I Can See Clearly Now the LASIK's Done!

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
21

Congratulations, bienville!

I had LASIK done in January 2001, and it cost $3600. I don’t think there was more than one type of LASIK available then. At the followup appointment the next morning I could read about 20/30, a week later I could read 20/20. Before surgery my prescription was -5.75 in both eyes. I’m still thrilled with the results. It took me years to stop reaching for my glasses when I woke up in the morning, and sometimes I am still startled that I can see the dust on the ceiling fan over my bed.

The first week after surgery my vision was cloudy. I could see 20/20, but it looked and felt like I was wearing dirty contact lenses. After a few days of this I was starting to get worried, but by end of the week it had cleared up. They told me the cloudiness was caused by white blood cells floating around in my cornea. None of my friends who have had LASIK experienced this.

I had the surgery on Friday morning. I could have driven the next day if I had wanted to. I went back to work on Monday, but I stare at a computer screen all day and it wasn’t particularly comfortable. It got better every day.

I used a lot of eye drops the first 6 months, and I was still using them once or twice daily a year after the surgery. Now I only need them occasionally at night. My doctor said that dry eyes were one of the most common side effects that he had seen.

I do see halos and starbursts around lights at night, but I remember similar effects when I wore contacts and glasses.

The most annoying side effect I have is that my vision gets a bit fuzzy in low-light conditions. I notice it the most when I’m watching TV with the lights off, or when I’m walking around the house at night with only a night-light on. The first year it bothered me a lot, though I never regretted the surgery for a minute. Either it has gotten better over the years or I’ve gotten used to it.

I’ve read that this fuzziness is caused when the pupil dilates to a diameter that is larger than the area corrected by the laser. I can make the fuzziness go away by looking directly at a light, causing my pupils to shrink.

22

Neeener, neener, neener, The Chao Goes Mu made a mistake! :smiley:

Seriously though, I just said to my husband the other day that if there was any “cosmetic” procedure I’d consider it would be eye surgery. I’ve always been astigmatic and a tad nearsighted (about 20/65), until I hit 40. Now I’m astigmatic but badly far sighted. Can’t read, write, work on the computer, sew without the glasses. It’s so annoying and frustrating. I want my eyesight back, dammit! I’ll take the level of nearsighted astigmaticness (yes, I’m sure that’s a word) that I had before over this not being able to see anything that’s closer than 2 feet.

I may got for it next year. I’m sure my health plan will allow me to invest some money in a flexible spending account for just this purpose. But first, I suppose I should consult someone and see if there’s any hope for me.

Good luck, Bienville check back in and let us know how you’re doing.

23

I was able to function perfectly well after about a day. I went back to work a week later (I had a week off coming anyway, so I scheduled the surgery at the start - it wasn’t that my doc said to wait a week), and I felt a bit of eyestrain while pipetting fluid out of a tiny capillary, but other than that, I was fine. I think even that went away the next day.

I did have some pain, mainly because one of the contacts kind of got loose and was moving around more than it was supposed to. But it wasn’t bad.

And now, I get to feel smug every night when my girlfriend has to take her contacts out and get her glasses.

24

It takes time. Before I had mine done I was extremely nearsighted, needing my distance glasses even for reading, and to find my way around the house, and immediately afterwards I found I had trouble focusing, especially for reading. I actually went out and bought reading glasses to help with that, but found I was able to manage without them fairly soon, like in a couple of weeks.

25

I think my vision in the pre-operation days, with glasses, was a little better than what I have now, but I’m still hysterically happy as well. Not having to use glasses to find my way to the bathroom, and being able to wear sunglasses, is fantastic.

26

Well, I am going for a free Evaluation in a few weeks. Thanks for the Nudge everyone.

Jim

27

I’m going to look into getting a consulation too. I wasn’t a good candidate for LASIK, but perhaps another one of these procedures will help. Thanks to everyone who’s answering questions in this thread.

28

Can you see all obstables in your way?

29

I would strongly encourage anyone who’s even considering it to at least get a free consultation from a reputable doctor. If they don’t offer a free consultation, don’t use them. They can answer all your questions and tell you all the options for your case specifically.

30

Who knew bienville was a fly? :eek:

I had Lasik surgery done in 2005. Mine cost $2300 less about $500 that insurance paid. (Who knew, but Humana covered a small portion.) I put the entire amount into a pre-tax flexible health spending account offered by my husband’s employer and had the procedure done in January so that I had a whole year’s float on the cash.

I had mine done by a company called LasikPlus. I believe it’s nationwide. I got the middle tier service, which was done with a Bausch & Lomb laser.

A friend of ours went to a very reputable optometrist firm because he didn’t want to go to “EyesRUs” and got the most expensive tier, which is more highly customized than what I got. His procedure was twice as expensive as mine and, strangely, he is the most unhappy with the results. He has to wear glasses to read and drive. He paid for free lifetime adjustments but was so freaked out by the procedure that he won’t go back.

Personally, I didn’t find it to be painful at all. I thought it was freaky. I definitely would opt for the lithium, or whatever they offer you to take off the edge. But I had no trouble nor did anyone else that I know. I love being glasses free and I also love being able to buy cheap, non-prescription sunglasses.

One complaint: they didn’t tell me that if I paid for the lifetime adjustment plan, I’d have to go back yearly for exams. They don’t send out reminder postcards, so it’s up to the consumer to make sure this is done.

I highly recommend Lasik surgery if you have to wear glasses all the time. It was definitely a positive experience.

31

I had the stereoscopic (?? near eye - far eye) in December of 98, and had an enhancement in 2003. I am a “bad” outcome – not worst case, not Bad with a capital B, just not a perfect testimonial for an ad. One enhancement, slight corneal scarring, allergy to meds used to control the scarring, my flap healed REALLY well which is apparently not ideal . . . Nothing major, just the stuff mentioned in the fine print.

But I’d do it again in a heartbeat. I don’t use microscopes, but I do use a stereoscopic (I REALLY hope that’s the right word) 3-D viewer thingy to look at pictures of terrain for 4 hours a day – no problem at all. My reality depth perception is very good, my night vision is “normal” with glares & flares for only the first year or so.

I used TLC – the one in Billings MT, but I went there because I’d heard good things about the company. I was -7.5L, -6.0R before, 20/15L (which is about, what, +0.25 ish?) and 20/20R after each. Like Draelin, I got Valium, and there was a clock on the wall. Unlike Draelin, I panicked and then burst into tears after I sat up and realized I could not only read the damn clock but see the freakin’ texture of the wall. 5 mg ain’t enough to eliminate the wonder of perfect sight.

It was hard to look at a computer screen the next day, and I had to relearn how to focus. That was strange, but only took a couple of weeks before it became natural again.

The first one didn’t correct my astigmatism, but I honestly didn’t notice – everything was SOOOOO much sharper than with glasses . . .

The enhancement did fix it – I still didn’t notice. I have to assume my astigmatism was very minor.

At 42, my arms are still long enough, but my Opthamologist has warned me that reading glasses are coming soon.

Talk to your opthamologist of course, but I say go for it.

32

My wife had her eyes done last Tuesday, and she’s so happy she could spit!

It cost just shy of $5K all told. She got the “custom wavefront” dealie… I’ve no idea what that means as I wasn’t there for the explanation phase.

But I was there for the actual proceedure (to drive her home afterwards). They had it up on a big monitor to force me to watch as they cut circles into her eyes, lifted the cornea off, used a laser to melt the goo underneath like a freaking ice cube, and put the corneas back on.

I was the one who really needed that Valium pill!

After they were done, the doctor jokingly said “So, when is it your turn?” I said, “Me? Aw HELL no!”

33

I had LASIK done almost exactly a year ago, at the Gimbel eye clinic in Edmonton. My vision is far better than it ever was with glasses - before I could only correct to 20/20 in one eye and 20/25 in the other. Now I’m 20/15 in each eye, and probably a little better with both. Even after a year, I still catch myself stopping and staring at everyday things because I can see them so well. Fall leaves, the moon, the mountains… It like the difference between regular TV and high-def, almost.

I do have some lingering side-effects. My eyes are still very dry in the morning. They don’t bother me at all during the day, but every morning when I wake up they’re incredibly dry, and I have to straight to the eye drops and lubricate my eyes before I do anything else. So I’m going to go back to the clinic for my one-year checkup and bring this up. I complained about it at my one month check, and the doctor said that it could be because I sleep with my eyes slightly open.

I have slightly more sensitivity to bright light, but I’m not sure if it’s because of the LASIK or simply because I don’t have lenses in front of my eyes any more. It could also be because now that I don’t have glasses I’m free to wear sunglasses all the time, so I just am not acclimated to bright light like I used to be. It’s a very slight difference, anyway. Certainly nothing uncomfortable.

You will notice differences. One thing I really notice is that I feel breezes on my eyes and air conditioning in the car much more than I used to, because before I had glass shields in front of my eyes. Also, I have to get better at wearing safety glasses - twice now I’ve gotten debris in my eyes while drilling or sanding, and that never happened before because I always had lenses in front of them.

Finally, I do still have some starbusts around light sources at night, but then I usually had them with glasses too because by evening my glasses wouldn’t be perfectly clean so they’d throw starbursts from the film on them. I had fairly bad halos around light sources for the first couple of months after surgery, but they’ve faded away to almost insignificance now - I never notice them.

All in all, I’m very pleased. It’s a major lifestyle improvement. After 40 years of always fussing wth glasses, it’s hard to even remember how annoying they used to be.

34

Hey sorry to take so long to check in, looking at a computer screen is the one thing that had been difficult for me up until today.

It’s now been four days since the surgery. I still had a little bit of swelling until yesterday. I see halos around lights at night, but before surgery lights at night all blurred together, now at least I can distinguish between them.

I did have a newer variation of LASIK, but I forget the name. I can ask at my second follow-up appointment on Wednesday (but this Thread may be a Zombie by then).

The cost was $42,000 which included my initial visit to the optometrist, the surgery with the opthamologist, prescription eyedrops, big ugly sunglasses, and all surgery-related follow-ups with both the optometrist and the opthamologist.

Seeing wonderfully!

Feeling great!

35

(bolding mine) I hope your vision is blurry or else you got robbed!

36

$4,200

Thanks for the correction!

37

The custom wavefront thing is a way of getting extra precision on your correction. They use lasers and whatnot to take a very detailed picture of the surface of your cornea. They can then load this into the cutting machine, which can figure out exactly how to compensate for all your little imperfections and variations to get the best possible surface on your eye. This is opposed to the old way, in which they do a regular old eye exam (mostly), then just essentially tell the laser to put your glasses prescription on your eye.

It wasn’t an option for me, because there’s no custom PRK available. My doctor, though, said in his opinion, it wasn’t worth the extra money for most people. Unless your eyes have a lot of bumps and valleys and whatnot on the surface, you probably wouldn’t notice any difference in the result between regular and custom LASIK. Or so he said. I tend to believe him, since he had no reason to lie to me.

38

I always get confused with farsighted and nearsighted…

I had astigmatism on the right eye, and problems seeing far with both (that’s nearsighted?). All got fixed. I was 32; Lilbro (also problems seeing far, but no astigmatism) was 25 when he got his. For both of us, a deciding factor was very stable prescriptions; mine hadn’t changed since I was 14; Dad (astigmatism in one eye, lazy eye) started needing reading glasses when he was 58; Mom (can’t see right what’s far) started having to take off her glasses to read at 60 and may be needing bifocals one of these years (she’s 66 now).

When did your own parents need reading glasses? That’s a good way to figure out when are you going to need them.

39

I also had ‘Intralase’ which uses a laser to cut the flap in front of the pupil, rather than using a microkeratome. This is supposed to lead to a smoother cut, faster healing, and a more secure flap afterwards, and also less chance of complications since no physical knife touches your eyeball. It seems to have worked well for me.

40

Bladeless is very new, they are basically using a thermal laser to cut the flap in the cells above the cornea. THis cause more discomfort and swelling than the “blade” which is less than a 1/4 thickness of a human hair. Plus with Bladeless they use 2 lasers, you are out for 3-5 days instead of the 24-48 hours with traditional or custom lasik. Custom Lasik is they same as traditional, just a pc of computer software is hooked up to the laser during the prodecure.