One final update.
I had my follow-up today. I have 20/15 in my left eye (Hooray!) and 20/20 in the right. I have no night vision problems. (Hooray!). I have suffered a small loss of vision as far as reading goes. My eyesight was exceptional in this area and now, especially early in the day, I have to keep a book or magazine a little further from my eyes to focus properly.
I have some minor dry eye irritation, but I will be done with prescription eye drops by Wednesday.
Jim
Congratulations! Sounds like a positive experience. Remember, those artificial tears are the best friend you’ll ever have. Keep those corneas lubricated!
My vision is great, I actually see better at night than I did with my glasses.
I have lost some reading vision, it seems like a very good trade off however. NO need for reading glasses or anything.
I love not having glasses. I almost never reach for the glasses that no longer exist in the morning. It is a joy to not need them.
So 5 months later and I am still very happy with the results.
Jim
Huzzah! 8 years later I’m still happy with the results. Halos and stars went away long ago, kind of miss the ability to read a book 6" from my nose, but not that much. Waking up and being able to read the clock never gets old.
I missed this thread at the time but was pondering the subject yesterday so that was a timely bump!
Could somebody clarify what night vision problems are? I ask because I have excellent vision in the dark yet have always seen stars/haloes around light sources. Is that the type of thing that was disgussed in the thread?
That is it exactly. I use to get it badly while driving with my glasses on and some earlier Lasik procedures were notorious for causing additional halos.
Like you, I had great night vision and so nighttime glare caused me extra problems.
Jim
I’m planning on doing Lasik in the near future, but the one thing I’m slightly concerned with is this. I currently have 20/15 vision with my glasses, and poor distance vision without. Is there any chance I’d come out of the surgery with worse vision than I get with glasses right now?
There is indeed a chance. You could, I was told, come out totally blind. I was also told every time I donated blood that it could result in the loss of an arm. Life isn’t risk free, I’m afraid.
Talk to your optheomolojigahizy, choose a good surgeon, don’t try to save a few bucks, and you’ll probably be ok.
I’d do it again in a second, but my eyesight was freakin’ terrible.
I was more concerned with the 99% chance rather than the freakish 1% chance that the laser cuts the top of my skull off…but thanks 
I not sure why my eyes are better than “average” with my glasses, so I wasn’t sure if the method they use could somehow interfere with that. Anyway, probably better for me to ask a doctor than seek out my detailed medical advice from the teeming millions.
If I do it, I definitely won’t be skimping on the price…I rather like my eyes
I came out with 20/15 in one and 20/20 in the other. I don’t know the odds of them getting you to 20/15 tho, sorry.
I can’t talk about it without remembering the Family Guy clip with Luke doing eye surgery - here
I have more questions!
The accounts of how the procedure was carried out was interesting. But I have this issue - I hate strangers touching my head! It makes me tense up and sometimes tremble. I’ve always been this way with hairdressers, optometrists etc unless I know them well enough that I’ve got comfortable with them.
I’ve pondered Lasik several times now but I can’t move on from the idea that a trembling Zelie is not a good candidate for precision laser surgery. Did anybody else have this kind of problem? This absolute inability to be able to keep still? And if so, what options would there be for getting around it other than drastic things like general anaesthesia?
If I’m honest, this has been the one thing (cost aside) preventing me seriously considering Lasik and I’d love to know if there’s any way past it.
I was given a strong does of Valium. My head and eyes were locked into place and the procedure was very fast. I think I posted somewhere above, it was about 1½ minutes per eye. I had the same fear, nothing to worry about. The Valium did the trick. In fact they had to wake me up to start the procedure, I had never taken Valium before.
The odds of coming out worse than 20/15 are probably fairly high, the odds of coming out needing glasses is very low and blindness in an eye with a good doctor does not happen anymore. My Doc is not the best in the area, but towards the top. He has done thousands and his bad cases resulted in 20/40 vision.
My eyes were only corrected to 20/20 with glasses. One eye is 20/15 and the other is 20/20 now. I don’t know if this post is reassuring or not, but not wearing glasses is great.
Jim
14 years later update
Not sure is anyone cares, but my eyes have held up great.
For small print in poor light I need reading glasses now, but that is part and parcel of being over 50 for most people. Distance is still very good, not quite as sharp as 2007 but still around 20/25 or 20/30.
I would still recommend LASIK.
You’re fortunate. I used to be so nearsighted I couldn’t even read without my single-focus “distance” glasses. I underwent LASIK in 2001 and everything was great for a few years. Though I needed readers for the first couple of weeks, I was soon able to eliminate those. (I still don’t need readers.) But by 2009 I was back to wearing glasses and have gone up two more prescriptions since then. I can’t safely drive nor easily watch TV without my glasses.
On the bright side, I’m one of few people my age who take their glasses off to read something.
I got LASIK in 2003 (age 33) and my eyes also have held up great. Though there is some tiny amount of degradation as I go beyond 50yrs, it’s nothing major, I can read screens and books fine if the light is bright, and can navigate my way outside and read signs without any issue (pedestrian only, as I don’t drive). I am monitoring, but it’s a slow change, so if I do need glasses any time soon, I could probably manage with off-the-shelf prescriptions rather than anything bespoke and expensive from an optometrist.
I was worried about that. but so far so good. I know at some point I might need glasses again, but a 14 year run without is a very good start.
I had Lasik in 1999 at age 32. It started to go downhill about 5 years ago, and I now wear a contact in one eye. When I’m tired and the contact is in I need to wear readers for small print. Got at least 15 years of 20/15 though. C’est la vie.
I think you’re a bit younger than I am so this hopefuily won’t be an issue any time soon, but have they ever said what impact (if any) this might have if you ever need cataract surgery? When I had my bionic eyes 2 years back, I remember reading “If you’ve had LASIK, we NEED TO KNOW!”.
Of course, the eye doc I fired tried to send me to someone who would do both LASIK and the lens replacement…
In most cases, if you develop cataracts sometime after you’ve had LASIK done, you can still have corrective surgery. But ensure you let the cataract surgeon know about the prior LASIK surgery.
Oh, I’ve seen a few false rumors that LASIK increases the chance of cataracts. There is zero support for this.
Hey, What_Exit, thanks for the update!
I’d forgotten all about who that was who’d gotten Lasik in the ‘Early Oughts’. So glad to hear such good news. You got your money’s worth!