Questions about lasik turn up in these boards pretty frequently. This is to make it possible for anyone searching for lasik, lasix, prk or laser eye surgery to find relevant links in one place.
This is a 15-page PDF, with pictures and footnotes, by a lawyer who had problems resulting from lasik and who represents other patients in the same boat:
“Ten Common Sense Reasons Why You Should Not Have Lasik” http://www.lasikinfocenter.net/General%20Articles/Ten%20Reasons.pdf
I’m not picking a fight with anybody. But Lasik has been so aggressively promoted that it’s easy to forget that it is surgery, it’s irreversible, and sometimes things go wrong.
Well, I’d been considering LASIK, PRK, “Getting lased” for awhile. Thanks for the heads up and differences in procedures. I’ll be asking my doc’s opinion later on this year. . .
Heh. My eye doctor reminds me every year that I’m a “great candidate” for LASIK. And every year I politely turn him down. Besides the fact that I can’t afford it, I’ve been wearing glasses since I was 7 and (except for a brief flirtation with contacts in college) they’ve been working fine for me for 30 years. If it ain’t broke . . .
I’ve got keratoconus, so I could (a) live with it, since I’ve got a mild case, and continue using glasses, or (b) get LASIK and go blind within a month or two.
I had Lasik surgery 5 years ago. Absolutely no complaints. Had 20/400 vision before and 20/15 now! Went to Vancouver BC to have it done by one of the guys who developed it. Mine were the 29,999th and 30,000th eyes he had performed the procedure on. I’ve heard horror stories - so make sure of the doctor’s credentials and experience.
Look at you little damp-pantied wimps running for cover at the thought of having lazer eye surgery. I had it done a few months ago by a pioneer in the industry here in NY and its been one of the best things I’ve done in my life. I went through the glasses/contact lens phase and now not having to search for glasses or putting in/taking out/cleaning contact lenses, I feel free! The procudure was a lot quicker than I thought and recovery time was just as fast. The freedom of going into a pool or the beach and not having to worry about my contacts falling out was proof enough that I did the right thing. Hey, to each his/her own. Peace.
Look, I had it done a year ago, I really liked it, and I typically post my experiences in these threads as they come up. But what I always mention, and I’ll do it again here, is that the way to go about making your decision is research. Research the doctors in your area, get information about their experience and technology. Go talk to them. Any reputable doctor will tell you exactly what the risks are, as well as the benefits. Hell, my doctor made me watch a video of everything that could go wrong and take a quiz afterwards, to prove I understood.
By brother had Lasic done a few years ago. One eye came out great, with better than average vision. The other eye, well it has halos so bad that he can no longer drive at night.
It is still surgery, and medical science is not quite at the point where any surgery is a sure thing.
Personally, I’d still wait a few years if I needed to have it done.
Well, when you’re as blind as I am, your glasses are almost always in one of two places: face or nightstand. If I take a nap on the couch I put them on the coffee table. Most of the time I take baths and keep them on; for the rare shower they go on the vanity. I have a hard case in my purse for my prescription sunglasses, and when I put them on, I swap my clear specs into the case.
I NEVER lose my glasses. It’s not a problem at all. Really.
Hmm, reason not to have Lasik surgery. Can’t think of any, really. Oh, except for that
THEY SLICE OFF YOUR CORNEAS!
Yeah, yeah, I know. It’s impossibly quick and absolutely painless. I’m sure that’s true. But the fact is that I know now that that’s what happens at the beginning, and the thought of a phantasm ball rushing at me to slice off a part of my eyeball is something that will never, ever go away.
Whether or not it gave me perfect vision afterwards is irrelevant. Because I would never ever be able to open my eyes again.
I’ve been extremely nearsighted for many, many years. So I decided to have lasik.
Guess what. I still have to wear glasses. My results were fair to good. Some of my friends that had it now have 20-10 vision…not me. Now my vision is 20-60 to 20-80.
So for me, lasik was an improvement…but not the solution I’ve been hoping for. They can’t fix it because now my corneas are too thin.
Oh well, my husband and daughter like me in glasses better anyway.
You would absolutely not believe how surreal this is. With your eyes cut open your brain keeps trying to focus your vision and it doesn’t work. It’s like reaching for something with an arm and not finding a hand on the end of it.
That said, I had it done 1/2/01. Still sweet. From pitifully poor eyesight to 20/15. Best thing in the world for me.
No way, no how would I ever get LASIK or anything like it. Even when I had this incredible insurance that paid for almost all of the procedure, and just about everyone in my office was having it done. I don’t care how blind I am, or how much hassle it is to deal with contacts - it’d be even MORE of a hassle to deal with being blind.
I don’t care how small the percentage is. I don’t want to screw my eyes up, and to be honest I don’t understand why anyone would.
At least one guy in that office came through the procedure worse off than he was pre-LASIK. Ugh. Nope, not doing anything that has any chance to make me blind, thank you very much.
If you have it done when you’re young, you’ll need reading glasses when you pass 45. If you have it done when you already need bifocals, they’ll do one eye for close and one eye for distant. Doesn’t that destroy your depth perception? And what if you already have trifocals? Do they do your third eye for seeing your computer monitor?
Ya buncha wimps. I had RK done 15 years ago. Back when it was (honest) Here’s-2-valiums-try-to-hold-still-while-the-doctor-slices-your-cornea-about-8-times-with-this-tiny-knife. And whatever you do, DON’T flinch suddenly.
Result?
Went from 20/500, to 20/15. Long term result? The rate at which my vision deteriorates didn’t change (I lose 0.x diopters per year just like I did when I was 30). Although the procedure “reset” my eyes to perfect, they continued their drift and I’m back in glasses; 2000 bucks poorer, and with serious dry eyes issues to deal with (this is a common result of the surgery). My eye-doc is also a close personal drinking buddy, and he sez the long-term unknowns give him the creeps. He won’t let his wife or kids do it (even tho they want to).
My advice? When you can get reassurance from a 20-year veteran of Lasik, then go ahead with it.
