I'm in the preliminary steps in researching laser eye surgery right now. I've done a bit of research, but was wondering who here has had it done and what their experiences have been like. If you know your perscription it'd be cool. I personally am -5.0 in both eyes. Also general prices would be cool too.

tcc

Ive been looking into it also. Ive heard that you're better off either going to Canada to have it done or having a Canadian doctor do it here. I guess they've been doing it for about 10 years longer in Canada, plus it's cheaper there.

yeah I've been wanting to do it too. U going to do Lasik? I'm in Australia and it costs between 3500 to 4500 I think. I've been told that once u do it, theres a chance, when ur old, that u'll need glasses to read....

my prescription is -3.0 for both eyes...my gf wears contacts that are -9.0!!!! now SHE'LL get full value for the cost of laser surgery:alien:

Lasik is what I'm looking at.

The chance you'll need reading glasses is because the lasik surgery doesn't do anything to remove the aging effects on vision (this is based on my limited research).

I'm going to the eye doctor this AM, thats why I brought this up. I'm so :monkey: ing tired of the whole contact & glasses thing.

tcc

Be ready for alot of PAIN...I know a few ppl that's done the Lasik and all said not much discomfort but one said it HURT LIKE HELL!! He said there was a crazy ass pressure on the eyeball during the procedure.

I dont care, I'm going to do it anyway eventually, then when I go body boarding I can SEE for once...

wait a couple years...rumors are insurance companies are going to start covering this procedure.

I've been thinking about getting it done too... my eye doc says I'm a good candidate for it, since I'm pretty blind w/o my contacts (nearsighted)...

A good friend of mine got it done, he said there was no pain... the only bad part was hearing them cutting back your cornea... ewww...

I'm only skeptic b/c with my luck something would go wrong and I'd wind up really blind... also, what's gonna happen 20-30 years from now ? Will it still be good or will I need it done again ? :( :confused:

Holy bat crap...really? If thats true I'd be so happy! As it is, I think a portion can be claimed but only a SMALL portion...

:monkey:

If there was ever ANYONE who was scheduled for this procedure and NOT worried abt something bad happenning I'd say that person was stupid! I'd say if it DID happen chances are its cos of negligence:mad:

RS GIRL

Apparently SOME ppl end up having to do the procedure again after a bit of time...some ppl even have to do it as early as a few months after the procedure...

be careful man, ive also heard one guy's vision became so bad after surgery, he could no longer work as a software developer.

i was looking into it, but if im one of those unlucky candidates, ill have to quit my job and wont be able to support the fam. to much risk there

Some of you have to do more research... whoever told civic11c that it hurt is a big wussy. You feel some pressure, but the eye is anesthetized, so you don't feel the cutting at all, only a slight tugging sensation. During the cut, your eye is held still by a suction pump, that sounds exactly like a fish tank aerator. While under suction, your vision goes black in that eye, just like if you had glaucoma. After the suction is off and the cut is made, you can see again, but everything is hazy/grainy looking because the front of your eye is lifted off. The lazer zaps for maybe 15-20 seconds... you smell ozone. They irrigate the eye and float the flap back into place. Then you're basically done. Immediately afterward, my vision was cloudy from air remaining under the flap. This goes away overnight. It felt like I had been in a chlorine pool all day, just a general dryness. I drove myself (against dr's recommendation) to the checkup the following day. You WILL be light sensitive for about a week or two... but you'll look damn cool, because you can wear your shades inside :)

Both my wife and I have had this procedure done. I had mine 3 years ago, hers was last winter. I'm now 20/10, she's 20/15. I have NO problems with night vision. She has some haziness around light sources. Neither of us have night time "star" vision. My flap was pactically invisible by my 6 month visit. It was entirely worth it. I paid $5500 for both eyes 3 years ago in Mt Laurel, NJ. She paid $2500 last winter in NYC. I have a "lifetime commitment" for enhancements as long as I continue to see an affilate dr annually. If my eyes ever go outside of legal driving limits, they will repair it for free, as long as there is enough eye left to work on (the cornea has not become too thin). It does not improve eye degradation due to aging, because that is not a focus problem from the cornea, it is from wear and tear of the retina, pressure problems, etc, within the eye. I may need reading glasses eventually, but not for quite a while, because, as I said, they overshot to 20/10 making me slightly far sighted. As my prescription wanders due to aging, it will go closer to 20/20 first, then possibly worsening beyond that. Nothing like planning ahead... I say do it.

edit: My prescription was -4.5 and -4.25

I'm interested in getting lasik as well but concerned about my vision continuing to change over time.

You should probably evaluate how long you have used the same prescription for vision correction. If your prescription changes constantly (like mine) then you should wait.

I'll seriously consider lasik when I have had at least 3 years of using the same prescription.

The newest laser surgury procedure is called IntraLasik. It is supposed to be the shiznat. I am -1.75 and -1.50, and I am going to do it in January. I'll repost on this subject and let everyone know how it goes. BTW, it costs just under $1000 per eye. If it works as well as it is supposed to, it would be worth a million dollars to not have to use contact lenses and glasses.

Originally posted by civ11c
I've been told that once u do it, theres a chance, when ur old, that u'll need glasses to read....

Fact: you WILL need glasses to read. Not a chance, not maybe...definitely. It's a matter of the lens inside your eye becoming less flexible. If both of your eyes are corrected with your distance Rx, then at some point in your 40's and 50's you will begin needing reading glasses up close. Your eye becomes a fixed focus camera. Provided you live old enough...(some of the drivers on here I'm not so sure....:lol:.)

Now older people having LASIK have the option of correcting one eye for distance and one eye for near, (called monovision) and this is often tolerated and allows for reading without glasses. This has been done for years in contacts (one eye wearing distance Rx, one wearing reading Rx) with success.

These are good questions. You should have a thorough understanding of the procedure including it's risks before agreeing to anything. If anyone else has specific questions regarding LASIK or eye surgery/ocular health in general either post em here or PM/email me. I would suggest posting them here so others may benefit from the information as well.

Good luck!

Originally posted by BoobsScoob
The newest laser surgury procedure is called IntraLasik. It is supposed to be the shiznat. I am -1.75 and -1.50, and I am going to do it in January. I'll repost on this subject and let everyone know how it goes. BTW, it costs just under $1000 per eye. If it works as well as it is supposed to, it would be worth a million dollars to not have to use contact lenses and glasses.

"newest" and "under $1000 per eye" worry me... you may wanna wait until they get more results back on this new method. just my .02. I wasn't too sure even about my wife paying $2500 for hers... that sounded cheap to me, considering. i actually went out for about a month before committing to it and interviewed people who had had it done, with good, acceptable, and bad results... it was a calculated risk. I'm a good healer (like one notch below Wolverine), so I was pretty sure if I picked a good doctor (be sure to check their track record!) I'd be ok.

I know that there are a lot of people for whom that surgery was effective, but I am still worried about the long term effects.

What will happen in 10 or 15 years when you get older? That's the only thing I'm worried about (well, there's also the fact that you have something like 5% of chances of seeing halos around lights at nightime for the rest of your life...)

A lot of the problems with halos are related to the size of your nighttime pupil in relation to the size of the flap created and the laser ablation zone. Any doctor performing the surgery should be examining the pupil and measuring it in a low light environment. If the pupil dilates larger than the size of the flap the doctor is planning on cutting, then the patient could in for halos at night as the pupil dilates larger than the edge of the flap. There are different microkeratomes (flap cutters) and lasers out there that all make different size flaps and ablation zones, so most people (but not all) can safely be accomodated with flaps that are larger than the patient's dilated pupil. Discuss this with your surgeon, and ask how big your dilated pupil is. If it is 7-8mm or more, than be sure that this issue is addressed.

OK guys...I am back from the eye doctor, and I'm definitely going to go through with it next year sometime. My vision plan covers a total of $600 off, so it'll be expensive, but I think worth it. The normal price is $1750 or so per eye they said.

I still plan on doing more research, but the surgeon my doctor is associated with has done about 1000 cases, and he said the chance of it turning out to be good on the first try is 99%+. I've known a bunch of people that have had it done, and they all have great things to say. I'll just wait until I can save up some money so I don't need to finance my first body mod.

So much for the car mods. Suspension and utec would have been nice.

tcc

I had my vision corrected with Lasik. I also had excrutiating pain during the 2nd eye. Go figure. I was stressed out to the max for the first eye but it went just fine. Leading up to the 2nd eye (they did it about 1 hour later) I was sitting there thinking that they hadn't put any eye drops in the second one yet. Even when I went into the laser room I was thinking that they've not numbed my eye (like they did on the first eye). Of course I'm the trusting sort and told myself that they know what they're doing. It's fine. Uh.. huh...

They layed me on the chair and put drops in my eye. Within a minute they had put the micro-keretome (sp) on my eye and started to cut the flap. I about launched myself out of the chair! Man did that hurt. I was jittery during the rest of the procedure because of that. What really pissed me off was when I was telling them about that experience during a follow up visit they blew me off. Not like I'm going to sue or anything I'd just hate to see someone else go through that because they failed to numb my eye properly.

Be sure you find out if you have large pupils or not. I have night time halos because I have large pupils. The Dr. who did the procedure said I was fine ( I knew about the large pupil issue). During a follow up visit to a local eye doctor I mentioned my halos so they numbed my eye and she said, hey, you have large pupils. Ummm.. yeah. That's annoying. I would have definately rethought my decision to have Lasik had I known that.

My eyes were 6.5 and 7.5 before lasik and are now about 20/25. It is really, really nice to be able to see without glasses even if my eyes aren't perfect. I'm 40 and I realize that real soon I'll need reading glasses.

Oh, yeah. During my last eye checkup the doctor said my vision is slipping the other way and I'm becoming far sighted (not the reading glass kind - yet).

A friend of mine had it done. I went in with her, and while they were doing it, there was a TV set up, so I could watch. It took about 20 minutes for the laser surgery. They lifted up her chair, and she could immediately see the clock on the wall. It was amazing. She has worn glasses since she was 3 years old, and she is 52 now.

That was about 6 months ago, and she still feels a miracle came her way.

Cost was $3000

As far as I know, NO ONE has ever gone BLIND from this procedure. Even if 1 or 2 people have, that's only 1 or 2 people out of tens of thousands of people. I had no pain when I had mine done, and my surgery for both eyes was 1500. I looked into the doctor before hand, and found out the machines he had. I have large pupils. which the doc told me about, and he said his machine(one of the newest ones a few years ago when I got it) was able to make a big enough cut. I have halos at night, but they are not really noticeable anymore. It's like wearing contacts at night, exactly the same thing. I highly recommend it, but a friend of mine who is a girl had to go and get it redone, because the first time it didn't work out for her. Hope this helps.

Originally posted by Cjchaps
As far as I know, NO ONE has ever gone BLIND from this procedure. Even if 1 or 2 people have, that's only 1 or 2 people out of tens of thousands of people.

Ask those 1 or 2 people what they thought of the procedure. To them the risk of complication is 100%. Realistically the complication rate is higher than .1-.2% that you quote when all complications are factored in.

I'm in no way bashing nor endorsing the procedure. It is a fantastic technology that in a large majority of people is well tolerated with good results. However as stated by MajinWRX--it is a calculated risk. There remains a chance that you could have a problem, and a very small risk that this problem could be severe and permanently vision-affecting.

It is an individual choice. Just make it an informed one.

MAJINWRX

:lol: :lol: yes, the person WAS a wussbag. Not to mention stupid...he played basketball the day after his procedure. Duh! He had to go back and redo the procedure...

JAYHAWK

Yes! Someone who believes me. For some ppl it IS quite painful but by and large, it doesnt hurt much...

For any surgery, there's inherent risk...even circumcisions! :lol: (or u could say ESPECIALLY circumcisions:lol: :lol: )

But yeah, the thought of being in the MINORITY of ppl who come out the other end of the procedure worse than when they started, or BLIND is pretty scary, I dont care HOW low the odds are...:(

the surgery is quite painless, it's like 30 seconds of pain, it's magic. It's not bad at all, I highly reccomend it... I got it done in Manhasset, NY, if anyone is around in NY, I'll give you the name of a great doctor..

My vision isn't too bad about -2 in each eye, but it would be nice later on to not have to wear glasses.

I just have a question about the halos some people see @ night. Are you still able to drive at night or are street lights/ on comming cars too distracting?

BTW this is a very interesting thread

I've done quite a bit of research on this and the other procedures which were available prior to Lasik becoming commonplace.

What I have found is that the most important factor is the skill of the doctor performing the procedure. Prices in the NY metro and Philadelphia areas for this are between $3k-$4k when done by the most highly thought of and experienced doctors.

When you look at success rates, keep in mind that they are talking about improvement in vision accuity only and that a procedure which results in a vision improvement is termed a success, even if you have issues with halos, star vision, etc.

Some of the most common complications are related to the cutting of the flap during the procedure and it becoming infected or not healing properly. There are now doctors that perform the entire procedure, including the cutting of the flap, using lasers. No blades.

One word of caution about low cost place... for the most part, the procedures are done by doctors without a lot of experience who work under the "supervision" (meaning the guy maight have shown up there once) of a better known doctor who puts his name on the door and lends credibility to this low rate, high volume office. Personally, I would rather pay more to have the doctor that I choose perform my procedure personally.

Finally, I have decided to keep waiting, as I'm not an optimal candidate for the procedure due to large pupils and past problems with cornea infections.

Originally posted by civ11c
MAJINWRX

:lol: :lol: yes, the person WAS a wussbag. Not to mention stupid...he played basketball the day after his procedure. Duh! He had to go back and redo the procedure...

JAYHAWK

Yes! Someone who believes me. For some ppl it IS quite painful but by and large, it doesnt hurt much...

My doctor told me about one poor guy guy who got in a BARFIGHT and took one to the face the week after his procedure... and another guy who had complications was a fireman (heat + smoke, not good for normal eyes, let alone flappy ones). Neither of them had long term problems though, and both cases were reparable

My halo issues are not distracting at all. If I am driving along the highway at night, the other cars headlights have a slight halo. The streetlights also have a slight halo/glow to them. It's kinda like old religous paintings of angels where they appear to glow around their heads, instead of having a solid ring around their heads.

Those guys are lucky I think..... I know I wont be doing anything that would put my eyesite at risk. I'll be like lying down in bed for days and waiting for my gf to get me food whilst I watch tv (providing the eyepatch is off):lol: :lol:

I'd rather not have to go back for any repairs unnecessarily either!

Originally posted by VSG

I just have a question about the halos some people see @ night. Are you still able to drive at night or are street lights/ on comming cars too distracting?

BTW this is a very interesting thread

It's highly variable. Some people seem to have just a minor annoyance with the symptoms. Other's react much more to them, complaining of major difficulty driving and such.

There is some great general information on the FDA's website here that I often direct people who want more information towards...

FDA LASIK page (http://www.fda.gov/cdrh/lasik/)