I went through with the LASIK procedure, thanks to everyone!

[EvolveOrConvolve]

And I would recommend it 110%. It's less than 48 hours since the surgery, and my vision is 20/15. My close-up vision (reading books, newspapers, magazines, etc.) is still perfect, and my problems with vision at night are almost completely fixed (I still see small halos around distant lights at night, but otherwise, it's perfect).

I heard so many horror stories, listened to a ton of tall-tales about curing my vision with "natural" methods, and was pressured to not do the surgery because it could make me blind (pure hysteria), that I had to post about my pretty average success story. While most people would say that what I've experienced is pretty normal, I would call it a miracle of modern medicine. In less than 2 hours, I went from 20/700 vision to 20/15 vision. I had no complications. I experienced no pain. I felt only minor discomfort. A prostate exam is more uncomfortable than this procedure (and I've felt enough MD fingers to attest to this personally).

For those who recommended that I get LASIK: thank you, thank you, thank you! This was the best $4,000 I ever spent (I paid a lot more for "custom" LASIK to fix my night vision in addition to the normal procedure). I'm looking out my window right now at the valley below, without glasses for the first time since 4th grade, and I can see EVERYTHING! Each car on the road, each house light, and every semi-truck on the freeway. I can see them all! At the same time, I can read the computer monitor without a problem.

I would recommend this surgery to ANYONE who thinks it might help their life. For me, I immediately became more independent and less reliant on a 400 year old technology that, while okay, wasn't the BEST solution for me.

I love it!!!!!! :)

[Learning Nomad]

1. I totally agee

My surgery went well 15 years ago, and still no glasses at age 52. GF did great, Mom with many eye problems not so well. Odds are greatly with you however.

[Syrinx]

2. congratulations!

I'm glad it worked out well for you.

I've considered having the procedure done, but I'm scared that the doctor would sneeze at the wrong time.

[Jeep789]

3. Yikes, never even considered that. nt

[EvolveOrConvolve]

14. The doctor really doesn't do anything

other than put the speculum in the eyes. After that, a computer guided laser did all the work. You smell a strange burning scent, then it's done. Very easy, and the doctor could have sneezed all day without hurting me!

[Posteritatis]

4. Is the night vision issue less common these days?

I've been thinking of some kind of unbreak-my-eyes procedure for a few years (probably those ring implant dealies; seems more reversible), trying to get a feel for the state of various options.

[EvolveOrConvolve]

15. I heard that a lot of people have problems with night vision after LASIK

Even the doctor brought it up as a warning. I don't know what they do differently for people like me, but I had extremely bad night vision before, and now it's almost perfect. That's where the "custom" part of the surgery comes in.

[pecwae]

5. Isn't it great to see without glasses?

I ad it done in '04 and it was the smartest decision I've ever made. To throw out those Coke-bottle bottomed specs was so freeing and no more headaches. I had the mono vision procedure and don't need glasses for reading either.

Congratulations!! :party:

[Orrex]

6. Where are your priorities? $4000 would have bought you some fantastic breast implants.

And now you've been tagged with a laser-engraved bar code for orderly processing once the revolution starts. Way to go.



Hardy har har. Actually, the results sound fantastic! I've worn glasses since I was about 4, and I can't even imagine what prefect vision would be like. I'm glad to hear that the procedure was worked so well for you!

When did you undergo the procedure, by the way? And how long was your recovery?

[EvolveOrConvolve]

16. Whaddya mean? I'm running the revolution!

This surgery just allowed me to mind-control everyone else that has had LASIK. Ha! :)

I had the surgery last Wednesday in the afternoon, and my vision was perfect the next morning - I woke up for the first time since I was a young kid and was able to see everything. I still reach for my glasses every morning, but there not there, and hopefully won't ever be again!

Technically, I'm still in recovery because I have to put a lot of drops (antibiotic, steroidal, etc.) in my eyes every day. But, my eyes feel great, and other than being a little bloodshot, look fairly normal.

[ejpoeta]

7. It sounds SOOO good to me.... I have been wearing glasses or contacts since I was

3 years old... and my eyes are pretty bad. But I have to admit that I fear any bad things happening.... I hate glasses, but I don't want to be blind. Even so, I am intrigued... and I figure that they've probably been doing it long enough to work most of the kinks out. It is costly, and I believe my insurance will kick in some of the money. I keep thinking that it would be a nice incentive to lose some weight... Get back to a healthy weight... after the baby is born of course. Thank you for posting your positive story. It is good to hear and I am glad you have had a successful outcome. I think maybe research is the key and finding a good place to go have it done. This is not the time for a coupon, I guess. lol.

[EvolveOrConvolve]

17. I chose the most expensive center in my area

They've done ten's of thousands of these procedures, and I hadn't heard a bad story from anyone who used them. It definitely cost me a premium, but I'm not messing around when it comes to my eyeballs! :)

If your insurance will cover it, I say go for it. Just wait until the pregnancy is over, because the place I went to recommended that pregnant women wait until 90 days after the birth of their baby before starting the procedure. I'm not sure if the hormones change the structure of the eye or if there's some other reason, but they don't like to work on pregnant women.

[AwakeAtLast]

8. Add one more thing to my list

of things I would do if I had a lot of money.

It's too bad insurance companies can't see that this type of thing is not as cosmetic as they like to think. I would venture to say that with such improved eyesight people would be safer. There I go again with that logic thing.... ;)

So happy you can see so well! :bounce:

[salvorhardin]

9. And Medicare won't pay for glasses either

Unless you have cataract surgery. It's a dumb policy.

[EvolveOrConvolve]

18. For me, it was not only a cosmetic thing

I work with computers all day, and with eyeglasses, I was getting serious headaches from the eye strain. So far, I haven't had even a smidgen of an ache in the old noggin from looking at my three monitors all day (fingers crossed!).

[Ratty]

10. Watching movies of the procedure is chilling

and makes my dangly parts rise up into my stomach. Seeing the knife come closer and closer to your eyeball then slicing the cornea ... *shudder*. I understand the eye is numbed and you don't feel much if any pain but just the thought of having to undergo that seems like the worst torture imaginable. How did you get past that part?

[EvolveOrConvolve]

19. There isn't a knife that's used anymore in the procedure

I don't know what the older technologies used, but with mine, the doctor drew some marks on my eyeball with a pen (yeah, it was really gross), put a speculum in both eyes, then let the laser do it's work. It took less than 5 minutes, and would have been even shorter had I not been a "squeezer" that made it more difficult to get the speculums installed. They dump the numbing drops in your eye and give you a Valium, so there really isn't much to it. The vision is hazy for a little while, kind of like the room is full of smoke, but that went away in 30 minutes or so. The 2 hours leading up to the procedure was the worst part of it - I have a fear of letting anyone touch my eye, so it was pretty nerve wracking, but I would do it again in a heartbeat; it was way, way easier than I thought it would be.

[tomreedtoon]

11. You'll be sorry...

...since the effects of frying an eyeball with a laser only show up a lot later.

I hate to be a downer, but the hazards of this stuff (and the people promoting it so heavily) outweigh any potential benefits.

[Orrex]

12. Link? Citation?

Or just fear fear fear?

[tomreedtoon]

13. Why bother? Soon you'll be unable to read them anyway.

But here's a quote, undoubtedly typed for the poster because he can no longer see...

I`m 3 months out of it and didn`t have a single happy day! It`s very, very dangerous. I see some people are happy with it, well, this is pure luck...I thought I would be happy too.. There`s nothing worse than messing up with the eyes. Glasses are not much fun, but you won`t die from wearing them, as I believe now, you can die from Lasik. If you have problems, chances are you`ll be worrying all the time, depressed, not being able to work, actually, not being able to do anything because your eyes hurt and you can`t see, it could be very disruptive to your life...

More at: http://www.healthboards.com/boards/showthread.php?t=381253

[Orrex]

21. How about some hard statistics, then?

Anecdotally, I've known about two dozen people who've undergone the procedure, and 23 of them praised it as the best thing they'd ever done. And #24 rated it the second best thing she'd done, just losing out to her gastric bypass surgery.

I grant that 24 people isn't a representative sample, but if the risks were as dire and pervasive as you seem to suggest, you'd think that at least one or two of them would have had at least a minor complaint...

[EvolveOrConvolve]

20. That's the sort of hysteria I fought through before deciding to get it done

I talked to so many people who had success with it, and none who had any negative long-term effects. I had the money and the desire - it was a no brainer. The procedure has been performed millions of times, with a rate of complication that is minuscule. The cornea is one of the most robust parts of the body. A scratch on the cornea will often heal itself in hours, and even the minor damage done by the laser heals in a day or two. The only long term healing process is the rebuilding of the eye's ability to produce enough tears to keep it moist. But, with eye drops supplementing the eye's tear production, there's nothing for me to worry about.

One of my friends who is an Optometrist got the procedure done, and his recommendation is what helped me decide to go ahead with it. I laugh it your hysteria, because the eye receives so much more damage from a day in the sun as it does from the laser.

[Why Syzygy]

22. Congratulations!

I'm jealous.