Okay, I have expressed my shear (?) terror of having a flap of my eye cut then the laser completing the procedure, all of which takes five or so minutes on each eye.
My brother and I spoke about this the other day and he said it was a piece of cake.
I am rethinking my fear of this, especially since they give you some good drugs…well valium. So, I am interested in your experience about this procedure and for those that were scared, how did you over come it?
It would be so cool to be able to get rid of these glasses. Being able to buy the coolest sunglasses on a whim.
Obviously there are a lot of benefits to the procedure.
Good, bad or indifferent, your experiences are appreciated!
I don’t have any experiences, but after thinking about it for quite some time, I’ve now decided that if/when I can afford it, I’m going to get it done.
My girlfriend had it done a few months ago. The only thing I can say is that it is awesome. She too spent much time thinking and researching it. There is lots of pre evaluation and such, but the procedure is so fast. I took her in and went back with her during pre-cut warmups. They did give her valium (that seems like a good drug I might wanna try sometime. L) and a teddybear to hold. I was taken to another room that had a window so I could watch! Too cool. It was over so fast I couldn’t believe it.
She slept for about 24 hours L. Then had a strict regime of lubricating drops and anti-inflamitory drops for a long time. But she had NO pain, slight irritation the next day, but trust me… she didn’t even complain much so I KNOW it wasn’t bad ;). There are several follow ups for up to a year.
Her eyesight went from pretty dang bad (couldn’t see anything without her glasses or contacts) to BETTER then 20/20 vision. Amazing when you think about it.
Her uncle also had it done about the same time and at the same place with like results. I also know several people that have relatives that had it done. Haven’t heard a complaint yet.
I’m planning to have it done in a year or two. I think the best advice is to go to an experienced doctor who has done the procedure hundreds of times. Most of the bad experiences with LASIK have been due to inexperienced doctors.
Tiger Woods had the procedure done about 9 months ago…and look what he’s done since then.
The cost is roughly $2,000-$2,500 per eye.
BTW, I lost about $5,000 bucks on VISX stock earlier this year (enough to get my eyes done), but I’ve made up for it very well in other stocks.
Would be nice to see long distance w/ out my glasses–very nice.
Your eyes will start “going bad” on you in a few years (around age 40), anyway. When the muscles can no longer adjust enough for near distances you will need glasses, at least for reading. If you do a lot of reading, like on your techchick-ish job, you’ll end up wearing glasses all the time.
Save your money; buy some hip, attractive frames; prepare yourself for bifocals. Glasses can be a complimentary accessory.
I really can’t blame you. I’m a big, fat, geeky, married guy and my life would not be terribly improved by Lasik. But my eyes have gotten bad enough that all of my reading, and my home computing, is done without them. My “work” glasses are to my close-up prescription only, tuned to about twenty inches. I have to recognize people by their voices and the way they walk–no fun at a new job.
But I solved the “cool sunglasses” problem by buying some Wayfarers and putting prescription lenses in. Can’t get much cooler than Wayfarers. People give me the strangest looks when I wear them. Not laughing, surprisingly, but almost threatened. ME, threatening! HAH!
But I’ve seen a picture of you with glasses. You look great with them. And I’m not just saying that because of my confessed fetish for women in glasses. Nor am I saying it because I’m afraid I pissed you off in the “Assholes” thread. It’s because it’s true.
I had it done about a year ago and have not regretted it one iota. Every once in a while, late at night when I have been staring at the computer screen for hours, one or both will get slightly “fogged” or out of focus on me. This is happening less and less however, and isn’t nearly as irritating or frightening as it sounds.
As for the procedure, it was not painful at all. It was, however, fairly visually intense…I also experienced discomfort when they put the little saw device on my eye, felt like someone applying pressure with their thumb firmly and directly onto my eye. That was the only unpleasant part of the experience. On a side note, one thing that I have not read about that I experienced is that I could actually see the laser reshaping my eye…Each time the laser “popped”, a grey circle in the center of my vision got progressively larger. Pretty neat stuff.
I’ve thought about it, but 40 is not far enough away for me to be entirely comfortable spending that much and not being “glasses-free”…I wish…I’ve been wearing glasses or contacts since I was 15…
I know several people who have, and only one of them was not a complete success. The one incomplete success took three tries to get rid of all the haloing.
It’s $1500 here, by “Doctor Jeffery Krouch” at the Laser Vision Correction center. Apparently, he owns his laser, so it’s all paid off and he can do it alot cheaper. I’m going to get it done this fall if I have enough money left over from my scholarships. But I just lost a scholarship (and a pretty big one at that) due to a bad grade, but then again, my mom went through my records and found out they had f*cked me out of a bout $2000 the previous semester, so I might have the money anyway.
Okay well… but hey, “Weird” Al Yankovic got laser eye surgery done, and he’s gone on record to say he LOVES it. No more nerdy glasses for that guy; he’s actually pretty good looking now.
Lasik isn’t without its downsides. You can read this article at ABC News, then go to the Surgical Eyes Foundation Web site for some non-marketing information that’s not all hype. You can read about TRUE success rates, adverse side effects, etc. there.
The cost varies greatly depending on which clinics you go to. While cheap doesn’t necessarily always mean more problems, the most expensive doctors aren’t always the best, either. You want to go with the doctors who have the most experience. For me, I am able to go by recommendations made by my vision care insurance company, which now provides partial reimbursements for Lasik, BUT only for pre-approved and authorized specialists who’ve passed the insurance company’s muster. You might check with your insurance company as well.
Yes, it is true, that when you get to be 40ish, like I am, you will need to get reading glasses anyway. BUT there is a HUGE difference: rather than $2>400 bifocals, (that everyone I know hates and gives them headaches), you get $12 drugstore glasses. Rather that needing them ALL THE FREAKING TIME, you need them just when reading, and for me only fine print. Rather than being unable to swim, or do whitewater rafting, or anything athletic without your glasses, you don’t need anything but sunglasses outside. Rather than having to buy dorky "clipons’ or expensive prescription sunglasses, you can actually get some that are in style, or cheap, or both. In my case I was unable to get up in the middle of the nite and take a freaking piss without my glasses. Now I can urinate with more or less complete confidence that I am not peeing on the floor. You don’t need glasses for driving. Those little line ‘dents’ on the side of your head disappear, as do the dents on the sides of your nose. Before I got lasiks, if my glasses fell off while driving, I was a "clear & present danger’. I could go on, but truly, you have NO idea what a burden glasses are until you get rid of them. Do it.
I am a certified SCUBA diver and would like to do it again if I can afford it. Anyhow my brother has gone SCUBA diving since he got his “surgery” done but I have heard they don’t recommend it. Is this something to be concerned with?
I can’t swim, I can’t hardly do squat where you have to get rid of your glasses. It sucks being an semi-amateur-professional-photographer when you see the perfect shot but you have to swap glasses to get them in the bright of day.
Anyhow, I would like to know if there are many limitations to those of us that would like to get back into doing the things we used to do.
Oh, and I refuse to spend $200 or so on swim goggles. Plus, if we have a family vacation and go swimming, snorkling etc, I am left out because I can’t see all that well.
Also, there is a doc here that has been doing them since it was still in ‘approval stages’ with the FDA or FDC or FWC (FWC = Fucking who cares hehe) that would be the only one to touch my eyes. I gather he is the best in town – who my brother went to. If there is a better doc in Denver I would go that route. I am chicken enough but I want to know that if I spend the money for the possiblity I become blind, I have a doctor that is the best I can find in the state < giggle >.
Actually, scuba diving is given as one of those activities that are supposed to be made BETTER after laser eye surgery!
My suggestion is to check with the eye doctor to find out if there is a period of contraindication wherein you shouldn’t be diving. I suspect it wouldn’t be tremendously long (a few months? Probably no more than half a year or so) but it’s definitely not worth risking if the pressure causes any problems.
I DO know, having read Into Thin Air by Jon Krakauer about the Everest mountaineering tragedy, that you can experience blurred vision if you try to climb mountains at the Everest elevation – that is what happened to one of the hikers Krakauer talks about in his book.
As for not being able to swim, you mean you can’t swim because you don’t have your glasses, right? If some dive instructor certified you for a Beginning Open Water C-card without your being able to swim, I’d make sure his own certification to teach was yanked.
– Your two-weeks-wed-and-still-counting-blushing-newlywed-Mrs. Bagfusciatrist.
PS: TC email me about the buttons. They’re done but I need final confirmation numbers because it looks like your RSVP number has gone up a bit.
I’ll just be over in the corner, kicking the cat out of jealousy. I’d love nothing more than to do this, if I could afford it. It’d be worth it even if it only lasted a year, if you ask me.
techchick, you may want to check this out: I saw on Discovery News a few weeks back yet another new technique for doing this. Instead of relying on your eye doctor’s prescription (which is done with all that old-fashioned equipment) to determine how to reshape your eyes, they shoot a low-powered laser into the eye and then captured the refection. This gives much better information on the shape of the eye, and using this, they are routinely getting people down to 20/10 or even 20/5 vision. Sorry, I don’t remember anything about who or where this is, except for a vague impression of North Carolina.
I’ve been thinking about it as well, but just as I’m ready to take the plunge another scary report comes out.
This week, a report out of Britain states that after 2 to 5 years, 58% of LASIK patients had night vision so poor they couldn’t pass the British driving exam.
LASIK surgeons trumpet the high rate of success in vision correction, but they downplay the risks of other side effects, like halos, starring around point sources of light, permanently dry eyes, loss of best-corrected acuity, etc.
I’m still on the fence, and it’s a big decision. But don’t listen to people telling you to run and get it, just because they had good results. Surgery is risky, and you shouldn’t do it unless you know all the facts and are comfortable with the risk.
You need to get a really solid battery of tests. If your corneas are too large you’re a poor candidate. You’re also a poor candidate if you have unusually dry eyes, scarring on the corneas from contacts, corneas with thin walls, or very high myopia.
