Its official, I'm getting LASIK

[Bateluer]

Well, I had my treatment yesterday and my followup this morning. Since my eyes are so small and deep set, I got to have a suction device placed on my eyes to draw them out further. It placed quite a bit of pressure on my eye sockets. The actual srugery ws under 10 minutes. Almost right after the surgery, I noticed an improvement in my vision, despite the cloudiness. There was a whitish haze over my vision. It cleared up a lot after adding the tear drops.

My follow up revealed some very tiny wrinkles on my right eye, which the doc smoothed out. There was a little inflammation and swelling, but that should go away soon too.

My vision is much improved from before, however, its still difficult to read some text, such as those on the computer screen though.

I will have to go buy some more artificial tears, those need to go in every half hour. I don't always follow that though, sometimes going for every 15 or 20 minutes. The tears feel very good.

Overall, things went rather well.

I'll post more as my vision clears up some more and I can read the text on the computer more easily.

 

[Ackmed]

I had it done about 6 months ago. The only thing I would change, is I wish I had done it years ago. Best thing short of marrying my wife/had kids I have ever done.

I was 20/2800, almost legally blind. -7.25 contact perscription. No problems for me at all. I am 20/15 now, I had the "custom" lasik done, which generally gives slightly better vison, for more cost too.

 

[HaxorNubcake]

My eyes are horrible: -7.5/-7.5 contacts. Hopefully I'll get LASIK done in a couple years

 

[Bateluer]

My vision is improving as time goes on further. Text is clearer than it was earlier, its easier to read a monitor now.

My vision is 20/20 in my left eye and 20/40 in the right, but that was when I was in the doctor's office and still had the bandage contact lenses in. Its probably slightly better now because those lenses are out.

 

[homercles337]

Originally posted by: Howard
Best of luck!

Hes going to need it. As a visual neuroscientist i have worked a large number of ODs and Optometrists and NONE of them recommended lasik or had it done themselves. I hope the OP doesnt have serious problems or the very common night blooming. If his refractive index is huge it may be worth it though. Im only a -3.75 and if i live long enough will not need glasses later.

 

[Midlander]

Originally posted by: homercles337

Originally posted by: Howard
Best of luck!

Hes going to need it. As a visual neuroscientist i have worked a large number of ODs and Optometrists and NONE of them recommended lasik or had it done themselves. I hope the OP doesnt have serious problems or the very common night blooming. If his refractive index is huge it may be worth it though. Im only a -3.75 and if i live long enough will not need glasses later.

Maybe you need to be working with opthamologists (MDs) or at least some optometrists trained in the last half-century.

I had lasik nine years ago. Many of the people I work with have had it since. NONE of us had any problems to speak of and ALL of us consider it one of the best decisions we ever made.

By the way, I have less halo issues now than I did with contacts or with glasses.

By the way, at -3.75, you'll always need vision correction for far vision. You may escape reading glasses.

 

[Bateluer]

No problems so far. Once the bandage contact lenses were taken out at the follow up, the discomfort all but disappeared. So long as I keep putting in the artificial tears every 30 minutes, it stays that way.

The anti-inflammatory eye drops seem to leave a foul taste in the back of my throat, leaking through the sinus cavity, but thats it.

 

[pulse8]

$1650? That's it? I got quoted ~$4000-5000.

 

[Bryan]

My eyes suck +10 contacts for each eye. I'll never be a cantidate for anything like this. Congrats OP!

 

[KK]

Originally posted by: homercles337

Originally posted by: Howard
Best of luck!

Hes going to need it. As a visual neuroscientist i have worked a large number of ODs and Optometrists and NONE of them recommended lasik or had it done themselves. I hope the OP doesnt have serious problems or the very common night blooming. If his refractive index is huge it may be worth it though. Im only a -3.75 and if i live long enough will not need glasses later.

yeah your a visual neuroscientist, and grizzly adams has a beard.

 

[Bateluer]

My vision has been improving all day. Reading text on the computer screen is now very easy, but there are still times when things are a little blurry.

Pulse8, I called around to a few places before I settled on Nationwide Vision. Some of the other places were quoting me in the 4 to 5k range.

Bryan, if your cornea is think enough, they could likely improve your vision. You may not get 20/20, but they may be able to improve it somewhat. You'll never know until you see an optometrist.

 

[Mail5398]

Just don't get excited if your vision is all over the place for a month or two, that is part of the healing process for many people. It scared the crap out of me. It took about three months after the surgery before my eyes seem to completely settle. It's been 9 months and I have dry eyes every once and a while but a little Systane and the eyes and all is good. I have 20/15 in both eyes.

One word of advice for those who are considering having the surgery. If you have dry eyes before getting Lasik it will get worse after the surgery. I never put a drop in my eyes before and now have to every so often. From the people I have talked to who had dry eyes before the surgery, they now have to put drops in their eyes all day long just to see well.

 

[Bateluer]

My eyes are definitely dry in the morning. The first thing I used to do in the morning was take a leak, now its for the artificial tears. Then I take a leak.

 

[Bateluer]

Had a follow up appointment today. My left eye is almost perfect 20/20 and everything is crystal clear in it, and the flap is smooth. The right eye is another matter. The day after the surgery showed some minor wrinkles on the right flap, which the doc smoothed out. Today, there were some 'shadows' of the those wrinkles. They smoothed those out and put another bandage contact lens in. If they can't get that flap smoothed out, they'll have to lift the flap and stretch it smooth again.

I'll need to go back in tomorrow to have it checked out.

 

[Bateluer]

Had another follow up yesterday. All the wrinkles in my right eye were smoothed out, but the vision isn't quite 20/20 in it yet. It did show some improvement compared to the last check though. They suspect that it needs time to heal from the repeated scraping to smooth out the wrinkles.

The left eye is a perfect 20/20.

I'm to continue the antibiotic and anti-inflammatory eye drops until the 17th, exactly 7 days after the operation. Then, just the artificial tears. During the day, the eyes feel fine and I can without any issues. The only time there is discomfort is in the early morning when I first get up. Tears fix that in quick order though.

The next follow up is on the 24th.

I tried putting on my old glasses. Not only are things super blurry, but there's also some serious distortion. It'd probably be a bad idea to put those on again, they'd give me a headache pretty quickly.

 

[pontifex]

just reading this thread makes my eyes water...

i have horrible vision. i forgot what it is exactly but in my left eye, anything more than about 6-8 inches from the eye is just a huge blur. My right eye is only slightly better.

I thought of Lasik but it scares the ****** out of me. I'm afraid of something going wrong or it not working properly and i end up worse.

i wear glasses because just thinking about putting contacts in makes my eyes water. they are very sensitive and i don't think i could ever put them in.

 

[KK]

how much did that bottle of antibiotic drop cost you? When I got them, it was like 90 dollars, and insurance didn't cover a nickel.

 

[Bateluer]

Originally posted by: KK
how much did that bottle of antibiotic drop cost you? When I got them, it was like 90 dollars, and insurance didn't cover a nickel.

It was 70 dollars, and my insurance actually picked up the entire cost.

 

[Bateluer]

Originally posted by: pontifex
just reading this thread makes my eyes water...

i have horrible vision. i forgot what it is exactly but in my left eye, anything more than about 6-8 inches from the eye is just a huge blur. My right eye is only slightly better.

I thought of Lasik but it scares the ****** out of me. I'm afraid of something going wrong or it not working properly and i end up worse.

i wear glasses because just thinking about putting contacts in makes my eyes water. they are very sensitive and i don't think i could ever put them in.

They do numb your eyes.

As I said, the actual surgery was very quick and virtually painless. Unless you have really deepset eyes, like I do, then its just a speculum to hold your eyes open while they work.

Seriously, you barely feel anything at all during the operation.

 

[Jgtdragon]

I just came back from checkup after 2 months. They told me my right eye is 20/15 and my left is 20/18. I told them I still have glare and halo around light, they say it should go away after couple more months?!?!?! Good luck!