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Laser Eye Surgery
Doc
Registered User, ClubPA regular
Registered User, ClubPA regular
I've been thinking about getting laser eye surgery. My eye doctor told me I'm a really good candidate for it, and I trust him since he doesn't even do laser surgeries and didn't mention any specific place to get it done, so I don't think he wasn't trying to sell anything to me. Thoughts/opinions?
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Downsides are that if something does go wrong, your eyes could be permanently fucked, and the procedures are still sufficiently new that nobody knows what will happen 30 years down the road.
Oh and be prepared to have your eyes feel like sandpaper for about a week. Which is a small price to pay to never wear contacts/glasses ever again.
I know with lasek, you have to make checkup surgeries down the road to avoid going back to glasses. But the initial cost covers any further maintenance.
B.net: Kusanku
I don't know what my pre-op correction was, but post-op my vision has been 20/20 in both eyes, and I guess that I've just passed the two year mark now (October 2005 is when I got it done).
It cost me $2100 cdn for each eye.
It's pretty worth it from what I understand.
The recovery time is about 2 weeks per eye. With maybe 2 days of fuzzy vision at about the 3 day mark. They did my two eyes separate so I could always see fine out of at least one eye. The whole thing was done over a Christmas break from college. I have 20/15 vision still 4 years later and fly for the navy. Was the best procedure I have ever had utterly painless. (some people say it hurts mine didnt)
Cost about 2400 an Eye. Thats for prk though lasik is usually cheaper. If you have any questions PM me.
Make sure the various different options are explained to you, and go somewhere which has plenty of experience doing it.
You can get it done for about £300 an eye in the UK though (no idea what method that uses).
1. You are voluntarily and irreversibly damaging a vital organ.
2. Vision changes over the years. In fact, as your eyes harden as you get older, your myopia may actually cause your vision to get slightly better. Either way, don't expect laser corrective surgery to last 20 years.
3. Every couple years a new, more effective treatment comes out.
4. Alternatives, like Intacs, are reversible and don't remove tissue.
5. Glasses aren't that much of a pain in the ass.
Are you against stomache stapling and pacemakers, as well?
I think that, assuming you get at least 6 or 7 years of good vision out of it, a couple thousand bucks is worth it.
steam
Uh, ever, or just for the next few weeks?
steam
He said that with today's technology, possibility of fuck-ups is, statistically speaking, extremely low to the point of "virtually non-existent." Of course like every surgery there are some inherent risks, but it is one of the least risky operations out there and patient satisfaction post-op is incredibly high.
I'm against stomach stapling in principle, yes. Will doctors even recommend it if the adverse health effects of not doing it aren't worse than the effects of doing it? As for pacemakers, do people get those electively? Those usually correct fairly major heart defects that can't be corrected by, e.g., wearing unobtrusive lenses on your face.
Yeah, see, that's where we differ. So I have 6-7 years of good vision, followed by a slow, permanent regression into glasses and contacts again. At that point, I'm probably precluded from having any more corrective surgery. Also, although the jury is still out, I'm really having a difficult time believing there are no long-term implications of this. You're removing tissue and thinning the front of the eye. The problem with your eye isn't that you were born with some extra tissue up there, it's that the eye isn't shaped right as a whole. This surgery doesn't correct that problem, it just introduces a compensatory imperfection. Is that going to complicate my cataract surgery when I'm 80? Is my long-term vision going to be worse than if I hadn't done anything?
When my opthalmologist stops wearing glasses, I'll think about it.
About $3800 for both eyes. They were both done at once, and I was on my back in bed for a solid 2 days with cold compresses over my eyes mostly listening to audio shows queued up from my computer. It was fairly uncomfortable for that period. Day 3 I was able to move about with blurry but usable vision, even play a little WoW, and after 5-7 days I had solid eyesight. At 10 or so I could drive with sunglasses comfortably.
I was light sensitive before the surgery and always squinting in bright sunlight. I have a condition with my eyes where they tend to get a bit crusty and if I don't wash em with warm water once or twice a day the light sensitivity worsens. This is unrelated to the surgery, but the light sensitivity was magnified by it initially. It has since, and continues to, become less and less of an issue and I can drive comfortably in situations where I could before and simply wear sunglasses for very high sunlight situations. I imagine that by next February I'll probably be back at where I was at.
I have had no problems with my night vision or any sort of halos and otherwise feel that the surgery was a resounding success. I feel people that I meet for the first time approach me differently and I feel much more confident in general, although most of this may be for separate reasons. I could never get a good glasses look going for me and could not stand shoving contacts in my eyes. Not having the hassle of constantly having to be aware of the glasses on my face, nudging them up, cleaning them, every single day, and the freedom I now have with my eyes I feel was worth every penny spent.