Laser Eye Surgery?

So I've always wanted to have that day where I wake up and am able to see without putting glasses on/contacts in! I am approaching an age where laser eye surgery is a possibility, but am deathly scared of it. I was wondering if anyone else has had this surgery and what its like and what they do?

Thanks for any feedback. (Also, I'm not sure if this is in the right forum, so feel free to move it.)

My mother had it done and loves it. She said it was one of the best things she's ever done. I kind of took care of her afterwards and she was  bit woozy but she was fine by the next day. You wear these funny bug-eye things to sleep for a few nights but she wasn't in any pain.

Original Post by skinnyogi:

My mother had it done and loves it. She said it was one of the best things she's ever done. I kind of took care of her afterwards and she was bit woozy but she was fine by the next day. You wear these funny bug-eye things to sleep for a few nights but she wasn't in any pain.  

Seconding this.  My brother had the surgery 5 or 6 years ago with GREAT results.  Most offices give a free consultation so check it out.  The place where my brother went, they gave you a massage and did some relaxation techniques before the procedure so it was near impossible to be scared or stressed. 

Try not to be nervous.  Write up your fears or concerns and share them with a doc.

My dad got it done 5 years ago & adores it, & I'm still waiting for my eyes to stop changing so I can get it. As soon as I'm eligible, I'm there haha.

When my dad got his done, the surgeon had a camera hooked up to a tv in this waiting room & it broadcasted the entire surgery. Dunno if you're squeamish, but I was young & FASCINATED by it haha. I don't know if you have a surgeon like that in your area, but if so, maybe going & watching would alleviate some fear?

My dad was 20/10 & 20/15 the next day & still is.

Just do some homework & make sure you go to a surgeon with a good reputation that has done people you know, preferably.

I had this surgery done roughly two years ago. I'm 52, very near-sighted and so I was a good candidate.

Having worn rigid, gas-permeable contacts for many years, I had to not wear them for 6 weeks so they could properly measure my eyes. (Which was no problem since I lost a contact on vacation and before buying a replacement, I decided it was time to go laser.) My contacts were mono-vision so I opted for the same correction via laser.

They give you a prescription for valium before the surgery (I didn't use it.) The actual procedure takes about 90 second per eye. They tried to give me a teddy bear to hold during the procedure (which I also declined.) I guess lots of people must be a little freaked out by having this surgery!But if you've been putting contacts in your eye for years, you probably won't be so nervous about having someone messing with your eyes.

Is it something to get nervous about? I was only nervous about keeping my eye still because they numb your eyeball with drops, then they use something to hold your eyelids open. So you are instructed to focus on a dot of light and you do, but then they use the laser to cut a circular flab of your cornea and then suction to lift the flap away so the laser can reshape the lens. When they lift the flap, you essentially go blind, and since you can't see, you can't tell if you're still holding your eye in the same position.There's no pain at all, just a sense of pressure. They'll count down and that's comforting because if you didn't know that the feeling was temporary, you might not be able to hold the position.

After they let the flap go back into place, I got out of the chair, my eyes were watering a bit, and I walked over to the window and looked down into the parking lot. Not only could I identify our car, but I could see my husband's hand on the steering wheel. It was like a miracle!

Then they made me sit down and eat a piece of toast so that I could take a pain killer (I think it was hydrochodone.) Let me tell you, that really knocked me out. Your eyes will be very sensitive to light and I shielded my eyes on the way home and got VERY sleepy. Is there discomfort? Not a bunch. They say to go home and take a nap. They give you some eye shields to wear for a couple of weeks while you sleep so you don't accidentally rub your eyes and detach that corneal flap. I never had to take any more of the hydrochodone, in fact, they were still in the medicine cabinet about a month ago and I finally threw them out.

My biggest concern was about sparring at my karate classes and I did sit out for six weeks to avoid anyone popping me in the eye.

How satisfied am I now? I told my doctor at the follow up that I'm about an 8.5 on a scale of 1 to 10 for satisfaction. I have a slight bit of what I call triple vision when looking at lights at night. I had the halo effect they warn you about, but that went away. Now, if I look at a stoplight, I can just see two little light shadows along with it. My doctor could see the imperfection on the topographical image of my eye...he called it a coma effect. He offered to do a follow up procedure to try and correct it, but there was a risk that my now 20/20 vision would get worse. I told him that 8.5 was good enough for me and he told me later that he usually has men who will opt for further surgery and that often it's not the right choice.

The mono vision has been great. I can sit here and type this on my computer and then look up and see the tv. At my age, if I went for perfect 20/20 distance vision, I'd need reading glasses. I talked to a friend of mine who had had the surgery and she told me candidly that she can see perfect at a distance but she can't read the labels or displays on her car's dashboard.

Anything else that is good or bad? Swimming. You can swim and see! But my eyes, which were dry to start, get very dry at night. I can use drops to keep going, but I think the dryness is worse.

I hope that gives you more info. Once you get evaluated, you'll be drowned in information from your doctor. They pound it into you what the risks are and want to make sure you don't have unrealistic expectations. If you have any more questions, please feel free to message me.

I had it done about 2 years ago and it was the best decision I've made.  I'm pretty active with differect activities and even with contacts it was a pain.  My eyesight was horrible, I mean I could not even see how many fingers were held up in front of my face and I had a high degree of astigmatism.  I went to the TLC Laser Eye Center, which is where my brother, sister and 2 other friends have gotten theirs done over the past 5 years. 

As a recommendation I would just tell you to go get a free consultation and check out the facilities and get references, don't go with the cheapest one, remember these are you eyes you're dealing with.

John

I had it done about 5 years ago with great results. I went to TLC in NYC.  They were super- very nice and professional. I'm still 20/20 with no side effects.

I was incredibly nervous - hate having anything near or in my eyes.  The procedure itself is really quick.  I had it done on the Friday of a long week and was back at work the following Tuesday.  For the first day or two at work, I got headaches from straining in front o fthe computer, but was 100% normal and 20/20 less than a week after the procedure.

Good luck!

just to throw this out there...when you get laser eye surgery you can no longer donate your eyes or eye tissue...like if you are an organ donor, since they are essentially "scarring" your eyes with the laser. If you were normally a good viable donor, you could no longer be considered as a result. Not a huge reason not to, but just throwing out a possible downside to laser eye surgery.

I had my eyes zapped back in March.  My doc suggested PRK (vs LASIK).  The surgery was painless and I could see better immediately afterwards, albeit a bit cloudy/murky.  The recovery process for PRK is longer and painful and for the 1st 3 days your eyes are very sore, constantly tearing, extremely light sensitive, etc which will make you question what you did to your eyes for every waking moment.  But when you wake up the following day, the pain will be miraculously gone and you should see pretty well.  The vision will take weeks to months to stabalize fully but most people can go back to work and start driving by this time.

Another thing to throw out there, as with all surgeries, there are risks.  Its been 6 months since my surgery and my vision is far from perfect.  I can see around 20/35 which is legal for driving but far from sharp.  I've had to buy a new pair of glasses to get me by.  In addition, I see some visual artifacts both during the day and especially at night, from the typical halos and starbursts to more exotic crap like ghosting, double vision, anything thats bright white has glowing effect, and more.  Although my doc says we can treat the undercorrection so I can see closer to 20/20, he is highly doubtfull that he will be able to treat the visual artifacts since none of the test/scans show anything wrong with my eyes that can explain these issues.  And by treat, I mean going through the whole surgery again and all the associated risks.  My months of additional research confirm that its highly unlikely to have these issues resolved and there are many more like me that fallen into this boat or worse.  I'm lucky that my issues are not debilatating and just incredibly annoying, but it will likely serve as a constant reminder that my choice to get laser eye surgery was a mistake and currently the worst I've made in my lifetime.  I'm only 24, so I should have plenty of time to top it though 

Having said all that, ultimately it is your choice, and there are tons of people that are quite satisfied with their results.  I just wanted to inform you that there are people less lucky. Many places will advertise 20/20 or better results, but what they don't tell you is many people don't walk away 20/happy because of all the visual crap you may see afterwards or other serious complications and even the best docs can't gaurantee success. You need to do your own research and be well informed before visiting your doc, so you can ask the tough questions. 

I had this done 4 years ago so i had the blade and pain after but nowadays its bladeless and not painful at all (my fiancee just recently got it done). I dont know if i would say it was worth it because my vision was not corrected all the way ( i had to get one of my eyes done again shortly after) and my vision is not that good, and fading, i have to wear glasses while driving.

I had it done about five years and mostly love it.  It was really easy - they gave me some medication that made me relax, I laid back in a chair and watched pretty lights.  Then I went home, slept for 4 hours, woke up and could see everything perfectly.  I didn't have any pain at any point, just some dryness. My only complaint is now my vision has started to go bad again - I'm currently at 40/20 so it's not horrible but I can't watch movies or look at PowerPoint slides without getting a headache.  So, now I wear glasses for those things.

My sister had it done about a year ago and she had a horrible time.  She was very afraid to start with and I told her 'don't worry they will drug you and you will be fine!'  Well, they didn't drug her and she was super scared the entire time.  Then she went home and for a few days it felt like she had sand in her eye.  She ended up getting an infection in part of her eye (don't ask me the details because I don't know!), but it wouldn't respond to several rounds of medication.  She had to deal with it for the better part of a month - wearing an eye patch, flushing her eye, medications, etc.  I just asked her this weekend if she's happy she did it and she said no.  It wasn't worth it.  (I, on the other hand, am happy I did it!)

 I had bladeless Lasik in February 07 and I had awesome results! The procedure was pretty scarey for me, even though I used to wear contacts I hate hate hate people touching my eyes. So I cried and held the stuffed Nemo and a nurse held my hand hahaha. It was pretty pathetic! Unlike what some people got, I got no drugs, no massage, no nothin. He just pulled out this purple marker, and wrote on my eyes, and then zapped me up! Scarey. But I went home and I took a nap and when I woke up a couple hours later I was on the computer (even though they tell you not to, because you don't blink as much, so I made sure to blink A LOT haha) and yeah your eyes feel a little gritty for a few hours, and I was really sensitive to light for a while (still am a bit, not nearly as much) and I got the halo effect and brightly white things looked like they were glowing, but that's all gone now. But besides the procedure being totally freaky, it was all good. I went to work the next day! I even drove myself. And the next day I had a checkup, and I had 20/20 in one eye, and even better in the other. One of the big side effects is your eyes drying out. I definitely didn't have a problem with that, I only used the artificial tears they gave me for like a week.

Definitely check out doctors a lot! The doctor I had has done tons and tons of Lasik surgeries, and he even teaches other doctors to do it. He's done my Aunt's and my Chiropractor's Lasik and years later they were still super happy.