't get by without contacts or glasses and hated both. In 2007 I paid for Lasik at a local center and my vision has been great ever since. I was apparently an ideal candidate as I had thick corneas or something - once healed I've had no issues with light blooming or night vision.

[kreator]

I got PRK done exactly 3 years ago this week. It was costly but I am satisfied. I recommend PRK over Lasik. The recovery was two days of misery which you don't get with Lasik, but I think it's safer in the long term.
My right eye went slightly worse than 20/20 about a year after, but I was advised by the doc that this would happen because I was young (22 at the time) and the eyes can still grow. I got it done early because I have military aspirations. The doc I went to has lifetime warranty so if I need a touch-up supposedly it's covered.

I get some halos at night which only really bother me when driving, but the doc told me that this too would be expected. Apparently since I'm a blonde-hair blue-eyed card-carrying member of the Aryan race I am more prone to that type of thing.

[JDub]

Ive worn contacts for 20 years and it gets old. Does anyone know the deal with this surgery when you have astigmatism?

[DrDonkeyLove]

When you turn 40 +/- a couple of years you get near sighted but there is usually a sweet spot where you can see things on your own w/o glasses. I have progressive lenses but there are some close up things I see better without the correction. I was told that when you have the surgery you lose that sweet spot and have to have corrective lenses for everything close up.

I find that to be inconvenient and unpleasant so I didn't have the surgery. Not sure if it's true or not but it was enough to turn me off to the surgery.

[lasalle]

Ive worn contacts for 20 years and it gets old. Does anyone know the deal with this surgery when you have astigmatism?

I was in the same boat, and had the Lasik surgery. Long story short: it was wonderful to get rid of the contacts. However, just as the doctor predicted, as I've moved towards 50 I do need reading glasses. That seems inevitable. Other than that and the occassional dry eyes, there have been no other negatives-no 'halos' or other issues.

I hated the procedure. But it really is just one evening of discomfort.

Final pro tip: if at your office your company offers a Flexible Spending Account, that's the best way to pay for it. You're paying with pre-tax $, so depending on your circumstances and income bracket it's like getting a 20-40% discount.

Good luck.

[LG Elf Ftr/Wizard 7/17]

I had it done ten years ago (this month). A coworker told me for several years that it was the best money he'd spent on himself. He finally convinced me to have it done.
Every since then, when asked, I tell people that it's the best money I've spent and my only regret was waiting until I was in my mid-30's.

[DikTracy6000]

The BIG Lasik place in South Florida does the Heat, Dolphins, Panthers and many WWE wrestlers. They recommended my roommate get cataract surgery down the hallway. They are very good. There are different procedures for Special Response,.. EMT, Firemen,.. and Special Forces... Airborne, Delta.. etc.
Contact me...

What about theater workers?

[TerryB]

I had it done but could only afford half so I see really well until around noon.

[Protobuilder]

I had it done ten years ago (this month). A coworker told me for several years that it was the best money he'd spent on himself. He finally convinced me to have it done.
Every since then, when asked, I tell people that it's the best money I've spent and my only regret was waiting until I was in my mid-30's.

For comparison, what would be the second and third best money that you have ever spent?

[JimZipCode]

I had it done about 12 years ago, around age 35. Lifechanging. Awesome. To echo Milosz, best damn $5k or whatever that I've ever spent. I was seriously myopic, on the order of 20/400 (or maybe there should be another zero?) with astigmatism. The distance I could see without blurriness was about the length of my thumb from my face. Corrected to better than 20/20.

My 3 pieces of advice:

• Get it done at one of those big places that does a million of 'em a year. What I did, I went to the Wilmer eye clinic to get evaluated on whether I would be a good candidate. The doc there told me it was doable for me, but I had a possible issue with corneal thinness(?), so I was only "just" a viable candidate; and maybe only because of then-recent advances(?). But then I had it done at a TLC, with a doc who pretty much just does that.
• Use a health-care expense account to pay for as much of it as you can. That's paying with pre-tax dollars – a big discount.
• Take the Valium.

Doc explained pretty much every aspect of the procedure to me ahead of time. But she didn't tell me that, just before we walked into the operating suite, she was going to lay her hand gently on my forearm, gaze up at me, and coo "Oh, would you like some Valium?" I instinctively went macho, replied with a manner that said "Naw baby, I'll be fine." One of the stupidest decisions I've made in my life. They put a device on your eye that pries your eyelids open and practically extrudes your eyeball, then they do horrible Clockwork Orange shit to your eye. At one point the doc had to stop and say to me quietly, "I really need you to stay still."

If I had known ahead of time she was going to offer me something for anxiety, I would have understood why, and I would have taken it. Don't make the same mistake. Ask ahead of time if they offer anything. (It might be a bad idea to smoke a doob ahead of the procedure – don't the chemicals in that change the fluid pressure in your eye? Used for glaucoma? I wouldn't want to complicate the situation.)

Immediately after the procedure, there was some vision improvement – I could kinda read the clock on the wall – but my cornea was swelling up (as expected) and everything was streaky. It was Friday afternoon: Doc told me to go home, take some Tylenol PM and call it a day. Just go to bed; come in tomorrow for the post-op exam. There were drops, and some lenses to tape over my eye sockets to protect the area. It felt like I had the biggest piece of grit or sand EVER, stuck in each eye, and I couldn't blink it away. And I hated everybody.

The eye irritation had faded a lot by the next day, Saturday. I can no longer put a percent on it, but I seem to remember that I was actually in a pretty good mood when I got to the exam. By the second day after the surgery, Sunday, I could see well enough to drive to the park myself, to take the dog for a long hike. At the time I guesstimated that my vision was about 20/40 or so; maybe not quite that good. That probably sounds bad to some people reading this, but it was kind of a miracle, compared to what my vision had been. Monday morning there was no question – I could drive myself to work quite easily. I had problems the first couple days back at work, in terms of being able to consistently read the computer screen vs papers on my desk. That first day I was constantly moving closer and then further away, adjusting the light, etc. But it got better every day.

It took a while after the surgery for my vision to finally settle down into what it was going to be. It was at least a week, and I kind of think it was more like 3 weeks. The corneal had to heal, and – hell, I don't know what else my eyes were doing. But it was good enough to drive with 2 or 3 days after the surgery, good enough to work with 3 days or so after the surgery, and then there was this long slow improvement period where it seemed like every day I could see a little sharper and better. My vision got so good, that the improvement / fine tuning part seemed to go on for weeks. I don't know if this is an accurate description, but if I started on Sunday at 20/40 or whatever, and I eventually got to 20/15 (just guessing), then it sort of felt like I gained about a "point" almost every day: 20/39, 20/38, 20/37... You can see how at that right, the change keeps going on for over three weeks. But it's very small change, and it's from "usable" to "good" to "very good" to "awesome!", so it was not a problem at all. Just a continual small surprise.

Two other most surprising things were (1) the sensation of breeze on my pupils, after ~25 years of wearing thick glasses (or contacts); and (2) how much more light there was at night, from the moon and the stars. You don't realize just how much light is being blocked/filtered by your thick glasses, until they're gone and you can just see. Moonlit or starry evenings are luminous – I didn't know. Unexpected downside: for the first time I could see while I was taking a shower, and I suddenly realized how filthy my shower stall was. Had to clean it.

My results can't be typical, because I had about the best result imaginable. Lucky, I guess. You probably shouldn't expect a result quite that good. But, man. One bad hour (very bad), and then a dozen great years. Excellent trade off. When I think about how good my result was, I remember that the doc spent a good long time toward the end of the procedure, after all the horrible shit was done, basically taking the smallest squeegee in the world and using it to smooth down my cornea.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LASIK#Operative_procedure
She spent ages doing that, patiently and tirelessly using a "painting" motion to smooth the cornea. Really that part took forever. And I'm so grateful to her now, for her endless patience in that phase. I don't know if that was the secret to the great result, but I'm grateful anyway.

So, the doc told me before the procedure, that around the time I turned 45 or so (about 10 years from the surgery), I would start to need reading glasses. It was inevitable. That has turned out to be true: about 2 years ago I started needing some help. My procedure came with several follow-up checkup appointments, and one of them was 10 years out from the surgery, so I went in for that, to find out just what kind of help I need. Eyes were healthy, but I need "+1.25" readers. Those are the basic readers you can get at the drug store. They come in gradations from +1 (least correction) up to, I don't know, +3 or so. Costco sells them in a 3-pack for under $20. I don't need them all the time. About 2/3 of the time I can read without them just fine, esp if the room is well-lit. I can use my laptop without them. But if the light is bad, or I'm tired, or if the print is extra small (like on labels), then I put on the reading glasses. No big deal.


Let's see, what else should I tell you? I had both eyes done at once, because I'm reckless and stupid. I'm glad I did, because who knows if I would have had the balls to go back again and do the second eye? But it does increase the risk some. And holy god, does it lengthen the time you spend in the operating suite. You spend all that time on one eye, and she's finally done, and there's another eye to do! Agh. I don't really know if the way I did it was the best idea.

I think I hit everything, in this long post. Good luck!

[D66]

JimZipCode,

Thanks for the lengthy response. I've heard about failures with this; people have complications, which I realize happends in just about any kind of surgery. On one case, the person eneded up blind, or partially, and the effects on the persons mind was supposedly so bad that they committed suicide!
Anyway, I read that the number of problems are kept under the rug, but people are making their cases known by creating blogs, groups etc, trying to let people know that it can be very risky.

I'm not saying I won't do it, but I'll think about it more before I decide to...

[LG Elf Ftr/Wizard 7/17]

I had it done ten years ago (this month). A coworker told me for several years that it was the best money he'd spent on himself. He finally convinced me to have it done.
Every since then, when asked, I tell people that it's the best money I've spent and my only regret was waiting until I was in my mid-30's.

For comparison, what would be the second and third best money that you have ever spent?

Hookers and blow.

[Protobuilder]

I had it done ten years ago (this month). A coworker told me for several years that it was the best money he'd spent on himself. He finally convinced me to have it done.
Every since then, when asked, I tell people that it's the best money I've spent and my only regret was waiting until I was in my mid-30's.

For comparison, what would be the second and third best money that you have ever spent?

Hookers and blow.

You have elevated your initial position.

[LG Elf Ftr/Wizard 7/17]

I had it done ten years ago (this month). A coworker told me for several years that it was the best money he'd spent on himself. He finally convinced me to have it done.
Every since then, when asked, I tell people that it's the best money I've spent and my only regret was waiting until I was in my mid-30's.

For comparison, what would be the second and third best money that you have ever spent?

Hookers and blow.

You have elevated your initial position.

As you get older, you learn to appreciate what really counts in life.