Hey four-eyes!... Your experience with LASIK/PRK

I've been wearing corrective lenses of one kind or the other for some 15 years now. I am currently moderately myopic (nearsighted) with significant astigmatism: average books have to be 6" from face to be readable. Neither contacts or glasses have 100% met my needs in terms of flexibility and quality of sight. I do a significant amount of outdoor work and play, along with driving.

So after my consult last year with the local LASIK specialist I've opted to save a significant portion of my funds to paying for the surgery and am 2 months short of my goal. Id envisioned this thread as a place for people to share their eye surgery related questions, decision making process, and their experience afterward. I hope to check-in with my experience in the near future.

 

There's another thread on this somewhere. Hold on. Aaah, here we go: Baam.

 

Search fail.

 

Hardly. That's ancient TFP. I just thought you might like some "what other people said" reference first.

I had PRK done a couple of years ago it's been totally worth every dollar of the ~$4k I paid out of pocket.

I went on two adventures with the military while wearing eyeglasses. It was incredibly uncomfortable.

I still get minor halos around bright lights at night but my last checkup puts me at 20/15. Righteous.

 

I'll be very interested in the info in this thread.

Until 16 ... very short sighted, wore glasses.
16 ... got contact lenses and my life changed.
Recent years, eyes have been getting much dryer - had to go back to glasses. Hate them, and they mess up my peripheral vision.
So I'm very keen to make sensible decisions about future surgery.

 

Sincere good luck. I'm in the group of 'Sure we'll do LASIK on 'ya but you are still gonna have to wear glasses to be able to see well.'
So no. I wear contacts & glasses--just switch out when needed. Have done so since age 10 so not a big deal but I totally would ditch it all if I could.

 

Fangirl, I was hoping for something similar during my consultation: either it was inexpensive and I was a perfect candidate, or I would be not a candidate at all. This type of surgery very much borders on cosmetic in my view, so I was not initially keen to get it. Unfortunately I am candidate but it will be costly: $3800 CAD for wavefront guided LASIK.

Base on my research of peer-reviewed literature, people with my level of myopia (-6, -6.25) get results 20/20 or better 19 times out of 20. 20/40 or better results happen 98% of the time. These results are after one treatment. Currently, I am being offered enhancement treatments covered under the cost of the initial treatment. If I don't stabilize at 20/20 or better, than they retreat (if medically acceptable).

Clearly I will need to ask more questions as I come closer to this surgery. Inacceptable outcomes for me include: permanent halos or starbursts; and still requiring corrective lenses for reading at a distance. High chances of these outcomes would make me elect not to take the surgery.

 

I had PRK done in December 2008. The healing wasn't exactly very fun, and it took a while for my correction to stabilize, but I was 20/15 for 2 years afterward. I just had my December checkup a few weeks ago, and unfortunately the volume of reading I'm having to do for classes is starting to push me back toward being nearsighted, but it's not even bad enough to correct (so I'm still 20/20). I do notice that it's slightly more difficult for me to read street signs at a distance at night than it was a year ago.

I don't have any problems with night driving - no halos. I do still get significant dryness at times (if I don't take my fish oil supplement for a few days, I need to use eye drops when I wake up in the morning - so I stick with the fish oil. It makes a huge difference!), and I do need to wear sunglasses on very bright days, but I'm not significantly light sensitive. I'd say my light sensitivity is back to where it was before the surgery.

I chose PRK because doing a correction after LASIK wasn't an option with the amount of corneal tissue I have. My eye doctor told me at my last checkup that if I hadn't told him I'd had surgery, he never would have known the difference - my corneas are pristine. I paid about $3000 USD for my surgery (part was covered by insurance), I think, and for a big-name surgeon.

 

I had Lasik (I think - although is that a trademark?- in any case, I had laser surgery correction) on both eyes in 1998 at age 47. I'd been wearing glasses since 2nd grade and was very myopic. The gave me "monovision" which means one eye was corrected for distance and one for reading. I could sit on the couch and watch tv without glasses as soon as I got home that day and the recovery continued to be easy - except for halos around lights at night, which lasted about a year.

I've never used glasses since, except for reading, and that is recent and I don't really always need them, it is just easier. Surgery does not prevent your eyes from aging - that is one thing to remember. My experience, though, has been extremely positive - it changed my life, basically.

 

Didnt do the monovision so I need cheaters to read, but I'm seeing 20/20 and loving it. Definitely good experience. It's been over 2 years and still seeing 20/20....

 

i also had PRK. it worked it was awesome.

 

We've got a "3d" lasik center here in Orlando, which really has more to do with the doctor's end than the lasik itself, but it's still considered a step forwards. I'm seriously considering putting it on my list of long-term goals primarily because as a pretty strong obsessive compulsive I find wearing glasses to be infuriatingly uncomfortable and Lasik seems to have a much better success rate than glasses given that even with a supposedly "perfect" perscription I've barely if ever been able to read what street I'm on.

Like Candle though I'm in the "do it right or stick with glasses" camp, I'm such a night owl and computer nerd that halos or whathaveyou would be worse than having to wear glasses. Same with the monovision cheat, although that's because I apparently don't mix the signal from both eyes right.

 

Monovision isn't even a consideration until the late 30's at the earliest. If you are at the point of needing multi-focal glasses, that's when you look at mono-vision. If you are in your 30's or younger, your eyes more than likely still have enough of their ability to accommodate for near distance. A -6.00 spherical correction with no astigmatism should be a pretty good result. The more difficult scenarios usually involve higher amounts of astigmatism. My own correction was -7.00 -1.75 in the right and -4.00 -1.50 in the left and after 5 years I am still at better than 20/20.

My own surgery was Lasek with Wavefront. Lasik uses a blade to create a flap and then a laser makes the correction and the flap is folded back over. Lasek uses a laser to create a flap on the very top layer of the eye and another laser makes the correction with the flap then being folded back over. PRK doesn't use a flap at all. Lasek and Lasik both have very short recovery periods, I was actually on a roller coaster about 24 hours after my procedure. The flap acts as a bandage and post-op care is usually just a week or 2 of steroid and antibiotic eye drops with lubricating drops as needed. PRK recovery can take a couple months and the side effects are a bit more uncomfortable. Last time I worked with it, PRK patients were fitted with a contact lens used as a bandage. Dry and gritty eyes played a much larger factor in recovery. All the procedures will likely have some sort of dry eye side effect for a least a few months. I used Systane for about 3 months and haven't needed it since.

Halo's are a bitch. They were really noticeable for the first 6 months and now I only have issues with them if I am really tired. Floaters are another issue. Little bits of tissue suspended in the center of the eye, appearing as faint spider webs in the vision. They tend to be more noticeable after surgery and people with higher corrections for near sightedness notice them more.

I personally don't like PRK. The idea of completely removing the top portion of the cornea doesn't seem like a great idea to me. However I know it was the only laser procedure allowed by the Air Force for a long time. The Air Force had concerns about flaps dislodging during flight ops. I've been out of the loop on this for a few years, so I am not sure about the current restrictions.

Aside from having the surgery, I also worked as an optician for 2 optometrists that provided pre and post op care to patients receiving laser surgery. In 4 years I had 1 patient out of around 200 that wasn't a success. Any surgery has risk to it and the best way to mitigate the risk is to do your homework. Every patient I worked with knew the worst case scenario and if the doctor isn't making it clear to you, I'd move on. At a -6.00 correction, assuming you are otherwise healthy, and have a competent surgeon, you should be fine. BUT if you know you can't deal with anything less than perfection, if dry eyes and halo's will ruin your life; do yourself a favor and just invest in some nice glasses. Silhouette titan drill mounts with high index lenses are light enough that you don't notice the weight and are so low profile that at a distance people can't tell you are wearing glasses.

 

When I say halos I mean Lasikdisasters.com bad. I've lived with lights looking like giant clover flowers my whole life even with my glasses on, it's gonna have to be worse than that for me to even notice the difference.

Relevant to flaps: The 3d lasik guys were on campus recently and apparently use a layer of bubbles created by the laser rather than cutting the flap. Sounds like marketspeak for using the laser to create and move the flap.

 

My grandmother had LASIK done about two years ago. At this point, shes still wearing her glasses and has trouble seeing. I don't think it made that big a difference for her.

 

My worst experience with the halo's was driving home at 1 am in the morning about 36 hours after my surgery. It was about the same as night driving immediately after having my eyes dilated. The headlights from oncoming traffic created horrible halo's and I had problems with the street lights as well. I took a copy of my chart when I changed jobs so these notes are what I passed on to the doctor, my experience with halo's broke down like this: 1 week to 1 month exam: light sensitive with severe halo's at night. 3 month exam: very light sensitive, bad halo's to the point a possible touch up surgery was discussed. 6 month exam halo's diminishing, bright lights still painful. 1 year exam: no complaints of halo's or light sensitivity.

I am still light sensitive and I am almost never without sunglasses during the day, more often than not I wear them when it is overcast as well.

Your observation about the flaps is spot on. They outline the flap with the laser created bubbles and then use what is pretty much just an "L" shaped piece of wire to fold the flap back. The surgery itself wasn't that big a deal, I was in the office for about 2 hours and the actual procedure took about 10 to 15 minutes. Worst part about it was the constant eye drops. Immediately before the procedure, the doctor pointed out the shape of a clock on the far wall of the operating room, once the surgery was complete, I stood up and I was able to read the clock.

If you decide to do the surgery, do it as late in the day as possible. They will probably give you a sleeping pill to take when you get home. Do your 1 day post-op first thing in the morning and then spend the next year breaking your habit of reaching for your glasses first thing in the morning.

 

I would definitely love to be able to read a clock -- or my watch -- without glasses. Shagg, I don't think in Canada much is given in the way of medication. I know that American operations typically offer an anti anxiety med, but I don't think such practice is common in Canada.

 

My mom says my glasses make me look snazzy

 

i had it done. i went with the best doctor in the area with a proven successful track record. the surgery went perfectly and a year later i'm still seeing great. my dad has gotten it done twice yet still has to wear glasses? i dont understand his decision making, but whatever. if they thought there was a chance i'd have to wear glasses i never would of done it.

my doctor said the biggest problems, besides quack doctors, are from people not following the post op procedures.

the worst part is the few months after where its very difficult to see at night and the constant eye drops you have to use. i'm still using lubricant eye drops but not nearly as much as i used to.

 

I had PRK done through an Army program in 2008. The procedure was quick and mostly painless, and I went home for a week of convalescent leave (I needed every day of it too).
acti
On the second day my eyes were in intense pain, and I had to be -very- liberal with the tetracaine and percocets and valium they gave me. By the end of the week I wasn't in much pain anymore, but I still needed nearly hourly eye drops, and I practically blind for most of the time.

After my week was up, I spent the next four months wearing sunglasses to protect my eyes. After that, everything was mostly healed. My vision had gone from 20/65 to 20/20, and it is still that today.

The only problem with it all that I've had is that my eyes are more sensitive to sunlight now than they used to be. Its hard for me to keep from squinting when I'm outside in the daylight now, without sunglasses anyway.

Overall, I'm 100% glad I did it.