Any one out here had the LASIK vision correction surgery, or know anyone who has? Are you happy with the results? I am considering it, and need more input.
My fiancee has had it and is very happy with the results. Her vision went from 20/300 to 20/20. The operation took approximately 5 minutes, she had to wear dark glasses for two days, but no complications. After the operation her vision immediately improved, but her first exam (a month after) showed 20/20 in one eye and 20/30 in another eye. A second exam (a month after the first) showed 20/20 in both eyes.
A friend of mine (a family practice doctor, who also reads many articles about ophthalmology, since that is one of her side interests) advised us that she personally wouldn’t do it (she wears glasses) since, in her opinion, there have not been enough long-term clinical trials to determine the true effects. Also some people report a “halo” effect around lights at night.
As it happens, I had my eyes lasered yesterday (roughly 22 hours ago). It’s way too early for me to know what my final vision numbers will be, but I swear that my vision this morning is clearer than it’s ever been using glasses or contacts.
The operation itself took about 20 minutes (ten minutes per eye). I’ll comment another time about waiting three hours for my turn because the doctors were way behind schedule (%&*@#!$!).
I was warned that my eyes would feel scratchy for a few hours after the operation, and they did. I was given a prescription for pain medicine, but all I took was an Advil and a nap.
I was lucky in that a coworker’s wife had the operation a week before I did, and he mentioned that her vision was only 20/75 when they did the preliminary exam an hour after the operation but was excellent the next morning - at my exam a half-hour after surgery, I could only read the top three "E"s. (Externally I was calm, but internally I was screaming MYGODITDIDN’TWORKANDI’MGOINGTOSEELIKETHISFOREVER!) I confess to sneaking a peek out from behind the eyemask six hours later, and things still looked fuzzy, but looked a lot better. This morning my eyes were dead perfect.
And the best part was that after I told him I was a golf addict the doctor wrote on an official prescription form that I’m not allowed to be in sand traps for the next month. HAH!
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- How much did it cost? (or would it, assuming insurance didn’t cover anything) - I have been curious about it but haven’t investigated. My perscription still seems to be slowly changing - I’d hate to do it and need it again a year later! - MC
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MC -
That’s my question too. I would LOVE to get it done, and I think I have bad enough vision for it. (You know your vision sucks when the doctor says “I don’t know if they make contacts that strong.”) And honestly…my ONE dream in life is to be able to wake upin the morning and SEE ACROSS THE DAMN ROOM!
Ahem. Excuse me.
“You are sweet, kind, and considerate… Like a grown up boy scout with tits!” - Brian, aka SDMB’s one and only Satan.
I had my eyes done last spring – one week apart (my doctor is very conservative). It was AWESOME! I have worn glasses since 2nd grade, and it is miraculous to be able to wake up in the morning and see immediately, or to do water sports and not worry about either glasses, contacts, or being blind.
They didn’t quite get one eye to 20/20 the first time, and I had a follow-up procedure to “tweak” it, and now it is perfect.
Not covered by insurance to the best of my knowledge. It cost me $2300 per eye, complete (including all follow-ups, and including the “tweaking”). If you have a flexible spending account for medical care at work you should be able to use that to pay; that’s what I did and so I was paying with pre-tax dollars.
I am VERY much a scaredy-cat, and very over-protective of my eyesight, and it took some time for me to bring myself to do it. I wanted to make sure it was safe, and my biggest worry was that there would be an earthquake while the laser was on. (Doctor told me not to worry when I told him that; apparently the machine would automatically shut off or something in such an event).
When I had my second eye done, I ran into a neighbor who is also a television actor (on one of the new Star Trek shows) who was having both his eyes done that day, as was his wife.
Oh, I was back at work, and back driving a car, the next day.
-Melin
Here in Canada there are a bunch of places that are doing LASIK surgery for $999 - both eyes. In Canadian dollars. That’s about $650 American. If you’re thinking of getting it done, it might be worth your while to fly up here for the procedure.
I’ve been thinking about it for a long time, and was ready to book an appointment until I ran across a website titled, “Why optical surgeons wear glasses”. The site showed a number potential permanent side-effects of LASIK and other vision-correcting surgeries. They also pointed out that many of these LASIK doctors used to do radial keratotomies, and swore by them as much as they do by LASIK, but now people who had R-K are experiencing a whole bunch of side effects, and many of the very earliest patients are now completely blind. Pretty scary.
They also pointed out that the doctors will tell you that there’s something like a 99% chance that your vision will be at least 20-30 afterwards, but they don’t tell you that the incidence of other side effects like permanent halos around lights is much higher - as high as 20-30% for some times of eye surgery.
I’m still considering it, but I’ve been waiting for the computerized lasers to go through another generation of development, since improvements have been coming at a very rapid pace. Perhaps they have now, which would explain why suddenly the procedure has dropped in price and everyone’s getting it.
I have been thinking about it for a long time.
My step-mom had the RK surgery before laser came out. She has good eyesite, but the reading glasses are something one can’t avoid at older ages.
My brother had it done and loves it. In my current office type job, at least 3 others have had it done and only one was required to be “redone.”
My landlord/friend had it done with success.
In my old office type job, this was a couple of years ago, one of the women in the office had it done but now has to put eye drops in all the time.
I am waiting for technology to improve some and for the costs to come down a bit before I do it. I am also a big wuss when it comes to my eyes, guess it was the sheep eye we had to disect in high school made me feel real funky about anything touching my eye. Which is why I don’t wear contacts.
Responding to a couple of posts in one message…
>> How much did it cost?
It cost me a total of $5400. I used the Kremer folks. Other places around here (Philadelphia) are charging less - some place called “Nu Vision” is advertising prices on the radio about half of Kremer’s - but my wife was real nervous about my having the operation and wanted me to use the folks with the most experience, and around here that’s Kremer.
>> My perscription still seems to be slowly changing
If that’s the case, don’t go for laser surgery until your prescription stabilizes. Kremer, for one, won’t laser you if your prescription has changed more than minimally over the past year. (I’m afraid that I don’t know exactly what “minimally” is.) They also won’t laser anyone under 18, and would prefer that you wait until you’re 21.
From another message:
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I’ve been thinking about it for a long time, and was ready to book an appointment until I ran across a website titled, “Why optical surgeons wear glasses”.
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Forgive me, but some of the statistics that web site quoted don’t agree with what I’ve been told, either by the doctors at Kremer or from reading the big Time Magazine article last fall about it.
The Kremer folks were undoubtedly biased, but I sincerely doubt that they lied about the incidence of side-effects - lawyers love that sort of evidence if something goes wrong.
The Time magazine article, OTOH, was more of the “warning you about laser surgery” type, and in fact my wife gave it to me to get me to think harder before going for this type of surgery.
The Kremer people told me that about 4% of their patients need to go on for a second (free) operation after about four months because the first one didn’t do a good enough job. Roughly 1% of their patients suffer a (pre-glasses) loss of visual acuity from their old glasses/contacts state of one-to-two eye-chart lines (IE, from 20/20 to 20/25 or 20/30). Another 1% has trouble with night-vision (halos) after six months. The biggest risk is infection - according to them, it’s statistically possible, but they’ve never had it happen to their patients.
According to the Time article, the people at most risk are those with extreme near-sightedness (diopters of -11 or above) and people with bad eyes and large pupils (IE, big guys). That’s because a significant amount of the cornea has to be removed in those cases, leaving very little left.
The Kremer folks told me that my near-sightedness (-5 diopters - roughly 20/200) was on the mid-to-low side of their patients - IE, most of their patients had worse natural eyesight than mine.
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I’m still considering it, but I’ve been waiting for the computerized lasers to go through another generation of development, since improvements have been coming at a very rapid pace.
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Not a bad choice, if you can wait (I’m 52 and didn’t want to wait). The Time magazine article talked of better procedures (such as removable corneal rings) coming down the road in 5-to-ten years. When I asked the Kremer doctor what my daughter could expect if she decided to get eye surgery in about six years (when she turns 21), he told me that folks are working on a new kind of laser that works directly on the cornea without the need for the temporary removal of the outer eye (the current LASIK surgery is often called “flap & zap”, and the new procedure would eliminate the need for the flap). He told me that this would be fantastic, as the highest percentage of problems associated with Lasik surgery are actually problems with the flap portion of the operation. Unfortunately, he thought that particular innovation might be ten years down the road.
My experience was really positive. You want to make sure you’re going to a Dr. with a lot of procedures under his/her belt and go someplace where you’re being carefully examined and tested and not just rushed in and out. If they tell you you’re a good candidate they should tell you WHY, not just because they ran a credit check on you, haha.
If I understand correctly it’s best for those of a certain vision range – if it’s too bad or not bad enough it won’t help much – and a certain age range due to how the eye ages. One of the things they should test for is your pupil size and rate of dialation, that determines if you’ll have a problem with halos in the future.
Ask them challanging questions and make sure they give you legitimate answers and don’t give you the impression that it’s a magic cure with no possible side effects. I asked what the worst-case scenario would be and they said “Of course, if there’s some sort of accidental infection you could go blind or even die, but that’s the risk you take undergoing any invasive procedure, even a appendectomy.” I asked what was the worst situation they’d encountered at that location and he told me that in one instance the patient moved during the cutting of the flap on the eye and it was off-center. They simply closed it back up, let it heal and re-did it a few months later. I felt comfortable that they were being honest and not trying to paint a rosy picture. During my consultation, I also got to meet with a patient who had had the procedure the day before and was in for their follow-up exam. It really helps to actually see and talk to a person who’s been through it.
Prices are starting to come down because a lot of the reason for the expense is the cost of the machine. As Drs get their lasers paid off the rates are dropping. Mine was $4500 for both eyes, but the same Dr is now advertising for $2995 or something. The doctor I go to also has a “continuium of care” guarantee, meaning if the sight in either of my eyes worsens at any point in the future, they’ll correct it free.
The procedure itself is fast and painless, but I’m not going to lie to you – it’s terrifying because you’re awake the whole time and actually watch them cut into your eye. Yikes! I had no problems after, which I understand is a bit uncommon. Many people experience burning or itching or dryness, but since I’d worn contacts for many years I didn’t notice any discomfort. While the flap heals it just felt like a contact lens to me. I didn’t have to wear dark glasses except for immediately after but did have to sleep with protective shields over my eyes for about a week (to prevent you from rubbing your eyes while sleeping, I surmise) and was given medicinal eyedrops to combat infection during the healing process.
Sorry this was so long but I realise it’s a big decision and wanted to give you as much info as possible, anyone can e-mail me if you have any more questions.
Love stinks! (Yeah, yeah!)
I searched for that website using search.yahoo.com and the text “Lasik Risks”, and found something called “I Know Who Refractive Surgeons Wear Glasses” ( http://members.aol.com/eyeknowwhy ), but that web page is apparently no longer on AOL. Unfortunately, I couldn’t find it anywhere else. I did find a ton of other web pages (almost all by folks who perform that type of surgery, so one would expect them to be biased). They all seemed to use problem percentages of about 1%, though.
Uhh, make that “I Know Why…”, not “I Know Who…” It was the keyboard that made the mistake. Yeah, that’s it…
a friend who had it done didnt completely correct his eye, but i think he might go do it again to fix it.
ive thought about it, but too expensive for now… but i might get it done soon…
btw, great nickname. that’s my favorite stones song 
Chief’s Domain - http://www.seas.ucla.edu/~ravi
I had the LASIK procedure done, and I am extremely happy with it. Before surgery, my vision was 20/800 in one eye, 20/1200 in the other. Astigmatism, also. Now, after a surgery and a “touch-up” I have 20/20 in one eye and 20/15 in the other.
Yes, it is scary to contemplate, and I thought about it for a good while first. However, I had (obviously) built up a long and trusting relationship with my eye doctor, who recommended a laser center to me. I went to one about two hours’ drive away, even though there are plenty of places around here that do it, because the doctor there, who ended up doing my surgery, had already done about 10,000 of them. I have since heard bad stories about the local centers.
I had absolutely no pain, not even discomfort, after the first procedure. While it’s in progress, it’s minorly uncomfortable, especially if they have to run the laser for a comparatively long time (for me, over a minute combined–the worse your sight, generally, the longer it takes). I went home, took a nap, and woke up approx. 6 hrs. post-op with perfect vision.
Over the next month it began to deteriorate slightly. You can’t tell for a while if this is “normal fluctuation due to healing” or if it needs to be redone. By one month after surgery, I was 20/40 in one eye and 20/35 in the other, so I got glasses (to use while driving, mostly) and at the six month mark, had it redone.
The second time was MUCH easier, probably because I knew what to expect, and because they didn’t have to cut new “flaps” because the old ones weren’t 100% healed. Total laser time the second time was, like, 8 seconds or something. I kept my eyes closed until I got home (you’re supposed to as much as possible), and when I opened them, they were as they are now, prescription-wise.
As to the “halo” effect, and other side effects, I was told I had a higher risk because my eyes were so bad to start with. The halo around lights at night was irritating for about a week after the first surgery, noticeable for about three weeks, and then gone. I notice that my eyes tire more easily after long uninterrupted reading, but that is easily prevented and, IMHO, well worth it.
My two cents!
I see that it has at least been mentioned that there is the possibility of blindness. It is not common but I sure wouldn’t want to be one of the few that lost my eyesight due to vanity.
One more detail that need to be pointed out, is the fact that the correction to your eyes is not permanent. Many people suffer a continuing deterioration of their eyesight as they get older, and LASIK or RK does not keep this deterioration at bay.
Consult with several eye doctors before you actually go ahead and do it.
If I was discussing Lucy Lawless but I wrote Lucy Topless, would that be a Freudian typo?
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Originally posted by adam yax:
**I see that it has at least been mentioned that there is the possibility of blindness.
**
[QUOTE]
I looked up quite a few websites (using search terms like “LASIK RISKS”) and the only reference to resulting blindness that I found was one site that mentioned that in the million+ instances of PK and LASIK surgery worldwide to date (I believe that “to date” on that page was something like 12/97) there had been no reported instances ever of resulting blindness. I remember another site referring to a possible “worst case” scenario as being a complete destruction of the Corneal lens, and the fix for that being an artificial lens replacement (IE, what they do when you have cateract surgery). I believe they were referring to theoretical risks rather than actual cases.
BYW, another site mentioned that if you are 60 or over, it might be better to wait until cataracts set in and have cateract surgery - which is generally paid for by insurance. (I’m 52 and didn’t want to wait that long.) My mother had cateract surgery a few years ago, and her vision is now basically 20/20. Cateract surgery essentially replaces the tissue that LASIK surgery adjusts.
Every site I visited said that the correction to your eyes was permanent. They also said, though, that LASIK surgery doesn’t do anything for the need for reading glasses as you get older - perhaps that’s what you’re thinking of.
The reason us older types need reading glasses (presbyopia) has to do with the lens becoming less flexible and thus not able to change its shape dynamically to accomodate close-up vision. Unfortunately, LASIK surgery doesn’t to anything to help (or hurt) that situation. I still need my reading glasses.
Boy, I sure screwed up the quote process on **THAT[B} one…
I had the LASIK surgery done last July and now have 20/20 in the right eye, 20/30 in the left. I have a lazy left eye and seeing that well is almost a miracle. I was also farsighted with astigmatisms in each eye. It took approximately 60 seconds per eye and I was done. It was great and I’m very happy I did it.