After about 10 years of wearing glasses and contacts, I’ve finally decided to have the LASEK eye correction surgery. I’ve asked my optometrist for advise and also looked at available doctors around here but there are so many choices it can get confusing. Also, and this is the reason I’ve waited this long, I’m a bit worried about having surgery on my eyes and all the risks that come with it.
I’m looking for advice and just general information from any people who have had this done. Anything about your past experiences would be greatly appreciated. Right now I’m having trouble just picking out a good doctor.
I had LASIK surgery done two months ago. I’d be happy to answer any questions you have, but I’m off to bed now (its 2am here) and I’ll check this thread tomorrow.
I had it a few years ago and I could not be happier with the results. My vision was something like 20/250 pre-surgery and post-surgery it was 20/15. I had worn corrective lenses for over 20 years and I still remember waking up the first time after the surgery, opening my eyes and being able to see.
I worked at an answering service for a LASIK surgery place. You would not believe how many calls we got about people being so unhappy, in agony, infections, not being able to see at all, people that the surgery didn’t work for, etc. from this surgery!
I’m sure it was just a small amount of patients that had the problems, because they run the people through there like they’re on an assembly line. The majority of people had no problems, but there were MANY that did have problems, ranging from simple to severe.
After working there, I decided to never have that type of surgery. I also talked my husband out of it, just by letting him know that not everyone came out of it without problems. Of course, I told him all the horror stories, too. That helped sway him.
Good luck to you. I hope it all works out for you, and that you have no problems with it!
If you do a search, you’ll find at least a dozen threads on the subject over the last few years.
I had it done myself about a year and a half ago, and it was the best money I ever spent. I’m now 20/15 in both eyes. My advice is to have realistic expectations as to what it can and cannot promise, but don’t be overly frightened by any of the warnings. It’s really quite safe. Just go in with your eyes open (no pun intended).
Also, don’t go to one of those “Jim-Bob’s Burger House ‘n’ Eye Surgery” style places. Go to a real eye doctor. Do your research. Any reputable doctor you see should happily provide you with statistics on their success and failure rates - how many operations they’ve done, the satisfaction rates of their patients, how many complications they’ve had, etc, etc. If you ask and they don’t give it to you, or hem and haw before giving it to you, turn around and walk out and don’t go back.
This is exactly the type of thing I’m worried about (especially not being able to see). How would I go about spotting places like this?
I can’t search as a guest so how about some links for me, Smeghead dear? I’ll write down those questions and take them to the doctor to ask him about too.
Ok, a quick question then I have to get to bed too. How are your eyes doing? What are they like 2 months or 2 years down the road? Tell me about the long term effects.
I had the surgery about a year and a half ago, and am not having any problems at all. I get a very slight starburst effect when looking at point light sources at night, like car headlights or streetlights, but it’s weaker than the glare I used to get off my glasses, and I really don’t even notice it any more. Very occasionally, when I first wake up, my eyes will be dry enough that they hurt a little bit for a few seconds. I just blink a few times and the discomfort goes away.
I don’t get any starburst or halo effect and I have no problem with extended computer or TV viewing. I do get the dry eyes sometimes in the morning but a standard eye drop takes care of it.
I have no plans to have LASIK anytime soon, but I’ve always said that if I had it, I would do one eye at a time so that there would be little or no chance of me going completely blind. If they screwed up the first, I wouldn’t have the second done.
and found surgical eyes , which is dedicated to all the things that can go wrong. It’s an interesting read in conjunction with the sales materials, to get some perspective. Remember that only a TINY proportion of people have problems and doesn’t seem to have been updated much recently, so don’t overreact, but it is still an elective procedure that can go wrong and shouldn’t be emarked on lightly.
Both the people I know have had an excellent result - after the procedure each had a week or two of soreness, light sensitivity and rapid tiring of eyes when using a PC/reading etc, with the concomitant headaches and you’d expect from that, but once this adjustment phase was over, excellent vision and lots of ‘best money I ever spent’ comments.
In my case, my prescription at the upper end of acceptable for LASIK, plus I have a perfectly acceptable experience with Acuvue dailies, so I decided to hang on a few years until theseare an established technology. A factor in my decision was that Phakics promise to be both reversible and adjustable if either the initial op isn’t 100% or my prescription decreases as I age (which runs in my family).
Other than that, my only advice would be to fully educate yourself (lots of excellent material out there) and don’t have both eyes done at once just in case something does go wrong to the point where you’d be happy to settle for uncorrected vision - but then I’m a bit risk-averse when it comes to this since I’m familiar with the experience of not being able to see chuff-all on a regular basis.
Slaphead; -12.5/-11.75 and walking into a wall near you soon…
It hadn’t occured to me to just have one eye done. I’ll have to give that some thought.
As great as it would be to tell all my friends that I am now technically a cyborg, I don’t think this procedure would be for me. Like you, I also would prefer to wait for new techniques to firmly establish themselves. It’s just these glasses and contacts have really started bothering me. I can’t read with contacts in because of headaches and blurriness and glasses start to hurt my face/eyes after a few hours.
In your link there is the line “Given that the natural lens of the eye is not removed, the patient retains the natural focusing capability (accommodation) of the eye for near focusing tasks.” This sort of begs the question, what procedures do remove the natural lens and what other effects does it have? It seems like the type of thing I would want to avoid.
Max Torque, thanks for the link. I’m reading it right now.
I forgot to mention in the OP but my eyes are -5.50 and -5.75. From what I’ve researched so far, it seems I would be a ideal candidate for this. Would my eyes ever get worse again after having the surgery? If so, do I go back for follow-ups or how does that work?
I did it, I had -7 and -7.5, stable for a decade, and although fearing for my ocular health I just had to do it. Like pretty much all near-sighted folks I have a deep hatred for destiny’s little curse (having to wear glasses/contacts all my life) and there’s no way I was going to chicken out of trying. I read a lot about the dangers, I also posted here, and went into the operating room thinking there was a pretty good chance things might go bad. They didn’t, I have perfect vision now (surgery was some 4 months ago). But that was me. My girlfriend digged info a bit more and a posteriori I learned the success rate was something in the high 90%. With 9/10 odds and my determination to stop this curse, it would be a no brainer. Other people might not hate their glasses/contacts so much to take those sort of odds (which might be better - or worse -, don’t trust me on this).
About you being a good candidate, I would say so. A doctor at the surgery center told me only people worse than -8 tend to be ineligible.
you’d expect from that, but once this adjustment phase was over, excellent vision and lots of ‘best money I ever spent’ comments.