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General => Off Topic => Topic started by: TrailMyx on September 11, 2008, 07:07:06 AM
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I had this kind of thread at another site, but wanted to maintain one here just because I know how difficult a decision like having LASIK can be. I remember having lots of questions that the doctor couldn't answer. So if anyone has any testimonials, issues, questions, etc please post'em.
For me, my vision went bad early in high school, so from 16 until about 4 years ago I had glasses and mostly contacts. I had contact lenses for about 20 years before my eyes finally rejected them outright. It didn't matter what type of lenses I used, I could only wear them for about an hour before my body tried to reject them like a virus being rejected by my own immune system.
What finally put my decision over the edge was one night I heard someone screwing around outside, so I looked out my bedroom window to see some idiot breaking into my truck. I yelled some obscenity down at them but I didn't have my glasses on and couldn't see the face, or the plate number of the helper truck that wisked away the bad guy. That's it, I'm gonna have eye surgery.
Fortunately, I was a perfect candidate for LASIK since I have thick meaty corneas (misshapen as they are) so I could expect a relatively short "surgery". I got the wavefront custom variety, so they try and match any shape irregularities instead of a one-size-fits-all correction.
Well, they tell you that the surgery is short, and they aren't kidding. Total in/out was less that 10 minutes. The actual blasting of the laser lasts only about 10-20 seconds per eye. The only discomfort I felt was the contraption they strap your into puts pressure on your eye/head to keep your head steady, but you can still glance around as the laser control system will track your eye movement. They give you Codine to relax you, and I'm glad they did that pressure was annoying. There are two stages to the procedure. The first is creating the flap so they can fold it back in order to zap your eye. Creating the flap had me squirming, but it goes faster than the laser part, so I didn't really even notice. Snip! It's done. But man with that flap folded back, things are blurrrry!
After the surgery, I was worried because the vision was totally blurry. However, being the cheater that I am I tried to glance around the eye protection I was wearing and I got a look at the clock. Even with the newly flapped and laser carved eye meat, I was able to see the edges of the numbers on the clock like I hadn't seen them since I was a kid. So things were blurry, but I suddenly had hope.
It took about 2 days for the blur to wear off, and a good 2 months for the blur to disappear, but what I was left with is perfect vision. Better than perfect really, I was reading 20/10 with both eyes at the 1 week follow-up appointment. Frankly, going for so long with bad vision and in just a few days going to exceptional vision was hard to handle. My senses were nearly overloaded with all the new details I could see. I could see the sharp sparkle of each palm needle on a tree instead of just seeing a palm tree, and I could make out the individual pieces of wire in a chain-link fence instead of just acknowledging that a fence is there somewhere.
So overall, it was a super positive and life-changing experience for me.
TM
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Sad thing for me i that i am not able to do this procedure. I have a condition called Keratoconus where your cornea is pretty much warped. I have a 4+ point astignatism that creates a problem when it comes to lasik. Since they can't fully fix the irregularities of the shape of the cornea you are stuck wearing Gas-Permiable contact lenses. They hurt like a bugger, but is the only way you can properly see. I can't wear glasses, and i can't wear soft contact lenses. The only way to fix this problem is by having a full corneal replacement.
This being said most would be like, well why don't you do that. Well they use this as a last resort. The chances of your eye rejecting it is high and you have to continually use steroid drops... Also with this, you will still be stuck wearing glasses or soft contacts. You are unable to do lasik once this procedure has been done. So either way you don't get perfect vision without aid.
So if you a bad astignatism and a doctor says, "oh yeah, we can fix that no problem with lasik" you should be weary of him, and his practice. They are not supposed to continue the procedure if you have Keratoconus or any other abnomality.
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Oh yes, you should always be careful with your doctor. I didn't goto one of those LASIK chop shops, so I ended up paying good money for the procedure, but I felt assured that I was getting the correct information. I knew from the early days, that my eyes were just normally bad; I had nothing with a special name.
Is PRK not an option for you, Tidus? I'm not a fan of that because it doesn't have the impressive result ratio and fast recovery time that LASIK does. But for some people, it's their only option.
A friend of my had to have LASIK on one eye and PRK on the other. He enjoyed the LASIK recovery much more than PRK. ;)
Oww, I feel for you about the gas permeable lenses. During my quest to find contacts I could wear after all that time, I gave those a try. I tried for about a month, but after being used to soft contact lenses, I just couldn't deal with the constant nagging pain of the gas-perms.
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When i was a kid I had glasses and contacts but now I have 20/10 vision thankfully as i always had problems with contacts and I broke my glasses during a firefight in Iraq a couple of years back and just never got new ones. I went to have my vision checked about 6 months ago to find out I had better than perfect vision :)
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When i was a kid I had glasses and contacts but now I have 20/10 vision thankfully as i always had problems with contacts and I broke my glasses during a firefight in Iraq a couple of years back and just never got new ones. I went to have my vision checked about 6 months ago to find out I had better than perfect vision :)
First of all, thank you very much for your service!! (I mean that too.)
Second, did you hit your head hard to correct your vision?? lol. Did the Vision Fairy visit you?
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I consider my glasses a casualty of war lol. And thus my vision must have been a result of it.....I really dont' know how it got better.
Basically my vision has never been all that bad persay but enough that I needed glasses for reading and such but like said now it is 20/10. I consider my glasses as a casualty of the war as I normally didn't wear them when we were going out on ops but for some reason I had forgot to remove them and realized it just before the op got started and didn't want to deal with them on my face so I put them in my shoulder pocket. Well we ended up getting into a heavy fire fight duing that op and I jumped against a wall (trying to get as small as possible against it as bullets were flying) and it just so happened my shoulder was what came in cotnact with the wall however it was cushioned by the crushing of my glasses....oops.
And thank you for the support of our service members. I am no longer in the service anymore and work with SPAWAR but still have a ton of very close friends in the Marine Corps still.
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Good subject this... Ive been watching the whole Lasik thing on and off for a while now.. I'm waiting untill all the bugs are out of the system then ill do it...... I know 2 people who have had it done .. 1st one has had lots of issues basically taken over 1.5years to get right and still not perfect and she did her research and went to a good doctor. Second person was all good after the blur period and no problems since.
On the price issue thow how much does the procedure cost roughtly... (I dont know if im a good candidate or not .. slightly bad eyes that have basiaclly never changed ... -1.5 and -1.75 no other issues)
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EN, you should go see if you are a good candidate. Reputable establishments will do a corneal thickness test to see if you can handle "flapification". Some just have thin cornea and can't take that portion of the procedure. Sounds like you could be a good candidate since you aren't out of spec too much; your eyesight is about what mine was when I had the procedure.
For me, the surgery was $3K for both eyes. Pricey, I could have done it for 1/2 at the time, but the doctor I chose was someone I had been following for about 5 years and finally had a chance to talk to a couple people who had the surgery done by him. Plus with the "custom" LASIK, and the likelihood of perfect vision, I was finally put over the edge.
I guess though there will always be a risk with something like that. So you just have to find your time to get fed up.
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I've been thinking about getting this done myself someday but I'm scared and I guess my poor vision hasn't pushed me over the edge yet. I'm a big baby I guess.
I went earlier this week to renew my drivers license and I was scared as hell about their eye examination. It was a nightmare 5 years ago when I went for my renewal as I couldn't see any of the letters and even though it's not your fault you feel like an idiot for not being able to see. Luckily for whatever reason they skipped that part this time around. Nice to know the DMV is passing blind drivers eh'? Now we know why the guy in front of us is such a bad driver ;D
Anyways I need to find more information about this and somehow find the balls to go do it because my eyesight is just getting worse. So I this is a good thread and I'll defiantely be reading it to see and hear other people experiences.
One question I have about LASIK is does the eyesight deteriorate afterwards? We all spend alot of time starting at monitors etc which is supposedly not good for your eyes so after LASIK surgery. Will staring at a computer screen 8+ hours a day have a negative effect on your vision?
Is it a permanent 20/20 per se or is it like anything else that there is a chance someday you made need another correction?
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I've been thinking about getting this done myself someday but I'm scared and I guess my poor vision hasn't pushed me over the edge yet. I'm a big baby I guess.
I went earlier this week to renew my drivers license and I was scared as hell about their eye examination. It was a nightmare 5 years ago when I went for my renewal as I couldn't see any of the letters and even though it's not your fault you feel like an idiot for not being able to see. Luckily for whatever reason they skipped that part this time around. Nice to know the DMV is passing blind drivers eh'? Now we know why the guy in front of us is such a bad driver ;D
Anyways I need to find more information about this and somehow find the balls to go do it because my eyesight is just getting worse. So I this is a good thread and I'll defiantely be reading it to see and hear other people experiences.
One question I have about LASIK is does the eyesight deteriorate afterwards? We all spend alot of time starting at monitors etc which is supposedly not good for your eyes so after LASIK surgery. Will staring at a computer screen 8+ hours a day have a negative effect on your vision?
Is it a permanent 20/20 per se or is it like anything else that there is a chance someday you made need another correction?
Well unfortunately that question is subjective. There are people who can have the procedure done and not have to worry about it again, while others have difficulty almost immediately after the surgery. You can kinda get a feeling about this by how much your vision changes before the surgery. If you are like EN, his vision is pretty steady so you should not have much creep afterwards.
I've had mine for over 4 years now and I'm still going strong with excellent vision. I can't imagine the last 4 years without it. For me, it was the best decision of my adult life.
There are some people that feel their near vision is compromised, but I was already having a problem with this. (40+ now) I still don't need reading glasses but I do use them when I'm soldering or doing close electronics work. But I had to do that before..
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I have heard that your vision has to be less than bad in order to qualify for laser eye surgery. Is this true or does your current vision have nothing to do with qualification? If this is the case, does that mean us people that have slightly below average eyesight will never be able to get the surgery done? My eyesight isn't bad compared to some other people like my gf who can't recognize my face without her contact lenses, but I do feel it has gotten worse over the past few years. I am going to take the civil service test next year because my gf's dad is the chief and my uncle is also a captain and they will get me in if I pass the test so I would rather like to have laser eye surgery done than wear eyeglasses while on duty.
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I don't believe that's true. They are more looking for eye health issues. If your cornea is misshapen, or is too thin in places then they might suggest an alternative. I have heard of people who's vision isn't too bad and they don't recommend it for them. I guess your astigmatism could be so bad to cause thin areas of your cornea. So it kinda depends on your own eye makeup.
Actually, I fell into your category. My eyesight wasn't horrible like my Father's, but I did have to wear contacts consistently and then finally glasses. I could still drive in the day without any correction and still avoid the fast moving blobs (kidding).
Really the only way to know for sure is to take one of those many "free consultations" and let them test you to see if you are a candidate. Most places of a reputable status won't try and treat it as if you are buying a used car. There won't be any obligation.
My friend had the procedure from my doctor, but he couldn't do LASIK on one eye since his cornea was a wacky shape. So they gave him LASIK in one eye and PRK in another. He hated the PRK, and the recovery time was months instead of days. With my LASIK, I had it just 2 weeks before my next Germany trip. No problems at all.
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Update. Right at 5 years now and still seeing at 20/15. I just wish I had done this sooner. Well sooner would have meant PRK, and that's not ideal. LASIK is the way to go. If you are on the fence about it, I can highly recommend it. You might want to have a pre-screening by a LASIK professional to see if you are a good candidate. Tell'em TrailMyx sent ya! heh
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I'm currently giggling madly about the fact that this thread has been "reopened."
I highly recommend finding a good doctor, and not skimping on the price. I am still too young to do this, but my dear friend had it done a few years ago.
They scarred her cornea, which seems weird, I know. But, she said she doesn't notice unless her allergies are bad, in which case she can't see at all in that eye. The pressure from her allergies moves our cornias around, and hers, unfortunatly, moves the scar right in her center field of vision.
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Ya, I highly agree about not scrimping and finding a good doctor. I stalked my doctor for 2 years before I even went in for the pre-screening. At the time I paid about $3200 for the procedure, and today that is still a bargain in my opinion for the peace of mind I get every day from it.
The pre-screening is very important and everyone should answer truthfully the questions asked. There are reasons why some people should not have the procedure. Thin cornea, allergies, glaucoma, etc. are things that can wreck the experience.
I don't have any scar left; it's healed completely and perfectly. Even my night vision has returned to a razor sharp level.
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Military paid for my surgery. PRK, not LASIK. I when from not being able to read the 'E' on an eye chart (seriously - I told the doc it was an E and he told me to put on my glasses. It was an 'S') to 20/20 in one eye and 20/25 in the other. Four years later, one of my eyes has regressed a bit, but I still see at an adjusted 20/20.
Overall, highly positive experience. Life changing, really.
:)
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My mother had RK. She still has nightmares about seeing the scalpel coming down over her eye.
Now, almost 15 years later, she is just starting to regress.
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I had Lasik in 1998, so about 12 years ago. Some of the first clinical trials were in Chicago, so I was able to find a surgeon who had already done a bunch of them. I had followed the procedure's development for about ten years before that time. I don't fully understand the distinction between the varieties, but mine was the peel back your lense and reshape the material underneath based on a scan. I would not be a candidate today, my eyes were too bad and I didn't have enough meatiness, but I got the surgery before they had some of the more current criteria. I have to say that the results were truly life changing. I could hardly function without my glasses and I couldn't wear contacts as I had the same experience as TM -- full on rejection. Males in my family sleep with their eyes half open and have crazy dry eyes as a result, so contacts have always felt like corn flakes. Worse after nights when I happen to roll over and have an eyeball on the pillow.
12 years after getting Lasik I still have 20/20 vision. I can read a street sign a block and a half away and I can read a book at arms length. I can look at boobies... You get the point... The only draw backs for me are that my night vision is noticeably less good than some people's. Its hard for me to compare precisely and its good enough to drive, but its not as good as it was when I wore glasses. I don't see any lense artifacts, its just that my eyes don't see contrast in low light, so I can't make out as much compared to someone with similar day vision and no surgery. My wife has 20/05 vision or better and can see in the dark like a night stalker. (Baseball players in her lineage apparently cave dwellers in mine).
Even with the the nightvision issue, I would get the surgery again tomorrow -- scratch that. I would stop typing and get my butt into a chair for the surgery straight away. Best money I have ever spent.
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My mother had LASIK and could never stop raving about it. Went to a very reputable eye doctor who gave her references of people who had the procedure done that had agreed to talk to patients and tell their stories.