Lasik or Alternative Vision Correction

[Lupin]

I had my eyes done about a year ago.

Prior to that I always had glasses. Even my kiddy pictures of me at 5 years old I'm sporting coke bottles. When I finally had it done at the age of 36 my vision was so bad that without my glasses, I was unable to make out anything beyond a foot or two. Reading an eye chart was impossible. I'm not sure exactly how blind that is but without my glasses I was seriously screwed. I always had to make sure when I went to sleep, I put them in the same spot or else I wouldn't be able to find them in the morning. You would have had to give me a red tipped cane.

When you have worn glasses every moment that you can remember, the idea of being able to see clearly without something on your face is ... well... astounding. I'd thought about it for some time, but the procedure sounded to much for me to want to do. Slicing your eyes open? Good lord.

Eventually, as the years went on I started hating on the glasses more and more. I had a Suzuki Volusia that vibrated pretty hard at free way speeds so it really got me thinking about life without glasses again.

I went to Scott Hyver. It was a bit more expensive then I was initially figuring, but I'm glad I decided to do it.

The procedure was less traumatic then I was expecting. Since your eyes are frozen, you don't really feel anything other then some pressure. While thats a bit uncomfortable, it's not really a problem. The only odd thing I remember is smelling something like burning hair when the laser started crackling away. It only took a short while and it was over.

I spent the afternoon sleeping at home and then had results quickly. There was a dramatic improvement over 48 hours and then gradual improvement over the months. The halos at night eventually went away.

If anyone reads this and is considering it, it's well worth the money. When I woke up after my nap when I got home from the procedure, I was awed. Being able to see clearly without heavy prescription glasses was almost mind blowing to me. Being outside and feeling wind on my eyes was one of the coolest things ever!

My only regret was not getting it done sooner.

 

[Hooli]

You guys are lucky.

I can't get lasik. I have

Dude...

Eye C whut U did there...

 

[OldFatGuy]

They say you can actually smell your cornea burning when the procedure it done...I've been told that it smells like when you used to burn insects beneath a magnifying glass...

Yeah, the smell of burning eyeball is by far the worst part of the procedure.

 

[jmg893]

They say you can actually smell your cornea burning when the procedure it done...I've been told that it smells like when you used to burn insects beneath a magnifying glass...

yes, you do smell............something. and it isn't roses.

 

[ircsmith]

Best frickig thing I have ever done! custom is good if you have some irregularities but my eyes were pretty round despite the scare tissue (dont ask). once the prescription slows down do it! the night vision thing is no worse than dirty contacts and I can go watch movies without my eyes drying out!

 

[Sidewalk]

My wife had it done a few months ago and could not be any happier. She sees better now then she ever has in her entire life. Literally, better now then with the correct prescription glasses!

No more halo effect for her, which she actually thought was normal her entire life. She didn't know that there wasn't supposed to be a ring around every light. Helps explain why she always hated driving and especially riding at night.

Well, as a follow up...


...my wife wears glasses again. She isn't as bad now as she was a few years ago, but her eyes are getting steadily worse. So either she has some bad DNA, or the procedure isn't what it was cracked up to be.

Sadly, I am still paying for the procedure and paying for new prescription lenses

 

[kittyguRl]

There are potential risks in any procedure and LASIK is no exception. The most common potential problems that can occur during laser vision correction are under-correction, over-correction and wrinkling. Under-correction and over-correction simply mean that while the procedure may have improved your vision, it may not have completely corrected it. Wrinkling is slightly more serious. It means that the corneal flap might have been moved which causes wrinkles that can possibly lead to the permanent appearance of blurry spots.
Some more serious side effects include, increased light sensitivity, halos around eyes, blurred vision and double vision. All of these symptoms should lessen and disappear after the first few weeks following the LASIK surgery. There is also a chance of corneal damage and/or scarring which can lead to partial or full vision loss. These side effects rarely occur, and ophthalmologists will always make sure that candidates are ideal for the LASIK procedure.

 

[ThinkFast]

I'm thinking of doing this, too - and have an opportunity to top up my flex account in a couple months to do it (job change). So far I've seen names of three or four docs/clinics mentioned. Anyone else have info on who they used, and how it worked? Prefer someone in downtown SF or Marin, if possible. Thanks!

 

[Zerox]

When you have worn glasses every moment that you can remember, the idea of being able to see clearly without something on your face is ... well... astounding.

Damn straight. My eyes starting off in 1st grade and by 4th grade I was 20/80 and going downhill fast, by high school I was worse than 20/400. With contacts I was a -8.0 refract diopter, which...ain't good.

I had PRK laser surgery in 2004. Geebus, it's been 4 years and I still wake up every day amazed I can read the alarm clock. The magic-ness of having perfect vision has not lost any charm even after 4 years. At my last eye exam I read the 20/20 line, then the 20/15 line, and the doc was filling out something so I started reading the 20/12 line and he was like "stop it, now you're just showing off."

My left eye was so bad it was under the laser for 54 seconds. Smelled like a cookout. The doc said their record for worst eye was 58 seconds.

 

[kurbycar32]

I have 20/20 vision in my right eye and i am damn near legally blind in my left. Its been that way my whole life and i have almost zero depth perception. Because i grew up with it though i am pretty well adjusted but occasionally i will "loose things into space". without a background i can loose track of an object. picture a baseball with only sky behind it, i couldn't tell you if it was 5ft or 100ft away. I cant hit a softball because of the arc, i loose it once its in contrast to the sky. Throw me a fastball though and i can track them all day. I have been looking into laser vision correction for the one bad eye I'm but not sure how well i could adjust to adding literally an entire dimension to my life. I went to a walmart style laser vision place when i was 20 and they said i was too young. I am 25 now and think i might be able to get it done now. anybody have an experience with something like that?

 

[OldFatGuy]

I have 20/20 vision in my right eye and i am damn near legally blind in my left. Its been that way my whole life and i have almost zero depth perception. Because i grew up with it though i am pretty well adjusted but occasionally i will "loose things into space". without a background i can loose track of an object. picture a baseball with only sky behind it, i couldn't tell you if it was 5ft or 100ft away. I cant hit a softball because of the arc, i loose it once its in contrast to the sky. Throw me a fastball though and i can track them all day. I have been looking into laser vision correction for the one bad eye I'm but not sure how well i could adjust to adding literally an entire dimension to my life. I went to a walmart style laser vision place when i was 20 and they said i was too young. I am 25 now and think i might be able to get it done now. anybody have an experience with something like that?

Even though it's not exactly what you're talking about, I used to sometimes wear only one contact lens if one of my eyes was irritated or something and it definitely messed with my depth perception. Even though I could see everything clearly, I was also seeing it blurry at the same time, rather than the sharp stereoscopic vision needed for accurate depth perception.

When I had the LASIK, I had one eye done at a time, a week apart. I did that because you have to go a week without contacts prior to the surgery and I didn't have any glasses. So I wore one contact lens for a week, had the surgery done on the "blind" eye, then took the other lens out and went for a week with one corrected eye and one uncorrected one. So I was blind in one eye for two weeks (I just switched eyes in the middle).

I certainly had no trouble readjusting to clear vision in both eyes, but I have no idea what it would be like after a lifetime. My guess is that you would be fine.

 

[HeavenzJai]

I also considered LASIK, but am putting it off another year to increase chances of "no" problems and improvement of the technology of the equipment and new procedures.

When the cornea is cut it is never fully healed, some places offer using laser to cut the flap instead of a blade. This is supposedly better and lowers the chances of problems.

Please do your research!

 

[stigeon]

i had it done when i got out of the service in 2002. it's the best gift i've ever given myself. i still wake up giggling like a little school girl, giddy with happiness when i don't need to reach for glasses or stumble into the head for my contacts.

i went to laser eye center of silicon valley. paid $900 per eye. i was legally blind. i now enjoy 20/20 vision. worth every penny.

about a year ago a really close friend of mine finally got over his fear of all-things-touching-his-eye and went for it. long story short he still needs glasses. they shaped as much of his cornea as they could but didn't have enough room to bring him to 20/20. they didn't tell him this before the surgery. he's extremely disappointed - not because of the money spent in vain but because emotionally he was burnt out on needing glasses and he'd gotten his hopes up on not using them ever again, based on my experience with Lasik.

anyhow. i still recommend it to anyone who is a good candidate for it and my apologies go out to anyone who isn't a good candidate.

 

[Climber]

anyhow. i still recommend it to anyone who is a good candidate for it and my apologies go out to anyone who isn't a good candidate.

I was a 'perfect' candidate (20/100, 20/150) and the Doctor (Dr Ellis) screwed up my eyes (both) because he was more interested in doing volume over quality!

Whatever you do, don't use that doctor!!! It wasn't because my eye's weren't right, it was because of how they went about doing it!

 

[OldFatGuy]

I was a 'perfect' candidate (20/100, 20/150) and the Doctor (Dr Ellis) screwed up my eyes (both) because he was more interested in doing volume over quality!

Whatever you do, don't use that doctor!!! It wasn't because my eye's weren't right, it was because of how they went about doing it!

That's quite an accusation. Care to elaborate?

 

[stigeon]

I was a 'perfect' candidate (20/100, 20/150) and the Doctor (Dr Ellis) screwed up my eyes (both) because he was more interested in doing volume over quality!

Whatever you do, don't use that doctor!!! It wasn't because my eye's weren't right, it was because of how they went about doing it!

like the above poster, i'm curious. "screwed them up" HOW? and if i correctly remember all the research i did the correction you're wearing isn't as relevant to your candidacy as, say, an astigmatism or cataract.

as long as all the diagnostics and measurements were done correctly it is a pretty hard process to eff up.

they punch all the numbers into a computer. you put your eye under the machine. the flap gets cut and pulled back. the machine reshapes your cornea. the flap gets replaced and a soothing/healing solution applied. you sit up. they check your vision.

i drove home, btw, from my surgery which took all of 4 minutes (yeah, i had to wear the scary grandpa-is-gonna-run-you-over shades cause of dilation). it took longer (15 mins) for my eye to go numb from the drops they put in to desensitize them than it did for the actual procedure.

to my above comment i will add this: do your homework. shop around. it's an elective surgery, not mandatory, and becoming a fairly competitive business. you're not going to miss out on something by waiting and getting a 2nd (or 3rd or 17th) opinion.

 

[doraemon]

Last year I undergo Lasik surgery for my nearsightedness and like the concern of other people im not comfortable in wearing contacts because my eyes are sensitive for infection so my friend recommend me for Lasik exam in my2020 have you heard that? The exam includes a complete evaluation of the internal and external health of the eyes. They create a detailed map of the eyes and perform all of the visual tests necessary to prepare for LASIK. And the nice thing with Lasik-1 is they use the latest, most advanced technology to thoroughly determine your eligibility for LASIK. I don’t know if you already heard a Dr. Stephen B. Wiles, he is one of the surgeons and I can say one of the best in the world. Anyway just try to have a schedule exam for a FREE VIP LASIK your first step in achieving improved vision. Hope that one help you. Good luck

 

[OldFatGuy]

Last year I undergo Lasik surgery for my nearsightedness and like the concern of other people im not comfortable in wearing contacts because my eyes are sensitive for infection so my friend recommend me for Lasik exam in my2020 have you heard that? The exam includes a complete evaluation of the internal and external health of the eyes. They create a detailed map of the eyes and perform all of the visual tests necessary to prepare for LASIK. And the nice thing with Lasik-1 is they use the latest, most advanced technology to thoroughly determine your eligibility for LASIK. I don’t know if you already heard a Dr. Stephen B. Wiles, he is one of the surgeons and I can say one of the best in the world. Anyway just try to have a schedule exam for a FREE VIP LASIK your first step in achieving improved vision. Hope that one help you. Good luck

?

 

[Hooli]

How are the prices? Coming down any? As a contractor (for Kaiser, wtf, how's that for irony?) I don't have on-the-job medical coverage.

 

[kurbycar32]

How are the prices? Coming down any? As a contractor (for Kaiser, wtf, how's that for irony?) I don't have on-the-job medical coverage.

most insurance doesnt cover it anyway. I have a public job with retardedly good benefits and the best i get is a referral worth 10% off.