Laser Eye Surgery Experiences

[aduidarnenye]

I'm looking into getting some kind of laser eye surgery done, either Lasik or PRK, because I've applied to the military and they don't generally accept blind people. I've got vision at just over -5 in both eyes and astigmatism.

I'm worried that I won't get good enough results (I don't need 20/20, just the minimum of someplace in the -3 to -4 range) or that my eye will be irreparably damaged during the procedure (this scares me most since I love my computer games and books).

Does anyone on BG have any laser eye surgery experiences and how well did it go?

[Fhqwghads]

Had LASIK over 10 years ago or so. Went fine. I abused contact lenses before and had dry eye problems, the LASIK did make my dry eyes worse. I would do it again in a heartbeat to avoid wearing glasses. Fuck glasses.

[Correction]

You may find this thread fairly valuable, a lot of people put in their LASIK experiences in it.

http://www.bluegartr.com/forum/showthread.php?t=72095

[Nystul]

I had like a -7.5 in both eyes and an astigmatism in one. I was worried that I'd get the surgery and get like a 75% improvement but still have to wear glasses so what would the point be, right? Sounds like you have that concern as well.

Most places will, for the base price, any number of surgeries until it's 20/20. My doctor said "sometimes you have a long put and you can get it maybe within a foot but you have to come back and tap it in" and they do that- no added cost to you. I ended up 20/20 in one and better than 20/20 in the other eye first time. Recovery was fast, the procedure was painless, and frankly unless YOU ignore the treatment plan provided (ie, you don't do what they tell you to do and go home and spend 20 hours solid staring at a computer screen right after surgery) things will go just fine.

[aduidarnenye]

You may find this thread fairly valuable, a lot of people put in their LASIK experiences in it.

http://www.bluegartr.com/forum/showthread.php?t=72095

Oh man, thanks. I did a search for "laser eye surgery" and didn't see anything but never thought to look for "lasik".

[kuronosan]

How much is that costing these days?

[Skidz]

I'd like to get LASIK someday, but I think it'd be weird not wearing glasses since I've been wearing them for 12-13 years now.

Actually, this may sound weird, but there's been two occasions where glasses have protected/shielded me eyes from harm. When I was 14, I was riding in the back seat of a car with the window down, and a pebble flew in and struck my right lens and scratched it. Another time in highschool, some kids were throwing around quarters and nickes in the cafeteria and one struck my left lens (no real damage though). God knows what would've happend if I didn't have glasses on at those times.

[Obiron]

I just got LASIK in January this year, and so far I'm very happy with it. I'm just getting to the point where I can stop using eye drops all the time. My eyes feel a little dry at times, but nothing serious. My only complaint is that I'm one of the unlucky ones that has glare around lights at night. My eye doctor said if it hasn't gone away yet, then it is probably permanent. I think it might just be an issue of retraining my eyes though. When I notice a lot of glare, if I just pick a point and try to focus it all goes away. I think my eyes just need to learn how to focus on their own.

To the question of price, mine cost about $4000 ($2k per eye). They also had a guarantee that if they couldn't do any better than 20/25 they would refund the full cost, so I felt safe that if I still needed contacts or glasses, at least I wouldn't be out all that money. They got me to 20/20 though, and I have no regrets about getting the surgery.

[Talus]

How much is that costing these days?

I think the cost depends on where you get it done/reputation. Of course with your vision, this isn't probably something you want to cut corners on, I'd say the lowball standard is probably $1.2k+/eye.

I haven't had LASIK yet, I plan on putting it off until I'm completely finished with school. Right now, my vision isn't that bad, astigmatism in one eye and my prescription is OS (-2.5) and OD (-2.0). (left eye = OS/right eye = OD)

[Norellicus]

http://www.kuro5hin.org/story/2005/1/30/173659/918

A funny narrative about a LASIK experience. I don't know that I'd recommend reading it as someone unsure about going into the procedure (the technicians are described in varying degrees of 'evil' and much other hyperbole) but it's good for a laugh, and does describe the various elements of the process if you can simmer down the embellishment.

Edit: In the interest of full disclosure, I've never had LASIK myself, and I don't know how accurate this remains for present day experiences, though as recently as 2008 I shared it with someone who had just received LASIK and was sharing her experience and she found it fairly accurate to the various steps they took.

[Sevilla]

My opinion, if you qualify for PRK, go with it. I strongly recommend it. I myself got PRK and my results from (I did it through the military) was 20/15. I will explain what I know about both procedures:

Lasik:

The benefits of LASIK is that you will heal a lot quicker and you will feel minimal pain. Basically what they do is suck your eye through a hole (as much as they can) to pass a laser to create a flap. This flap is then pulled back and the corrective procedure then takes place. Once it is done (somewhere between 15-30secs) the flap is then placed back. One of the disadvantages of this is that if you intend to go to the military, do not expect to get far as stuff like pilot, special forces, and such. That flap creates such a liability that people are afraid that the flap will rip off, and then you are screwed. Oh and the doctor also mentioned that if you have allergies, and eyes itch, , you are out of luck that you cant scratch your eye.

PRK:

The benefit from PRK is that you basically heal the top layer of the eye. The downfall is that it is slow healing (approximately 2-3 months) until you can see somewhat good. WHat they do is open your eyelids real wide, so that the eyebal is the only thing there. There are lasers (called shots) that burn off your eye and do the corrective procedure (all this takes 15-30secs per eye). You can actually smell the burning of the eye. Now after the procedure is done, you will still be under the effects of numbing drops for the eyes, but it goes away roughly one hour. After the medication wears off, you will feel extrutiating pain (some people will feel different levels) either way everyone will feel pain, no matter your pain tolerance. I strongly suggest this because the military will basically say, your eye healed for a complete year, they are basically just like your eyes before the procedure.

Any procedure you take I suggest using a frozen bag of peas to cool down your after the procedure. Also to chill your eye drops in the refrigerator, because cold eye drops will be temporary relief from the burning feeling you will feel. If you have any more questions, I can go into more detail of the procedure. I honestly do not remember my prescription for glasses. I had this done like 3 years ago.

*I CANT STRESS THIS ENOUGH*

If you smoke or drink, prepare not to do any of those for a while during the healing process. Your eyes are precious things that you owe them to heal perfectly. If you do not heal perfectly you will have what the doctors call "halo around lights." Meaningn the glare around any light source. This will make driving at night very difficult. The medications I was on after the procedure were Vitimin C, Vicodin for the eyes (forgot actual name), and a milky steroid (which i had to go off of early because it built too much pressure in my eye).

[ikethegreat]

I got the Lasik surgery when I was 20 years old after wearing glasses since I was 6 years old. I had very very bad eyesight (I don't remember exact numbers) and I was worried about still having to wear glasses after surgery. After the surgery I had 20/20 in one eye and 20/15 in the other. Needless to say my results were outstanding. The doctor said that out of the thousands of procedures he has done, I've had some of the best results.

I think a lot of it has to do with your age. Younger people seem to have better results and less complications. The only side effect I had was for the first 4-6 months after the surgery where my eyes would have trouble focusing after a long day. Lots of time on the computer, reading, or very little sleep the night before made it worse. Eventually it went away.

As for the surgery itself.... I'm not going to lie, it was one of the most uncomfortable experiences I've ever had. The key is to not watch the surgery process beforehand. The place I went to had a monitor outside the operating room that focused on your eye balls during surgery so people outside could watch. While there is no actual pain involved in the surgery it's really creepy to go through. You actually have to sit there and watch the doc take a scalpel and cut your eye. After they cut your eye and they proceed to peel back the flap to reveal your cornea, you temporarily go blind. That was the worse part for me, even though they warned me it would happen. You can't feel the laser cutting and shaping your cornea but you can definitely smell it. While it wasn't scary or painful, it was extremely uncomfortable to sit through.

Bottom line, am I glad I got the surgery? Fuck yeah. Best $4k I've ever spent. Would I do it over again later in life if need be? Ehhh...probably not.

[Ksandra]

I'm starting to think I may be forced to go get lasik, but I don't even know if they can fix me.

I went to the doctor on Friday and I'm sitting at O.D -8.0 and O.S. -7.0

Acuvue doesn't even go higher than 8.0 iirc @@;


I'm scared as fuck though to get lasik. Do they like tie you down so you can't move? and what happens if you don't focus on a certain spot?

Even at the eye doctors I tear up like crazy when they tell me to stare in certain spots (and takes forever for me to be able to finish the puff test). I'm so scared that my brain would go into overdrive and some bad shit would happen while I was there.


Also what's their payment plans like to cover them?

[Sevilla]

Everyone will feel intimidated because of what they are doing to your eyes. They don't tie you down. You will not shut your eye because they will prevent that depending on which procedure you get.

For Lasik they will suck the top part of your eye through a hole, preventing you from blinking.

For PRK they will use these pliers to open your eyelids wider then you ever opened before. I will not lie that was the most uncomfortable part of the procedure.

They will tell you to focus on a red dot or some picture. You will move your eye little by little, but the computer will adjust itself to do the procedure right. I will tell you that when I went through the surgery, they were so lax about it that they played "Oops, I did it again" by Britney Spears in the background.

[ikethegreat]

For Lasik they will suck the top part of your eye through a hole, preventing you from blinking.

For PRK they will use these pliers to open your eyelids wider then you ever opened before. I will not lie that was the most uncomfortable part of the procedure.

Not exactly true. If I remember correctly I had the pliers keep my eyes open during my Lasik procedure.

@ Ksandra - They don't tie you down, they make you lay on an operating table and fit you with the head gear to keep your eyes open. You wear contacts now right? If you can handle putting your contacts in your eyes you should be fine with the surgery.

Just gotta tough it out for 20 minutes and then you get to see the world the way it was meant to be seen!

[Mojo]

The systems that modern lasik clinics use are capable of detecting eye movements within femptoseconds and will shut off the laser, so if you're moving your eyes around or blinking, it won't affect much in that regard.

[Ksandra]

For Lasik they will suck the top part of your eye through a hole, preventing you from blinking.

HOLY FUCK, WHAT? If you're serious about them sucking your eyeball then fuck that shit, I'd rather go blind><;

[Penthesilea]

Lasik:

The benefits of LASIK is that you will heal a lot quicker and you will feel minimal pain. Basically what they do is suck your eye through a hole (as much as they can) to pass a laser to create a flap. This flap is then pulled back and the corrective procedure then takes place. Once it is done (somewhere between 15-30secs) the flap is then placed back. One of the disadvantages of this is that if you intend to go to the military, do not expect to get far as stuff like pilot, special forces, and such. That flap creates such a liability that people are afraid that the flap will rip off, and then you are screwed. Oh and the doctor also mentioned that if you have allergies, and eyes itch, , you are out of luck that you cant scratch your eye.

Whaaaaaa???

lol I scratch my eyes and rub them constantly. 3+ years and never once have I heard this described, told not to do it, nor have I had any issues...

After reading your experience, you're just a bitch. I was watching TV 5 hours later, driving the following night with no issues, and was only given steroids and an antibiotic.

[ghanima]

I went to the doctor on Friday and I'm sitting at O.D -8.0 and O.S. -7.0

Acuvue doesn't even go higher than 8.0 iirc @@;

Yes they do, I was wearing right -9.5 and left -8.0, I'm now sitting at -8.0 and -7.5 since apparently your eyes can get better and worse, I'm happy I'm on a "better" swing though a large part of this was probably switching doctors and having more care go into my exam. They generally have to order even the trial contact lenses for me.

The B&L Purevision contacts go up to -12.00, and a quick online search says you can get the Acuvue up to -10.00. The Purevision and newest Acuvue lenses they just switched me to (can't remember the brand) are the most comfortable I've ever worn.

I'm supposedly a posterchild for Lasik or PRK but I'm scared shitless of lasers pointing at my eye or having the top of my eye cut off. I'd rather wear contacts for the no glasses look and glasses for when I want to do sexy chick with glasses than possibly end up glasses only 10-30 years after corrective surgery.

[Sevilla]

After reading your experience, you're just a bitch. I was watching TV 5 hours later, driving the following night with no issues, and was only given steroids and an antibiotic.

I don't know who you are, so you saying this is offensive. Civilian doctors will not tell you this because you obviously are not going into special forces, being a pilot, or doing any other training where pressure is created around you. These are the warnings I WAS GIVEN by the Ft Hood optometrist who did the procedure in OCT 2007.

Obviously you can't read, should have gotten the PRK. I elected for the PRK procedure, which means there is a slower recovery time. LASIK has a quicker recovery, but less pain. So yeah, all you are doing is just making an ass of yourself for repeating what everyone has just said.

Now if you want to go to the "bitch" route, I can easily say that you opted for Lasik, "it is less painful." But I won't because I recognize some people are not qualified for it.

I know this may be a hard concept for you but you should read this before making more of an ass of yourself and calling what I just said lies. To those that are interested into what the DoD says in regards to PRK and LASIK here is the link http://www.defense.gov/news/newsarticle.aspx?id=29579