Have You Or Do You Know Anybody That Has Had Lasik Done.

[DEM FAN]

How Did It Turn Out.

[Rabrrrrrr]

1. I know a number of people who have had it done,

and they all LOVE IT! I've never heard a complaint about it, only accolades.

[punpirate]

2. The boyfriend of one my cousins does some work...

... on eyes. In his area, the failure rate is fairly high, for some very technical reasons. Infection rates are high, and the eye surgeons, anxious to keep the lasik surgery rate up, send those with problems to consulting doctors out of town. There, they get the bad news that they're going to lose an eye, or will have to get in line for a cornea transplant due to injury or infection.

Before you contemplate such surgery, I would suggest Googling "lasik" and "support group" and that will give you some sense of how many people are out there with problems, and what sort of problems they've had. As with most medical procedures, the success rate is likely dependent upon the skill of the surgeons and the quality control in the process.

Cheers.

[ronzo]

3. I have a relative up in Ormond...

He's had a problem - detached retina. His situation made me reconsider the procedure. Check the numbers and don't get it done on the cheap. For what it's worth.
cheers,
ronzo

[Ladyhawk]

4. I had it done last July

and ended up with inflamation: white blood cells invading the corneas. A few days after surgery, I had to have each eye flushed out. This involved lifting the corneal flaps (under local anesthesia) and flushing out any white blood cells that had accrued.

After the anesthetic wore off, I experienced one of the worst pains of my life. It felt like someone was jabbing ice picks into my eyes. The flush was done one eye at a time, a few days apart and I think the temporary contact lens came out of one of the eyes, compounding the pain for that eye. It hurt so bad. I've only had that kind of pain a few times:

1. Once when I chemically burned both eyes. That actually hurt worse.

2. When I had all four impacted wisdom teeth removed and developed dry sockets in ALL FOUR. I think the pain after the eye flush was worse.

I ended up going about four to six weeks practically blind. I couldn't read. I couldn't do anything except lie in bed. It was miserable. I had to be driven two hours to the surgeon every few days to make sure the white blood cells weren't invading. I was terrified I'd have to undergo the procedure again. It hurt SO bad after the anesthetic wore off I almost wished someone would shoot me.

It took several months before I could see well again and my eyes were so dry I had to put drops in them every few minutes. The skin around my eyes developed something of a "diaper rash." After about six months, though, I could see well without glasses. I now have 20/15 vision in each eye.

At first, halos around lights at night were really bad. Now it isn't quite so bad. During the course of about eight months after surgery my eyes got better and better. I very rarely need eyedrops and the halo around lights isn't quite as bad. Most of it depends upon how tired my eyes are.

The doctor told me only about one in five thousand people experience what I experienced. I don't know. I'm not sure I'd do it again, but I do enjoy being contacts- and glasses-free for the first time since I was seven.

Decide for yourself. Your eyes are your most used sensory organ. If something goes FUBAR, you're fucked (excuse my language).

The reason I went through with it? I had just gotten out of the hospital, was halfway suicidal and decided to do something "nice" for myself. I figured if I lost my sight, I could find a way to do myself in. That was how I found the "bravery" to undergo the procedure. Unfortunately, it left me temporarily blind, scared out of my mind and cut off from family who didn't understand what I was going through (nothing new there).

I'm glad I don't have to do it again.

P.S. The original surgery isn't that bad. The worse part is when they put a suction cup on your eye and apply pressure. It feels like your eyeball is going to burst. Then you hear a little saw blade come out and describe a circle around your cornea. That part sucks but the rest is cake. The original injury to the cornea does not hurt that much. But for some reason if the corneas are pulled back again...DEMAND SOME MORPHINE.

[amazona]

7. Are you sure you had LAZIK? Sounds like you had PRK

I've got all my friends and family members who qualified get LASIK and no one has ever experienced anything like that. It should be a painless procedure lasting a few seconds.

I did meet a lady in the post-op room while waiting for one of my friends, who ended up getting PRK in one eye because her eye wasn't shaped right for LASIK. There is more pain, sometimes considerably more pain, from PRK. I sure didn't hear any little saw blade when I was having my LASIK.

On Edit: The temporary contact lens thing puzzles me too. I've never heard of that, and I've convinced lots of people to get LASIK. Down here, we just get dark sunglasses and have someone else drive us home -- indeed, my LASIK was done at twilight so my eyes were well-rested by the time my vision cleared early the next morning. Wouldn't the temporary lenses actually contribute to drying your eyes and delaying your recovery? Maybe the problem wasn't the LASIK but the surgeon? Just speculating here?


a friend had RK surgery in the early 1980s and had a bad result but i don't know anyone having a bad result from LASIK

[Ladyhawk]

8. Yes, it was LASIK

And the original operation was fairly painless. But I had complications which required opening the corneas again and let me tell you, it sucked.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

5. A friend of mine had it done two years ago

She did it basically because she was getting panicky about being single and thought that not wearing glasses would improve her chances of finding someone.

However, it literally took months for her eyes to stabilize, and she had to have the surgery redone a couple of times. Because her eyes were so unstable, she had to get a couple of extra pairs of glasses in different strengths and keep switching among them.

She spent thousands of dollars out of pocket and still isn't dating anyone, and given her current financial situation, I bet she wishes she had those thousands of dollars right now.

My advice would be not to do it unless you have a medically compelling reason. After witnessing my friend's experience, I have no desire to go through the procedure.

[amazona]

6. several years ago...WONDERFUL!!!!

If you are a candidate, do it, you won't be sorry. This is the best thing ever. The surgery itself takes a few seconds per eye. I had severe nearsightedness/astigmatism, and yet I was able to drive myself to my check-up the next morning. (Some people have a slower recovery time.) But some people get out of the chair and have great vision right away, especially if they do not have any astigmatism.


no more sand under my contact lens...no more contact lens...yay