By this point, I’ve read dozens of success and horror stories alike. The problem is that laser eye surgery is extremely binary, by nature. Every story is either “It was awesome, best decision I’ve ever made, worth every penny, it’s like living life in HD now” or… “It was the worst thing I ever did; I’m in agony, my life is destroyed, I had to quit my job.”
I’ve watched videos of the surgical operation itself (let’s just say that I…learned a lot, but paid the price of education), read aplenty about MRSA infection, corneal neuralgia, blepharitis, keratitis, ectasia, etc.
Siblings, parents and cousins are lobbying hard in favor of the operation (technically SMILE, not LASIK.) Parents even offered to pay for it as a gift. I would have a hard time turning down a $5,000 gift but…(thoughts of endophthalmitis)
The SMILE is scheduled for 4/7. Seeking the wisdom of the Dope masses…
I’m assuming you researched the Doctor and found a good one.
Getting eyes done is great but absolutely not something to bargain shop. You want to try to find the options in your area in my opinion.
Mine was now 16 years ago and has held up great. I used resources at the time to find the top 3 LASIK doctors in NJ and went with #3 who happened to be only a few miles from me.
I’ve watched videos on the procedure and my friend gave me a very graphic description of what he witnessed when his wife had LASIK. It’s certainly not pretty, but most surgery isn’t.
If you’re especially lucky there will be a power surge during the operation and you’ll end up with x-ray vision like Superman had. Just a bit of levity to dispel the worries.
Of course nothing is risk-free. Putting up with your current vision is not risk free either. You make bets with good odds in your favor but high adverse consequences every time you walk across a street. And every day somebody loses their bet. But most folks don’t.
It’s entirely appropriate to be a bit nervous. But if you’ve done your homework, you came to the right decision back then. Any sudden change in your attitude now is just irrational fear talking, not the result of sound reasoning. You get to choose which of those things rules your life. One thing for sure: whatever any family member says should be disregarded. Based on your posting history here, those folks have already proven they really suck at considering your best interests first.
I looked at several clinics and visited two in person. The clinics seemed to take a somewhat serious yet shrugging attitude. Like, they would say, “You have blepharitis, that’s a contraindication” but then proceed to follow it with “You should do the surgery, let’s schedule the date.” I ended up a bit confused.
Yes, they examined things like corneal thickness (I have unusually thick ones, which is good,) cornea shape, cornea firmness, eye pressure, myopia diopters, etc. I was a green light on all those.
The things I’m more worried about is post-op infection, given that I have blepharitis and previous staph outbreaks elsewhere on my skin. Also, I seem to respond poorly to anesthetic eye drops; when I had them before for other eye procedures, they did almost nothing to numb the pain. So I’m worried my eyes will hurt during the surgery.
Yeah, I had it done decades ago, and there was absolutely no pain. Sadly, when I developed cataracts as I aged it changed my vision. But when my second eye was done (uncommonly, I developed a cataract in one eye over 10 years before the other eye), I was able to get a lens with a corrective feature, so I still don’t need to wear glasses for distance.
My eye doctor doesn’t want me to get LASIK, because I already have problems with dry eyes, and that’s a common side effect. My vision is getting to the point that I’m starting to have trouble reading without my glasses, and I mentioned to her last week that that was my original trigger for “now it’s time to do LASIK.” She told me that I should be looking at refractive lens exchange. It’s basically cataract surgery without waiting for the cataracts. It can be done with lasers instead of knives, so it’s much more precise and less risky than before. She says the only feedback she’s gotten from patients is that they wish they hadn’t waited so long. She also described it as the thing that’s going to replace LASIK.
I have an appointment with my dry eye specialist in two weeks, and want to get his opinion too. But it’s appealing, superficially. And expensive.
I know what you mean. I had PRK in January 2022. And I can tell you it wasn’t awesome, wasn’t the best decision I’ve ever made, wasn’t worth every penny, it’s not like living life in HD now. It also wasn’t the worst thing I ever did, I’m not in agony, my life isn’t destroyed, I didn’t have to quit my job. The procedure went fine, no pain, no complications, and my vision isn’t… bad, I guess. Not by the official, Snellen chart standards. I’m just disappointed my vision still isn’t what it was when I was 20.
I’ve always felt my vision problems were pretty atypical. I had better than 20/20 vision all through college into my early twenties; never needed vision correction. Then in my mid twenties, I began to notice something was just ever so slightly… off about my vision, but couldn’t put my finger on what. Until one day, in the shower, I got shampoo in my left eye, and closed it while leaving my right eye open. Suddenly my vision was blurry! I had blurred vision in my right eye!
I quickly made an appointment for an eye exam, figuring something must be medically wrong, but was surprised and disappointed when the only response was “you have astigmatism, here’s a prescription for glasses.” I’m thinking “what do you mean I need glasses, I’m not a glasses-wearer! I wasn’t one of the kids who needed glasses growing up! Something happened to my eye, what’s going on?” But the optometrist didn’t seem concerned, instead seeing it as normal abnormal vision, if you will. He did send me to an ophthalmologist to be checked for keratoconus, but that doctor didn’t think I had it, and that was that.
From then on, I’d go in for an annual eye exam, and usually my prescription would be a little stronger each year. Eventually I developed some astigmatism in my left eye too, though nowhere near as bad as my right. Eventually, things stabilized in my early forties. My degree of cylinder in my right eye was over 4 at that point.
Along the way, I tried contact lenses, but never wore them very often, because correcting astigmatism with soft contacts is difficult and I didn’t see as sharply through them as I did through my glasses. I did like having them to use in social or outdoors situations, though. By the time my vision had stabilized, the astigmatism in my right eye was severe enough that they don’t make soft contacts for that degree of astigmatism. So at that point, the optometrist asked me if I was interested in a referral for laser eye surgery, and I said yes.
I was a better candidate for PRK than for LASIK, because of some sort of buckle or fold in my right cornea. But I was fine with that. The only downside to PRK is a longer recovery period, but because it doesn’t make a flap, it actually leaves your cornea more structurally sound than LASIK. By this point I was in my mid forties and needed reading glasses (my regular glasses had progressive lenses,) and knew that would remain the case after surgery, but was hoping my distance vision would be as crystal-clear as it was when I was twenty.
Like I said, the procedure went fine. I was really nervous because I’ve always been sensitive about my eyes, but they give you a Xanax beforehand. The topical anesthetic eyedrops really work amazingly well; I felt no pain at all. The most gruesome part was that in PRK they have to abrade away the epithelial layer of your cornea first, so the doctor comes at your eyeball with this rotating mechanical brush, but that’s not part of the LASIK procedure. The only “painful” part, as it were, is that immediately after the laser, they have to wash your eye with cold water for 30 seconds, which just causes the kind of dull ache you get in your teeth if you bite into something cold.
I’m still going in for periodic checkups, but I’m disappointed with where my vision is. Presumably SMILE is more like LASIK in that the results arrive quickly, so you won’t be experiencing this, but after PRK your vision continues to slowly change and improve for months. But it’s still not where I hoped it would be. I would describe it by saying it’s much better than it used to be without corrective lenses, but it’s not as good as it was with corrective lenses. They tell me it can take up to a year and a half to fully stabilize. At times I’ve gone in and they’ve told me my vision is officially 20/20, even though things don’t look very crisp to me at all, especially in my right eye. At other times they’ve told me I might be a candidate for a revision, but that I have to give it more time. I can legally drive now without glasses, but I need fairly strong reading glasses for reading now and even need to use milder reading glasses for the computer. I guess what’s disappointing is that I spent the 20-odd years of my life with what to me felt like just “normal” vision, but turned out to have been much better than what the optometry/ophthalmology community considers normal. By their standard, 20/20 on the Snellen chart is good enough, and if you have that, there’s nothing more to be done. But to me, the world still looks frustratingly blurry.
I’m not kicking myself for having done the procedure, but if I could do it over, I don’t know that I would, at least not without trying scleral lenses first. (One of the reasons I didn’t is that my optometrist said she used to wear scleral lenses, and got tired of dealing with them and got refractive surgery herself, and was very pleased with the results.) YMMV, though, as it seems SMILE is only for simple myopia, so your current vision defect is easier to correct.
If YOU are not enthused about the operation I say don’t do it. You should never have surgery because other people are “lobbying hard” for it, especially not an elective surgery. Of any sort. Your statement that other people are doing this is a big red flag for me, even if, apparently, not for others in this thread.
If you don’t have this now you can have it later, when YOU are the one “lobbying hard” and aren’t being pushed, even gently, by anyone else.
This is why i decided against LASIK. My vision is terrible. I’m very nearsighted. I’ve needed distance glasses since elementary school. But my corrected vision is excellent. Much crisper and clearer than what most people have, it turns out. And that matters to me, I’m extremely fussy about glasses and get the very best correction i can (i use glass lenses) and keep them meticulously clean. And a normal result of LASIK is losing a bit of that clarity. People who are delighted with the results will admit they have slightly fuzzier vision. (But don’t need glasses!)
A friend who is a copy-editor was advised not to get LASIK for the same reason.
I don’t know anything about SMILE.
I do know that it’s a bad idea to be pressured into cosmetic surgery. And that’s basically what this is. And if you have a complication, you’ll never forgive yourself, nor the people pressuring you.
As I wrote all those years ago, my vision was actually better than with glasses, especially at night. Oh, so especially at night.
The only negative for me was losing a little on the reading vision side. I still to this day in my mid-50s rarely need reading glasses for anything though.
So well done LASIK does not = fuzzier vision, no idea where that came from even.
OK, I guess I would like to see studies, but my point of datum and so many I’ve spoken to are all overwhelming positive.
Also glasses are far more than a cosmetic issue. Especially if you have hay-fever or similar issues. Dismissing it as cosmetic is rather dismissive.
Finally, the LASIK seems to have actually paid for itself vs. glasses. My glasses had crept up to about $400 and I was lucky to get 2 years out of them. Without glasses the world was a blur. I couldn’t make out the numbers on a digital clock 7’ away. So to find a pair of glasses that were light weight was pricey.
I’m astigmatic, plus the standard age-related far-sightedness.
Back in the day I saw 20/12 in my good left eye and 20/15 in my bad right eye. Today we can still correct with specs to 20/15 distant both sides. With contacts the best I can get is 20/20 distant that’s really more like 20/25 on practical real-world scenes rather than Snellen charts.
I wear contacts most times for vanity and convenience. But I much prefer the way the world looks through my specs.
I would be greatly disappointed in any eye surgery that left me stuck at 20/25 at best. That’d be like watching the world through dirty glasses and a dirty windshield. And probably with no way to “clean them” through appropriate specs. Yuck.
My ophthalmologist has been watching my small cataracts slowly grow. Her advice is to wait as long as possible since the best they can do with new lenses is not nearly as good as I’m used to. Once my cataract-obstructed vision really has gotten worse than the best they can fix it to … that’s the time to make the move. And not before.
Admittedly I’m an outlier. But as @puzzlegal says, the same issue applies to LASIK & other corrective measures. For folks with now-crappy C- or worse vision, a good outcome will give you B+ vision. For folks with A- or better vision, a good outcome will give you B+ vision. Know which you are before you sit down at the machinery.
I think most people are happy with the results of LASIK. My corrected vision is (or was until about a year ago, i think I’m beginning to develop cataracts) significantly better than most people’s “best” vision. The distortion in my lenses is very uniform, and can be fully corrected. All the research I’ve done indicates that I’d lose that if i had Lasik. Yes, i could drive without glasses. Yes, i could watch movies without glasses. But i might lose the veins in the trees outside my window, and being able to read the micro-print on currency.
Also, I’ve had glasses that gave me halos around lights, and they drove me nuts. I realize that doesn’t happen very often, but it’s a reasonably common outcome of LASIK.
I pay a fortune for glasses. LASIK would save me a lot of money.
My wife had semi-botched laser eye surgery in China; I’m not sure of all the details, but I think the laser cutting pattern was somewhat offset from her retina on one eye. It’s not like she’s blind, but that one eye has deteriorated more than the other.
Of course, that was decades ago in a different country so it doesn’t really have anything to do with what you might get in the U.S. today.
Just a bit of levity to dispel the worries.