Who's done lasik?

[DaveE]

My wife and I are both thinking about having lasik surgery but I don't know much about it.

Basically, I've been wearing glasses for about a year and I'm already sick of it and my wife's worn glasses forever so she's really sick of them.

If anyone's had it done or has any good info please share.

[Rockford35]

I have two stories.

One is of a success. A friend of my GF's had her eyes done and loved every minute of it. Minimal pain, and perfect (well, relativey speaking) correction.

I also know of another who had a terrible experience with it. Headaches, and zero correction.

Needless to say, I think it really depends on the individual. I personally don't wear glasses, but of those that I know closely that do, they would do this in a second if they could warrant the costs.

R35

[Slingblade61]

Moral of the story?

As long as you don't get it done in Canada you should be all set.

Consult your eye doctor first!

I had 20/15 until I hit about 42. This year I made my consession to father time and got some reading glasses.

It was explained to me that in our 40's the eye muscles begin to stiffen, thus the degraded eyesight. This can go on for ten years before your eyes plateau.

I'm going to wait the 10 years cause as I understand it Lasik will help but only in the short term if your eyesight is getting bad from age.

Your wife, may benefit more as she has an existing condition which could be imporved through lasik......but check with your doc.

[Bravo]

Ohhh the wisdom of consulting the doctor first...

Apparently some eyes are better candidates that others.

Before our last child was born, my wife asked for a "present"...

I braced myself for a request for jewels and furs - which I could not afford.

She said, "I want to have my eyes fixed". At the time, she was 36 years old and was nearsighted, but had been since she was a teenager.

Our local university hospital has a speciality "Eye Foundation Hospital" which is pretty self-explanatory..they do all sorts of ophthalmic work.

She went there and had an exam and the doc told her she was a great candidate for the surgery. He said he could do two eyes at the same time for $1500...

She came home and did a sales job. Computing the cost of glasses, contacts etc - I said - yes.

Shortly after Laura's birth, we went down to the eye hospital. I took her down at 7 am and they told me to pick her up at Noon.

When I picked her up, she had those 'wraparound' sunglasses on and was a bit woozy. Took her home and she had a nap.

Woke up at 3 pm and said, "I can see perfectly. Everything is in perfect focus".

That was it. Laura will be nine years old in March and my wife has never said another word about it since that day....and it was so long ago - I don't know if it was Lasic or whatever...I think there have been many advances since then.

[VtDivot]

Originally Posted by Bravo

She went there and had an exam and the doc told her she was a great candidate for the surgery. He said he could do two eyes at the same time for $1500...

She got a hell of a deal. Wife went for consult last week and the cost will be $2400 for her.

[IrishGolfer]

Both Mrs. IG and I are collectively "as blind as bats". For the most part I wear glasses, but I wear contacts for playing golf.

We looked into getting the op for my wife a few years ago, but when she fell pregnant, she disqualified herself. Since then we haven't looked any further into it, but I must confess I would do this "in a heartbeat" if I thought it was 100% safe.

From my reading and chatting on the subject on the matter, I have drawn some conclusions:

• Waking up in the morning to a total blur is not nice. Wearing glasses all day is uncomforatble at times and frustrating (misting up, getting wet, peripheral vision etc.) For those with 20/20 you don't know how lucky you are.
• When you add up what it costs for glasses, contacts, solutions etc. over a 5 year period v. getting this procedure done, it probably equates to the same spend. Any time after that you are ahead of the game.
• It is very suitable for some eye types and conversely some eyes are not suitable for it at all. You gotta just live with the prognosis, good or bad.
• The operation now is very straight forward and quick.
• It increases sensitivity to light, so where it goes wrong, it leads to people having to wear shades on bright days, as it may cause headaches. One may alsobe prone to infection and irritation for several months afterwards, which means eye baths, gels, etc.
• It may not be a permanent fix. As Sling said the eye (and the muscles around the eye) continues to change. One might find oneself having to get re-zapped after a number of years.
• At this point there is no conclusive proof one way or another of the long term side-effects of this procedure.
• You pay for what you get. I have been strongly advised to steer well away from Supermarket opticians / chains who offer cut price surgery. While it may be OK for some, it has a much higher risk of things going wrong.

I'd love to hear more on this subject from anyone who has got it done recently...a neighbour of mine got the procedure done in Canada, she raves about how cheap and how good it was relative to here.

[DaveE]

This is good stuff. I hadn't thought about how short a time I've been wearing glasses. I've been using reading glasses for about 10 years but for distance it's just over a year.

IG, I saw a program recently about Americans going to several foriegn countries for different procedures and every one of them was happy. Nearly every doctor was trained in the States anyway and the cost was much lower.

Regarding the cost, we were thinking of giving this to each other for Christmas if we are both candidates. If she is and I'm not it makes my Christmas golf budget pretty sweet.

Keep it coming if you have more.

Thanks

[SiberianDVM]

No Lasik for me:

1- One of the Dr.s in a big eye group here in town is one of my clients (I'm his doggie doctor). He and the rest of "The Eye Guys" have a dorkie commercial on TV with all of them playing football. No way am I entrusting my only 2 eyeballs to these twinkies.

2-Right now when I hit a crappy shot, I can blame the fact that I can't see. What's my excuse gonna be after Lasik?

[Silver]

My brother got it done about 6 years ago. To this day, he swears it's the best thing he ever did. He went to better than 20/20 and has never looked back.

He got it done at one of the most reputable "touchless" laser eye surgery places in the Vancouver area and it was admittedly a bit expensive back then (I think close to $5000 CAD) but well worth it, in his eyes (no pun intended).

[Dorkman53]

Unfortunately, Lasik is of greatest benefit to people in their 20's or early 30's. By the time someone is approaching theri 40's, presbyopia (difficulty seeing up close) becomes a universal problem. The only way to get out of glasses at that age is to do monovision, where one eye is corrected for distance and the other eye is left deliberately myopic/near sighted to allow for reading. The person has to switch their brain back and forth between the two eyes depending on what they wish to see. (Contact lenses can also be prescribed to accomplish the same goal of monovision.) Unfortunately, depth perception will never be as good with this approach, because the two eyes aren't focusing at the same distance.
To gain something, you have to give up something, as always.