LASIK surgery

cecig · October 2009

Has anyone had it? If I gain enough courage, I'm hoping to get it done sometime next year because I'm so tired of messing around with contacts. If anyone would like to share their experience I would appreciate it!

Amy4773 · October 2009

MH had it done about 6-7 years ago. He is extremely happy he did - he had horrible eye sight. The only time he wears glasses now are when we go to hockey games.

msmoore27 · October 2009

hmmm...I am curious about this too. The cost of it always made me not consider it but when my dad was visiting in May he told me if I ever wanted to have it done it be happy to pay for it as a present to me, which I thought was really nice! I am curious though that YH still needs glasses occasionaly--I had thought that peoples vision was often more than 20/20 after having it done.

My eyesight is not actually that bad, but I hate messing with contacts. I'm sure in the long run I would save a lot of money.

rwright5 · October 2009

I am one of the few that has had a bad experience with it. I had it done in 2007 after wearing contacts/glasses since I was about 8 and was wearing a -9.00 perscription. My mom and brother had theirs done about a month before and had no problems. I had to do the customizable procedure since my script was so bad. I did fine and could see 20/20 in right and 20/15 in left. After about a week I started having severe pain in my left eye and went back to the dr and they said that they thought my flap had come up but was fixing itself and didn't feel the need to bother it. Well another week went by and it got worse and was sooo sensitive to light and hurt so bad I could barely open it so I went back. This time they just give me drops. it proceeded to the point where I could not drive or hardley get out of bed b/c of the pain so I got fed up with the surgeons crap and called my reg. eye dr. and he diagnosed me with a staph infecation. Then I fought that for about 3 weeks and once that finally was under control I started having problems again and I get back to my reg. dr. again and this time he said I had herpes of the cornea(ulcers on my cornea). He said it was probably there the first time but the staph was so bad it did not show up. It took about a year of valtrex to get that under control but everytime the ulcers would come and go it was leaving blind spots in my vision so in a matter of months my vision went from 20/15 to 20/50 at the worst. I have been good the last year (vision is back up to 20/30)and some of the cornea has repared itseld to the point I can now wear glasses to help the vision in the left eye whereas before there was nothing that helped my vision.

Sorry that was so long but I went through a lot of hell for 4 solid months. I just want people to know what can happen. Good luck in your decision making.

S&D2HI · October 2009

Hmm. I did it about 3 years ago and couldn't be any happier! I love not wearing contact/glasses anymore!

Just make sure that you go to someone that has experience and creditibility! Sometimes these cheapy commericials about lasiks are kinda scary. I had two friends that went to the same dr and had great results. So i ended up going to him as well! =D

Good luck! I've been trying to convince my hubby to go..his contacts are -11 and -13!!!

redshoegirl · October 2009

My dad had it done and LOVED it - however, it only lasted about 4 years for him, and then he was back to wearing glasses (a lower prescription than previously, but lasik doesn't last forever for most people - I think because he was a bit older that it lasted less time than it might for someone in, say, their 20's).

sanae78 · October 2009

I had it done about 6 years ago and it was totally worth it. My vision wasn't that bad but bad enough that I couldn't drive or watch tv without my contacts. The morning after surgery I woke up and could see the clock clearly and my vision was 20/15 post surgery. I say if your vision is stable it's best to get it done sooner than later because it's a better value since you get more years out of it.

mrsmauimary · October 2009

My sister had it done last October. She was scared too (heck, I would be as well) but she had a great experience! I think the recovery is so much easier now. Good luck

cecig · October 2009

Thanks girls! And rwright5, the experience you shared is why I'm completely afraid of going through with it. Everyone I know that has had this procedure had a good experience but I can't help but wonder if I would be the one out of the bunch not to....

Oceangirl22 · October 2009

I also had LASIK about 6-7 years ago. I was pretty blind (-5.75) but not as bad as some folks here. I had worn glasses since 3rd grade and contacts since 6th grade. I LOVED it! The best part was being able to see the clock when I would wake up in the middle of the night, and also being able to watch tv at night when going to bed, without squishing my glasses!

I went to a doctor that was VERY selective in the candidates that he performed the surgery on. Back then, LASIK was still pretty new and not alot of people were getting it done. It is important that your eye sight has stabilized for a few years.

They say that LASIK does not stop the natural aging of the eye, so at some point you will probably have to wear glasses again. That's why it is more beneficial to have it when you are younger.

The healing process wasn't too bad for me. I just had to constantly put these prescribed drops in my eyes for weeks, plus your eyes are really dry after. Mainly, it feels like a scratch on your contact...just kind of annoying, but not painful.

I recommend it if your eyes are bad enough to necessitate glasses or contacts at all times.

mrspresley · October 2009

MH had the surgery done... there are different kinds I think and the one he got was with the most cutting edge technology so almost the entire procedure was done by machine, not by an ophthalmologist. only some places have this equipment b/c it is so expensive. he only got it b/c he got a 50% discount when he was a med student.

post op was ok for him but not pleasant...it was pretty painful, even with pain meds he said. he had no complications with healing but he did have to have one eye "revised" (i.e. a 2nd procedure) b/c the first time did not give him the 20/20 vision it was supposed to...this was b/c he has very deep eye sockets so the machine had a hard time getting a good grip on his eyeball and positioning was not as ideal as if he had normal eye sockets.... not something that is very common, but it was one thing he had to deal with.

he is very happy he had the procedure done and I don't think he has any regrets.

inamra · October 2009

I was probably in the same boat as you were in a couple of years ago. My eyes are not bad at all (I can actually drive okay w/o contacts/glasses during the day but not at night) so my dr's always tell me that I'm an excellent candidate for LASIK. But after hearing a friend of a friend having a bad experience (similar to rwright's) and also having my cousin go through two eye surgeries, I decided that my eyes were too valuable for me to risk any unnecessary procedures on them. But that's kinda the way I feel about anything surgical in general, so that's just me. There have been a lot of success stories out there (more so than not) so it's just a personal decision that varies between individuals. GL!

KShiz · October 2009

Got it, love it. I had 20/200 (as in two HUNDRED) vision before. Couldn't see more than a foot in front of my face clearly. They give you a valium before the surgery to relax you, it doesn't hurt a bit and took about 10 minutes total.

LASIK surgery

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