Lasik eye surgery - any advice or comments?

Almost 5 years ago, my wife went to a reputable doctor in Mass and was told she was a perfect candidate for Lasik eye surgery. She said that she might be pregnant, so they told her to hold off until after she gave birth. (I had worked in western Mass at the time)

Well, she was pregnant and one thing led to another and here we are almost 5 years later and my wife is finally back to thinking about getting Lasik surgery for her eyes.

We do have Blue Cross insurance, which I believe will cover some of the cost, but that was a few years ago when I last checked (I think it was anything beyond $900/eye was covered back then)

She does have pretty bad vision without wearing glasses/contacts. But, having to wear such thick glasses or such heavy-duty contacts is a PITA.

So, any advice or comments on Lasik eye surgery? I know some people seem scared of it. (She has a friend that is a high powered cardiologist that wears glasses, but this woman won't get the eye surgery...)

Seriously, it was a HUGE transformation for me, personally. I'd been wearing contacts and glasses for 30 yrs, so it was a really big change. The freedom aspect has been wonderful. I've had no problems in the past 8 yrs. I still see perfectly. I feel grateful and blessed everyday for my clear vision.

It's a big decision, so make sure you've got a very reputable doctor that's done a lot of LASIK procedures. That's extremely important. I didn't have any insurance coverage for my procedure, but it was sooooo worth it!

:woohoo: Good luck. Feel free to have your wife PM me if she wants more info.

:hi:

Hopefully, she'll still think I'm cute after her vision is better!

they did a fantastic job, at about 1/4 of the price in this country. i had a doctor here here in western mass who is affliated with them for follow ups.

and, it wouldn't be "my" night vision.

You lose night vision. Of course mine wasn't great to begin with. But my surgery 7 years ago was really really worth it. No more astigmatism either!

Some people have issues with "starbursts" but not everyone does. You don't "lose" you night vision.

which I had to some extent before and became worse after surgery. I'm not blind obviously, but its definitely even harder to see signs at night for sure-I tend to get lost more after dark and because of that I do make an effort not to drive after dark. But the plusses definitely outweight the minuses.

She had her surgery about 8-9 years ago and started having night vision problems about a year ago.

but I guess some people have those issues.

I see at night just fine. :eyes:

Thanks! :hi:

I also had extremely bad vision--couldn't even read the huge "E" on the top of the eye chart. I also had an astigmatism in my left eye that rendered contacts nearly useless.

At my 10-day follow up appointment, I was 20/20 in both eyes. :)

The surgery itself is honestly no big deal. I could barely stand putting in contacts, but tolerated the surgery just fine. Afterwards it feels like there's sand in your eye. Not horribly painful, but annoying. I took the Vicodin they prescribed and slept it off. The sensation was nearly gone by the next morning.

I did have a bit of a complication with my left eye. For some reason it was insanely dry, starting about a week after the surgery, and it was actually painful by the end of the day. The doctor placed a tiny (think splinter-sized) silicone plug in my tear duct and the problem was solved. That did slow down the healing process in that eye, though it continues to get better every day.

At this point, though I have 20/20 vision, it's still a bit "soft" (edges can be a bit fuzzy), particularly by the end of the day, more so if I spent the entire day in front of the computer. But that gets better every day. The night vision isn't fabulous. There is a halo issue, but the doc said that would clear up eventually. Other friends who have had Lasik say it took up to 6 weeks before it was really tolerable, then nearly 6 months before the night vision was back to pre-op clearness.

Overall, I'm thrilled that I did it. The ability to wake up in the middle of the night and not immediately reach for glasses is fabulous. And sunglasses! Who knew how fun those could be? LOL

Hope that helps. Feel free to PM me, or reply here if you have any more questions!

I had it done almost 8 years ago. Recovery was a breeze and I've had no side effects like night vision problems or dry eyes. Make sure you get a surgeon with lots of experience. Look at the fine print with some of those places that offer unbelievably low prices.

The one thing that freaked me out about the whole thing -- simply because I wasn't expecting it -- is that I could smell the laser burning my cornea. That was creepy.

That *was* completely gross. And yes, unexpected. They really should warn you!

...but then again, maybe not. :scared:

Do you remember the little tube thing they put on your eye, you could hear a small suction and your vision went black?


then it came back, and was blurry, then went to watery blurry as he lifted over the cornea flap...

Actually, my vision never went black...

It did get blurry though!

Even though it wasn't a big deal at the time, thinking about the procedure still skeeves me out. :scared:

that was the only way I was able to go through it.... but still,i LOVE the result..

I remember laying there thinking, "Uh...I should be protesting...this is gross...eh...nevermind."

burning hair. Ick. But they gave me a teddybear to hold onto.

but now there's NO WAY I'm going to consider it - smelling my eyes being burned by a laser - NO Thank you! ;)

They take an itty-bity razor to make a C slice-shave on your cornea, fold the flap over, and beam the "laser" into it...

says to not wear contacts for at least three weeks before final check in prior to the surgery.

That will be the tough part for my wife - she usually wears contacts. The originally doctor in Mass had told her to wear glasses for 30 days prior to the surgery.

To get the most out of the surgery, and to make the correction work.

I know how hard it is to go without wearing contacts. Am astigmatic, and can see much better with contacts than glasses.

best decision I have ever made. Money well spent. Good luck. The smell was bad but no different than when getting dental work (i.e. drilling).

maybe I'll stay outside the OR when they operate on my wife...

it was awesome.

(if I live long enough) and the long-term effects are not known. To cut into a basically healthy set of eyes (just ones with refractive error)is a scary proposition - this is the only set of eyes I'll ever have.

It is great. My wife - who also had lasik - told me I should have it for two years before I did it. I was seeing well the next day. Minimal discomfort. My feeling is this is too important to go low bid. Find who the best guy is and go to him.

I thought I'd read that they can't, but I also know they've made a lot of advances recently.

We had a guy who went to Canada for the surgery and was told to rest afterwards. Instead, he insisted on driving home headed into the setting sun! He was too macho to let his wife drive! He was OK eventually, but spent several weeks in dark glasses after that cute trick!

good idea - I'll make sure my wife follows instructions. I doubt I have to worry about her being too macho, though.

many years ago, before they had it under control.

It left her absolutely, completely, permanently blind. In both eyes.

I'm sure it's a lot better than it was in those days, but it still makes me shudder to think of her.

I think I'll pass.

My left eye is corrected for reading, and my right (dominant) eye is corrected for distance. I am a little older, and needed bifocals due to presbyopia.

It took a while, about six months or so, to get used to automatically 'switching' from on eye to the other while my brain re-trained itself. I also had dryness, and used artificial tears until that problem diminished.

I was near-sighted, with multiple astigmatisms, and had worn glasses for nearly forty-three years. I can now easily read without trouble, and my distance vision is 20/10. I have never had better sight, even with glasses or contacts, as I have now.

Best money that I ever spent.

a lot of good responses in this thread.

It was the best money I ever spent. I had my left eye corrected to 20/50 and right to 20/20 therefore no reading glasses. I could'nt be more pleased.

I think my wife is pretty determined to get the surgery. I'm just trying to make sure she doesn't go for Dr. Cheap-O to try to save a few bucks because saving money wherever she can is part of my wife's nature.

I had it done 1 year ago after wearing glasses for 20 years. Not to mention, I had an "eye phobia." For some reason, I was deathly afraid of touching my eyes. So there went wearing contacts. But finally, I gave in and got Lasik. I now have 20/10 vision!

As discussed above, I did lose some of my "night vision." It not a real big deal but it's different. It doesn't affect me when I'm driving though. (Thanks to headlights)

I would go for it again and again.

The one went fine and he's seeing better than 20/20.

The other said his vision was blurred for several weeks, which freaked him out, but has now cleared. His vision will still require correction.

If you have lasik done now for myopia, and then have cataracts removed later, you will be left with a need to wear corrective lens for how far sighted you will become...

Yeah, I did a double take on that too.

The way he explained it to me was that when they remove cataracts, usually, near sighted people don't have as much need for reading glasses to see close up. (Something about removing that cloudy lens from the eye and putting in a replacement implant, he said..) IF you have had your cornea re-shaped with lasik to compensate for your nearsightedness, you will need even STRONGER corrective reading glasses after they take that cataract out.

Anyhow, he suggested to me that since I know already that I am gonna have to have cataracts removed ultimately, that I might want to wait in lasik to see how bad my eyes are after the cataracts are gone.

Dunno how valid it is for your wife, but I figured I'd bring it up.




Laura

At the time she went in almost 5 years ago, she was told she was the perfect candidate for it.

The most difficult part for my wife would be having to wear glasses for 30 days or so before the surgery.

1. It is a safe an effective procedure for many people
2. There is no such thing in the world as a "perfect candidate for Lasik" There are too many variables and unknowns in the surgical and healing process.

Another way of saying this is: there are no guarantees in medicine. If someone told your wife she was a "perfect candidate" they are inexperienced, desperate or mistaken.

If, and this is not a knock on your wife, she thinks she was told that she was the "perfect candidate", or goes in thinking that, it presents this sort of problem: There may, or more likely will be, some minor-type complications in the post-operative period. People can get to be like: 'they said I was perfect, what went wrong?' When in all likelihood it is nothing serious, yet causes undue concern. Which is why any Lasik provider I know that is still in business never uses the word perfect

The game of unmet- or over- expectations, in my experience has been the biggest complication in Lasik surgery.

Also, screw the cheap stuuf. Get custom wavefront

When he says "perfect candidate" he means a) vision issues are of the type that can be successfully corrected by Lasik and b) the cornea is thick enough to make a successful surgery likely.

Of course there are always risks of complications, but the "perfect candidate" means that the conditions are optimal for a successful surgery and the chances of a complication are as low as possible. At least that's what my doc means when he uses the phrase. So depending on the doctor and the definition, there is such a thing as a "perfect candidate" and its use doesn't necessarily mean the doctor's a quack.

PS: My doctor is one of the premiere Lasik surgeons in the world. He's done over 45,000 surgeries and actually owns the patents to many of the instruments used in the surgery. Hardly inexperienced, desperate, or mistaken.

I was buried with work at the time, so was not able to go with my wife. So, I'm just reporting what my wife told me, and English is not her first language... so, she could well have been told something slightly different than what she told me. And, since it's been almost 5 years, my memory could be playing tricks about her exact wording.

to wear the most craptacular glasses for six weeks prior to surgery. I'd worn contacts for years, never even keeping a pair of glasses for emergencies. I couldn't see the top "E" on the eye chart, so you can imagine how thick my glasses were.

Yeah. Fun.

Anyway, I had dry eyes for about six months or so. Lots of drops. But now I have amazing vision and a sense of freedom.

good response.