So I had LASIC (Pictures, 500K) (1 Viewer)

[Dave Morton]

I had mine done 3 years ago and am still at 20/12 in both eyes. It was the best investment I ever did.

 

[Armando Zamora]

Ugh!!! All your stories now have me really bummed out. I went to go get evaluated for laser eye surgery two weeks ago and found out that I did not qualify. My corneal tissue is at the bare minimum thickness to have laser eye surgery done. I could have gone ahead and had the laser surgery done, but the drawback was that if I needed an adjustment, I wouldn't have enough corneal tissue for the additional procedure. As a long time contact lens and glasses wearer, I was really looking forward to life without corrective lens.

 

[Leila Dougan]

I recommend everybody considering Lasik to read http://www.surgicaleyes.com first. It's very eye-opening (no pun intended) to say the least.

 

[Ted Lee]

i'm in the same boat as you. you should still be elegible for the other surgery procedure (prk??) - i'm surprised your doc didn't make that recommendation.

 

[Philip Hamm]

Agreed, read surgical eyes!!! However, that link doesn't work, it's http://www.surgicaleyes.org/ not com!

LASIK can work great for some people, but there are some major no-nos and thin corneas is one of the biggest. Your eyes have to be "just so" for Lasik to work its wonders.

 

[Armando Zamora]

I didn't qualify for PRK either. And to clarify, my doctor had my best interest in mind. He was the one that recommended that I not get the procedure done.

 

[Ted Lee]

same with me. my doc actually told me flat out he would *not* do it and i should run if any other doc told me they would.

 

[Leila Dougan]

Thanks Philip! It's funny, I typed the right URL into my browser to get to the page, yet when I made the post I typed it wrong. Oops!

 

[Brian Harnish]

Congrats on the LASIK surgery!

I myself am a wearer of glasses since High School (and a recent wearer of contacts). I really am tired of both of them. Several people I know (and know of) have had excellent success rates with LASIK and I've been seriously contemplating getting the procedure done.

I'd appreciate it if you could give us daily updates on your recovery. I do have a few questions however (after reading Surgical Eyes for awhile):

Did you have wavefront analysis done on your eyes before the procedure? I'm assuming that the newer procedure you got done was wavefront analysis. Correct me if I'm wrong. Still rather new to researching the whole LASIK game.

And did you have LASEK or LASIK done?

Are there any side effects?

And finally -- how is your vision in low-light conditions? This would be extremely important to the fellow HT enthusiasts on this board (such as myself) and I wouldn't want my vision ruined to the point where I couldn't enjoy a movie again.

Again, congrats, and hopefully the final results will be astounding!

 

[Scott Bourden]

I am getting some starbursting from small, bright lights (headlights, bring LED lights, etc) It has faded a bit since the first day, but it is still persistant. I hope it fades a bit more, and while not a huge deal for me, it IS present. No problems watching movies in low light (using a 62" rear projection HDTV) but I found, that the bright red LED on my DVD player gave me a little starbursting if I stared at it. Just turned it off, and thankfully the television screen doesn't cause this problem for me.

I have not tried a public theater yet, I will next week just to see the effect though, when my eyes stabilize a little more.

Edit: One other thing I should mention. I had TERRIBLE astigmitism before the surgery. I had to read with a finger on the line in books, had to highlight lines with my mouse as I read on the computer, and used a ruler, etc to match numbers in excel spreadsheets printed off. Now, I can judge the straight line with no problems whatsoever, this is one of my favorite resulting aspects of the surgery so far.

 

[Brad Porter]

I had it done three or four years ago, and I only really noticed one side effect of the procedure that I hadn't been directly informed of prior to the surgery.

The only real advantage of nearsightedness that I can think of is that you can focus on things that are very close to your eyeball. I used to be able to focus on things as close as two to three inches. Since the surgery, I can't get a sharp focus on anything closer than six to seven inches away from my eyeball.

Now I don't really have a driving need to see things that close and aging was bound to take that ability away from me sooner or later, but I do kinda miss being able to get an extra close up look at stuff.

Brad

 

[Philip Hamm]

Brad, Does that affect your view through binoculars or a viewfinder for a camcorder or camera?

 

[Leila Dougan]

Brad, I understand what you mean.

I'm farsighted, not horribly so, and prefer it that way. I need glasses when reading from a book or something close (my computer monitor is fine, ironically enough). But I LOVE being able to see things so far away. I can see quite a bit further than most people I know and it's really come in handy.

 

[Brad Porter]

Due to a lazy eye condition when I was a wee lad, my eyes (or more accurately my brain) did not develop full binocular vision. I look primarily out of one eye or the other, with the dominance alternating by conscious choice. This has always made my depth perception absolutely lousy. It also has pretty much kept me away from binoculars as a viewing device, so I can't really speak to that effect. When I have looked through a telescope, I haven't been unable to focus, but there are times when I feel like I am working more to focus on an image that close than I otherwise would. Unfortunately, I haven't used a camcorder in years.

Brad

 

[Dave Poehlman]

Another FYI from an ex-farmer friend of mine who had it done:

The smell of the laser cooking the lens smells exactly like when you de-horn a bull. In fact, my friend had mentioned it to his surgeon and the surgeon said that he hears that alot.

 

[Randy Tennison]

Oh, yeah I forgot about the smell. Nothing like the smell of burning flesh!

My surgery was done by my opthomologist, who has been treating me for years. She does more than lasik, so she is not relying soley on lasik for her income. I trusted she had my best interest at heart.

Surgical Eyes is one of those "worst case scenario" websites. Sure, some people have problems. But, some people can't take aspirin, some people are allergic to wool, some people get sick from beef broth, etc. If you look hard enough, you will find people who tell you that everything you try is dangerous.

 

[TomK]

I had mine done about 10 months ago. I was the best thing I've done for myself. I wore glasses since I was 7. Now I'm at 20/20. Because of my age, 45, I do have to use those magnifying glasses you see at the drugstore if I want to look at something really close up, not too bad. I also have a very mild pair of glasses that I wear at night if I'm driving or something. My night vision went down a little.

All in all, to be able to get out with my kids and swim, dive, and jetski without the glasses problem is more than worth the little inconveniences.

Tom

 

[BradleyS.]

I have been looking into getting eye surgery also. My optometrist said that there is a new type called wayfront(not sure on the spelling). Has anybody heard much about this? I know you have to be 21:frowning: , so only 5 more years to go. I'm sure by the time I get of age there will be something new and better, but I would like to find out about this new method.

 

[Armando Zamora]

Ted, as I was being "turned down" for the laser eye sutgery, the doc did mention that there is a procedure that was just approved by the FDA for folks like us...that is, we're not eligible for laser eye surgery because of the thickness (or lack of) of our corneal tissue. According to what I was told, the procedure entails "implanting" a corrective lens underneath your cornea(s) just above or over the lens of your eye. Sorta like a permanent contact lens. Then, should you need enhancements, laser surgery could be used to "tweak" your vision since the enhancement will hopely not be affected by the lack of thickness of your cornea(s). It's an actual surgical procedure, so it would have to be performed in a surgical suite and not in your typical doctor's office.

 

[DaveMcS]

Separated at birth?


LASIK


Abe Sapien (Hellboy)